Teri x Gumball: In between worlds
by FantasticSchaefer
Summary: Three months after a devastating break up, a depressed Gumball is surprised when Teri shows up at his house in the middle of the night with a monster chasing her. Soon Gumball and Teri find themselves caught in an invasion by invisible monsters known as "Nephilim" and have to prevent Elmore's destruction. Will this unlikely duo succeed or will Elmore be trampled underfoot?
1. Chapter 1

**Teri x Gumball: In between worlds**

Chapter 1: Nighttime attack

 **Hey guys! Thank you so much for reading my fanfiction about this unusual couple from an awesome cartoon series, The Amazing World of Gumball! I am a huge fan of this show and it's colorful cast of characters and like most fans I do enjoy the occasional shipping of two or more characters. Honestly, I enjoy unusual pairings mostly involving the main character and the one that draws my attention (little pun there 'cause I'm lame) the most, which in this case is Teri. Don't get me wrong! I do love Penny x Gumball, I think those two are just so freakin' adorable together, but like I mentioned earlier I love odd pairings and I want to write a fantasy story involving our favorite anthropomorphic, blue cat and the over-the-top germaphobic paper girl. If you guys don't like this pairing, not to worry, I respect your opinions 100 percent. Feel free to leave any of your thoughts or any constructive criticism down below. Luckily there's an entire fanbase dedicated to alternate opinions. For those who are curious about this story or are a fan of this ship, please read, enjoy, and leave a review.**

 **Also, this is the first chapter of the first arc called, "the defenders of Elmore".**

 **Enjoy the wonderful fantasy of magic, evil spirits, an unlikely team, and a mystery regarding the world of Gumball.**

 **(I do not own The Amazing World of Gumball. All rights belong to Ben Bocquelet, the staff, Cartoon Network, and other respective owners.)**

 _-September 8th, 2013, Watterson household, 11:50 PM-_

Normally a great story would start on a bright and cheery day with the main character living life on a high note. However, despite being a main character in a great story, Gumball, a humanoid, blue cat, was currently lying in bed, clad in his pajama shirt and shorts, staring at his clock in an empty bedroom while lamenting his existence. The room was pitch black, with the exception being the dim, scarlet glow of his alarm clock and the streetlamps pale, yellow light seeping through the curtains that were drawn shut over the bedroom's single window. The entire day had been gloomy with an overcast of rain clouds that seemed to well represent the mood of the room's sole resident for an event that was brought onto him a few months ago.

Before school had ended, Penny Fitzgerald, the shapeshifting fairy creature that was his classmate and girlfriend, had announced that she was moving away by the end of the first week of Summer. The heartbroken cat was told that her father, Patrick Fitzgerald, had lost his job in Elmore and had to find work overseas. He eventually found himself a position as a construction worker for the Hitsubishi corporation in Japan and the Fitzgerald's family began packing their bags to move East. Regardless, the two broke up on mutual terms and promised to keep in touch. Unfortunately, that never happened and the two drifted apart over the course of the Summer.

With the love of his life gone, Gumball spent the entirety of the Summer depressed and secluded in his room, playing songs on his phone that reminded him of Penny, crying, and/or just staring off into space. His family and friends tried to be supportive, but their attempts to lift his spirits had little to no effect on his dreary mood. His adopted brother goldfish, Darwin, tried being sensitive around him while inviting him in on multiple fun activities, his sister, a five year old (her birthday was celebrated in August.) pink bunny known as Anais, tried to use logic to console him, and his parents just said encouraging words to him.

At school his friends, Tobias and Leslie, comforted him by stating that there were plenty of fish in the sea (minus Darwin), and Carrie, Darwin's emo ghost girlfriend, gave him a sinister-looking scythe (along with a big bucket of foreshadowing) that she found in her basement as a gift. Many others had approached him with words and gifts of comfort and while Gumball seriously appreciated the care and attention he was receiving, he was just down for the count. It was going to be a while until he actually felt good again, as for now, he really didn't know what he was going to do.

Which brings us to today. It had been a week since school had started, Gumball had miraculously managed to get into seventh grade (this was largely due to him winning another bet with Bobert last year and making him do his school work for the rest of the school year), and was now stuck in a class with Miss. Simian, who had been repositioned as a seventh grade teacher with the advent of a new teacher filling in for the sixth grade class, and his original classmates from last year. Still depressed, he slogged through the week and the weekend, not really focusing on the world around him.

While Gumball's thoughts focused less on Penny, the pain was still there from her absence and the things he missed about their relationship. It really sucked everything out of him and he often kept his distance from everyone around so he could handle these cloudy emotions on his own. He had plenty of alone time this weekend, Darwin decided to spend the weekend at Carrie's house and help his girlfriend catch up on some homework while Anais, who was now a freshman in Elmore high, had finally made friends with a goat headed girl named Macey Barnes and was throwing a weekend-long slumber party at her place. With his mom, Nicole, mostly gone at work during the daytime, this only left Gumball with his father, Richard, in a quiet house on a gloomy day that had seen some rain as of recently.

With no enthusiasm or any plans for the evening, the big-headed cat person spent most of his time in his room before eventually coming downstairs to watch some T.V. with his father. He eventually lost interest in that as well and shuffled off to his room to hide again. His mom, Nicole, arrived home from work at around 8:30, made a simple dinner for the three occupants of the house, and called her moody twelve year old son down to dinner. The three family members sat and ate in relative silence with Nicole asking how everyone's day was and Richard cracking a few jokes while stealing a few pieces of Ravioli from his son's plate. Needless to say, Gumball barely spoke or interacted with his parents and left to go to bed after he had finished his meal.

Despite his dismissive attitude towards those around him, Gumball was, in fact, well aware of the impact his mood was having on his friends and family and it upset him greatly that everyone was doing everything in their power to bring him out of his personal storm (except for Miss. Simian, who relished the sight of him in a depressed manner.) while he receded from any form of affection.

But he just couldn't get over Penny.

" _It's been about three months, but I still can't believe that she's gone,"_ he thought solemnly to himself, shedding a tear,

" _Everyone acts so casually about her absence while I'm still recoiling from the fact that she's no longer going to be by my side. How am I going to move on? Is there any chance we might get back together? Should I try contacting her over the web? I don't know. I can't keep doing this to myself, maybe I should try to move on."_ he thought hopefully, only to feel that hope get crushed by utter despair. Everyone at school didn't really like him and none of the girl's really caught his attention either. It wasn't that he was picky or so hung up on Penny (okay, maybe that was part of it.) he just wasn't sure about any of the girls in his class and was worried that they didn't really like him. He felt like during sixth grade his constant misdeeds regarding his classmates earned him a terrible reputation and that no one would give him a chance because he had already proven to them that he wasn't exactly "boyfriend material". It all seemed hopeless to him and he wondered if it was even possible to move on, maybe he could meet someone online or perhaps a chance of fate will introduce him to someone?

He hardly believed that will be the case, but wishful thinking definitely helped a little.

The clock on his dresser now read 12:02 AM. He had spent the whole night reminiscing about happier times and loathing his current situation. Rubbing his puffy, red eyes and rolling on his side until he was facing the wall, the blue cat focused on trying to go to sleep. His alarm was going to be going off in seven hours and he wanted to be well rested for tomorrow, despite not looking forward to another day of grinding through school and facing people who were much happier than he was. The tired pre-teen snuggled into his blanket and pillow, shutting his eyes tightly,

"I'll try to act friendlier tomorrow. Maybe it'll get my mind off of… certain things." he muttered to himself, not wanting to mention Penny or the break-up outloud in fear of triggering another wave of sadness.

It took a few moments for him to feel warm and comfortable underneath the sheets. His room was warm and quiet. Nothing stirred or made a sound and his parents had long since gone to bed, allowing him to relax easily. Once he felt cozy, he allowed sleep to overcome him and his eyelids became heavier. Soon darkness obscured his consciousness along with his vision and he felt himself disappear into the void of slumber.

After an unspecified amount of time had passed, his subconscious exploded with really crazy and frightening images. It was like being in a really bizarre picture show, with each scene flashing by every few seconds. First he saw what appeared to be a black crack forming in the night sky, then his vision was obscured by dozens of wings covered in glowing feathers that simultaneously changed color. Afterwards, he was thrust to the ground where the only thing he could see was a pair of silver feet clad in leather sandals, a loud hum filled the air, drowning out all other noises, and he was forced onto his stomach by a force that felt like an ocean. Next came a blinding, blue light that filled his consciousness and burned his eyes. He screamed in agony, but his voice was drowned out by a booming voice calling out to him,

"Gumball, Gumball, WAKE UP!"

The world returned to Gumball's vision as he shot out of his slumber. The first thing he noticed was that he was in his room again and the light was on. The next thing he noticed was that his blanket was tossed aside, leaving him exposed and very cold, and someone was shaking him with very light hands. The last thing that occurred to him was that the booming voice he heard in his dream was instead very feminine and very familiar.

Very confused, the little feline turned his large noggin until he was facing the person who had intruded in on his dreams. At first, it was hard to notice them in the glare of the blinding light that assaulted his sensitive eyes, but after blinking a few times, his vision adjusted and he saw the stranger clearly. At first, he thought he was experiencing a waking dream because of who was standing at his bedside, but after a few moments of staring, he saw that it was Teri!

Now he was fully awake. Eyes widening at the sight of his paper classmate in his bedroom, he shot upwards in a sitting position with a million questions spinning through his head,

"Teri! What the-?! What are you doing in my room at (he glances at his clock) 12:27 in the morning!" he exclaimed in surprise and anger. He kept his voice low because he feared waking his parents and having to explain an embarrassing situation to them.

Teri looked exceedingly nervous, which honestly wasn't unusual because she was a hypochondriac and was always rushing off to the nurse's office any time she felt like she was suffering from a "surprise sickness" during school hours. Right now though, Gumball had no idea what would drive the class germaphobe to break into his house at 12 in the morning. However after taking a good look at her, he noticed that something was definitely wrong. She looked absolutely terrified! Not with her typical someone-sneezed-in-my-general-vicinity-and-now-I'm-going-to-get-the-Measles terror, but rather genuine fright someone felt when they were actually in danger.

Her eyes wide with terror, she grabbed Gumball's shoulder and pointed towards the door,

"Gumball! You've got to help me!" she gasped in her airy voice, turning her gaze towards the door,

"I was walking home from the hospital and then this giant "thing" came out of a crack in the sky and started chasing me down the street! What's worse was that anyone who was nearby didn't seem to notice the monster and anyone who came in contact with it collapsed! You've got to help me!" she was frantically waving her arms about as she explained herself. Gumball noticed that her voice was hoarse and her eyes were wide with terror. Despite her story sounding completely insane, she did seem downright terrified and convinced of some kind of danger.

Something still seemed off to the young feline and he needed answers,

"Okay, okay, Teri! I need you to slow down and explain a few things to me!" he stated simply while holding his hands up. This effect caused the paper, anthropomorphic bear girl to calm down although she would occasionally glance at the window behind her as if she was expecting something,

"Number one, how did you get into my house and my room? Two, why come to me for help? And three, are you sure you weren't hallucinating?" he listed all the questions he believed were important to the current situation.

Upon hearing his questions, Teri just stood still with a baffled expression on her drawn facial features. Then with an exasperated sigh, she spat out all the answers in a clear, yet rapid stream,

"I got in here by slipping under your door, I chose your place because I panicked, and finally, how can this possibly be a hallucination when that _thing_ caused three people on the street to pass out and the surrounding electronics to short circuit!" she was on the verge of having a complete breakdown, given her raised voice and over exaggerated hand gestures.

Once again, her words and actions seemed to support her story, but it still seemed too unreal to hold any substance. He was about to just shrug it off as her just trying to pull something and was about to force her out by threatening to call the police, but froze when he realized something. He heard her mention that the creature came out of a crack in the sky. It seemed like a trivial detail at the start, but then he remembered his bizarre dream about the crack in the sky and the mysterious winged creature. Was it possible that what Teri had encountered was related to that dream.

Breaching from his inner mind, Gumball raised his eyes to Teri again and stood up, surprising the girl of the same age. Finding his words, he spoke to her,

"Teri, what did this thing look like?" he asked in a serious tone.

The paper girl's frightened face was replaced with a mixture of surprise and relief. He wasn't ignoring her like she feared and was now seemingly on the same page as she was,

"Well for starters, it wasn't really ugly, just terrifying. It must have been at least eighteen feet tall, humanoid, with many wings on it's back that glowed different-!" she was cut off when the light in Gumball's room went out.

That wasn't all that went out too.

All the electronics in the surrounding area had lost power at the same time: Gumball's clock, computer, the lampost outside, and the light that was on in the hallway had also gone dark. It occurred so suddenly, that it was like they were experiencing a blackout after a storm. An unnatural darkness had engulfed the room, leaving no visible light. The air was completely silent as well, the only things to be heard was Gumball's rapidly beating heart and quick, shallow breaths along with Teri's paper body crinkling as she began to shake nervously. In the dark he could hear the paper bear start to whimper,

"It's here…" she squeaked, she began shivering even more.

Gumball was now on edge. With the bizarre dream and Teri's story, he was starting to wonder if this was some sort of divine punishment for his misdeeds or some sort of nightmare coming to life. Actually, he kind of wished it was the latter because now was usually the time he would wake up to the alarm clock, encased in sweat, and breathing rapidly before finally collapsing back down with a nervous chuckle. He would then just get ready for school and head out to live another day of his depressing life.

Of course, this wasn't the case at all. No matter how many times Gumball prayed it was just a dream and that he'll be waking up, he was still standing in his dark room and looking towards a darkened window, waiting for the horrifying thing that lurked on the other side. The seconds that ticked by felt like hours, the inky blackness that was the night felt thick and suffocating as time drew on, and Gumball could feel the air getting colder. It was like they had both been sucked into a void: a world of death.

Then that's when he saw it. After what was really thirty seconds since the lights went out, a faint glow could be seen through the window. At first it was pink in color, then it switched to a dark violet, then a bright yellow, like as if some crazy parade was marching through the streets with an array of flashing party lights. The changes were very rapid and the lights grew brighter, soon the whole room was lit up in a dazzling display of lights. Another thing the trembling pair had noticed was that as the _thing_ drew closer, a low hum could be heard that caused the room to vibrate a little.

If Gumball hadn't been so terrified at the moment, he would have thought that the display was beautiful and extraordinary. Instead, the bizarre phenomenon seemed so alien and terrifying, like as if an unseen omen was looming over his head, ready to crush him. If he could sum up the strange sight and feeling in two words it would be _divine death._

However, despite his senses telling him not to, he crept forward, towards the window that was illuminated with magnificent colors. He wasn't doing this because he was fearless, as a matter of fact, his fight or flight instincts were screaming at him to jump back into bed, pull over the covers, curl up into a tight ball, and wait for the night to pass. Instead, he just wanted to see what the beautiful, yet horrific creature looked like and what it was doing, as a way to confirm his own fears and decide what to do afterwards. As lightly as he could, he placed one foot ahead of the other and inched closer to the portal that remained covered by the curtain.

He didn't get very far from his bed when he felt something grab his shoulder.

At the sudden touch, his body went straight into overdrive and reacted before his mind did. He jumped upon contact and whirled around, heart racing, eyes widened in terror and his fur raising on end. With all the adrenaline that was pumping through his system, he felt that he could either tear something to shreds or run as fast as a cheetah if the situation called for it.

To his relief it was only Teri. He had completely forgotten that she was standing beside him while this was going on and only noticed her after she had grabbed his shoulder. Nonetheless, she nearly scared the daylights out of him and he had to bite his tongue to keep himself from yowling out in surprise. She no longer wore a terrified expression, instead her drawn face was perplex and slightly concerned for her feline friend's current course of actions,

"What are you doing?" she hissed.

Gumball stared at her, then at the window, then back her only now he had hiked a thumb towards said object,

"I'm going to peek out and see what it's doing!" he whispered back.

This caused quite a reaction from the paper girl. First, she looked at him like he was absolutely insane and then, with her free hand, she began clawing at her forehead in a fashion that resembled someone tugging at their own hair. That's what Gumball believed at least since the paper being didn't have hair. After having what looked a mini episode, she began voicing her opinion at him,

"Are you completely stupid! What if it sees you? We'll have nowhere to run or any way to defend ourselves if that thing catches us in here." she snarled, she wasn't angry at him, rather just scared out of her mind and listening to the self preservation instincts that kept her from doing reckless things, like getting sick.

Gumball understood and acknowledged her concerns, but still felt the need to scout out the threat at hand,

"I understand that it's dangerous and trust me, I'm just as scared of that thing as you are, but I need to see what it looks like, what it's doing and see if there's anyway of escaping it." he answered silently. He brushed her hand off of his shoulder and continued to make his way to the transparent opening.

Sighing in defeat, Teri had no choice but to follow him. She had already seen the monster and witnessed it's terrifying power, but was also curious to see what it was doing. She was also comforted in the fact that she wasn't alone in this and that someone else could see the creature like she could.

Within a few moments and several paces, the two students of Elmore Junior High had reached the window, which was now shining as bright as a searchlight with vibrant flashes of color. Carefully reaching out with his right hand, Gumball grasped the coarse fabric of the curtain, and with a silent signal given to the paper bear behind him, he pulled the curtain away from the window until there was enough space for both him and Teri to see out of. The room was flooded with more light the moment he pulled back the windows covering.

What he saw was breathtaking. Standing partially on his houses front lawn and the street in front, was a large humanoid figure with twelve wings sprouting from it's back. Standing at a height of eighteen feet, it's head was almost level with Gumball's bedroom window and it's wingspan was far longer than its height, probably around 60 feet in length, enough to close the gap between his house and the neighboring house across the street and would definitely stretch over the rooftops. It was garbed in a glowing, silver tunic, three necklaces covered in jade stones hung arounds it's slender neck, and on its feet were sandals made of woven leather.

The twelve wings on its back were all equal in size in size and length and resembled eagle wings only with each feather flashing different colors. It's skin matched it's tunic, with the exception that it was reflective like a mirror and had a texture like molten silver. Lastly, it's head was really strange. It bore some semblance to a knights helmet, with a T-shaped slit on the face, a crest that ran from the brow to the neck and a few glowing marks that ran along the visor. Gumball and Teri had both seen pictures in various history books and religious texts that depicted angelic beings that sort of resembled the one standing out in the open.

The only difference was that usually angels were depicted as peaceful messengers of god: this one looked like a celestial soldier carrying out the orders of a wrathful deity.

The angelic being wasn't doing anything in particular. For a few moments, it just stood still before turning it's head, as if it were keeping an eye out for something. Its wings were propped upright, like twelve serrated blades pointed towards the heavens, making it appear taller. Tearing his gaze away from the winged creature, Gumball closed the curtain before it could look in their general direction. Turning back to Teri, he quietly lead her back to his bed and they both took a seat on the mattress.

He had many questions on his mind at the moment, but most of them wouldn't be helpful in this current scenario. Right now, as much as it frightened him, they had to figure out how to deal with the entity that was hovering outside his house because if Teri's story was anything to go off of, no one else can see the monster and so calling the police may not be an option, plus what exactly would he tell them? _There's an invisible, house-sized angel outside our house that chased my friend and looks really menacing! Could you please send an officer to deal with it?_ Yeah, like that would go down well with the guys at the station. He glanced at Teri, who still looked frightened, but was more calm than she was earlier. She shook her head and let out a groan,

"Why isn't it doing anything? Why is it just standing out there? Does it know where we are? Is it just toying with us? Why is it after me? Why is it here? What are we going to do?" she was becoming slightly hysterical now. This was definitely quite a horrible night for her. She pulled her knees closer to her chest, wrapped her arms around them, and silently sobbed. Honestly, Gumball felt like doing the same at the moment.

But he knew that wouldn't help.

Taking a deep breath, the blue cat decided his best course of action would be to calm down the paper girl,

" _Yeah, calm her down. How can I calm her down when_ _ **I'M**_ _the one that's shaking!"_ he mused sarcastically. Looking down at his paws, he saw that they were indeed trembling. He was beyond scared at this point.

The entity's radiant wings snapped Gumball out of his self doubt and he continued forward with his plan,

" _Okay! Baby steps. I gotta calm her down and then we have to find some way to deal with that beautiful monstrosity that's standing on my lawn."_ he chuckled internally at his use of adjectives and switched his attention to the slumping figure in front of him,

"Teri?" he whispered.

The anthropomorphic paper bear girl lifted her head until she could see him clearly, she didn't have a pencil on her to draw her tears, but anyone could tell that she was crying.

Seeing that she had her attention on him, Gumball quietly spoke,

"I know you're scared right now and so am I." he stated sympathetically,

"But, right now we need to deal with that angelic creature outside." he explained.

Teri was silent for a moment. Then she let out another sigh and uncurled herself from a fetal position. If she wasn't hearing things, she could've sworn that Gumball just said that they had to deal with the monster that could knock people out just by touching them.

"Really!" she hissed, sounding very sarcastic,

"Why should we do it and, more importantly, how do you think we're going to take on a being that we can't possibly understand." her skepticism couldn't have been any more clear.

Noting what she had just said, Gumball returned with some very good reasons,

"Because, as far as we know, we're the only ones that can see it, let alone fight it." he answered, gesturing to the window to prove his point,

"And as for the second one, I don't have an exact plan, but I'm pretty sure we can outsmart...it…" he trailed off at the end of his explanation.

He just remembered something.

The Scythe! Carrie gave him a mystical scythe as a gift in an attempt to cure him of his depression. When she gave it to him, she said that it had some magical properties and something (he couldn't remember exactly what she had said, since he wasn't paying attention when she gave it to him.) else about a dark power. Carrie, being a ghost and all, was an expert on the supernatural and since they were dealing with a supernatural entity, maybe the scythe could help them defeat it.

Without saying anything, he leapt off the bed (an action that startled the girl sitting on said bed.) and approached the cupboard on which Darwin's empty fishbowl sat. Reaching behind it, he fumbled around until he felt the scythe's smooth, metallic handle and pulled the sinister weapon out of its storage space. Holding it front of him, he clicked a button on the side and a two foot, crescent shaped, steel blade sprang out from the handle and swung until it was perpendicular to the four foot long handle of the same material.

It didn't look spectacular, the handle was slightly curved and was a dull grey, although the butt end of the weapon could collapse in for easier storage. The blade itself was rather plain looking, though at the base, where the blade met the shaft, the blade had several serrated teeth that were perfect for tearing and along the flat side of the deadly edge were three runes etched into it. Gumball had no idea what they meant, but it did admittingly make the weapon look cool.

Upon seeing Gumball draw out the menacing device, Teri flinched and backed up until her back was pressed against the wall opposite of the window. With one arm raised to protect her face and another pointing at the cursed object that sat in the feline's hands, she began frantically sputtering out questions,

"What is that? Where'd you get it? Why were you hiding that in your room? Why is your room filled with so much dangerous and disgusting stuff? Is that thing cursed?" she babbled uncontrollably.

Taking slight offense to the paper hypochondriac calling his room disgusting, the mischievous cat just sighed and decided to ignore most of her questions,

"This is a magical scythe given to me by Carrie. It might help us defeat that thing out there, which by the way, is our biggest problem at the moment." his explanation did help calm her down a bit. Although she was questioning why Carrie, the creepy spirit, would give a dangerous weapon to a boy who is known for causing mischief.

Getting over her fear of the weapon and deciding to take it as a blessing, she decided to help formulate a plan. Scooting forward until she at the edge of his bed, she stood on her flimsy paper legs and proceeded towards the window,

"Okay, so you have a magical weapon that _may_ work against the angel thing, how are going to take on something that is several times your size? We don't even know where it's weak spot is!" she exclaimed. She peaked out the window to see what it was doing and to her horror, she saw that it had gone to the house on their left and was peeking into the windows. Seriously, what a creep!

Gumball wracked his brain, coming up with multiple schemes that would give him some equal footing with the colossal creature outside. Even though the scythe gave him a longer reach, the creature's arm length was longer and his wings were nothing to scoff at either. He then realized how little he knew of the monster, he knew nothing of it's attacks aside from it causes people to collapse upon contact and he wasn't even sure if thing had a weak spot. This was very different from all the other monsters he had seen toppled in the past.

That's when it struck him!

Reaching forward, he grabbed Teri by the shoulder and pulled her closer to him. With her face a few inches from his, he could make out all her features clearly and could see that she was also in the middle of thinking,

"Teri, I have an idea!" he exclaimed excitedly.

The paper girl was visibly enthralled, a small smile formed on her lips and her eyes widened in surprise. She raised an eyebrow, a gesture that allowed Gumball to continue,

"It's a longshot, but I believe we can pull it off. We're going to topple the angel and cut off it's head." he stated simply.

Teri had to fight off the urge to laugh hysterically. That was his first plan? Try to attack the creature with a trick that bullies used to pick on smaller kids! It all seemed so laughable and ridiculous that _that_ was his first plan. Then she thought about how this whole situation was already messed up and ridiculous, so she decided to hear him out on his scheme.

"Okay, so here's what I have in mind…" Gumball started.

He relayed a cobbled together plan to his colleague for the next minute and a half.

 _-Two minutes later-_

The winged entity was still searching the house next to Gumball's when Gumball climbed out of his window and out onto the rooftop. The glowing giant had opened a window in the Robinson's upper floor, stuck it's arm in, and was currently rummaging through the house with it's slender hand. It was no doubt looking for Teri and probably figured that she had sought shelter in one of these houses.

This act of breaking and entering disgusted Gumball to the highest degree. The Robinson's were his greatest and most respected neighbors, and to have someone violate their privacy like that was a complete outrage. The mischievous child had an odd feeling that he was being a hypocrite, but he quickly justified his actions as being of benefit to his grumpy neighbors.

He stood alone on his roof for a moment or two in order to scope out the scene a little. Even though he was standing out in the open for the monster to see, it hadn't really noticed him yet. Maybe once it was focused on something, it didn't really pay attention to its surroundings. Then again, it did have a helmet for a head, so who knows to what extent it's senses could go.

Once he felt comfortable with what he had gathered so far, he placed the scythe into both of his hands and proceeded to walk towards the edge of the ledge he stood. He speculated that at this point Teri had reached the shed in the Watterson's backyard and was gathering the supplies they needed. Now all he needed to do was buy her a little time. He reached the edge of the roof that separated the house's second floor from the first and squared his shoulders. Facing the angelic creature, he could see that it's entire arm was now in the Robinson's house and appeared to be struggling to find something. Despite it's terrifying appearance and size, the scene was actually quite funny. It kind of reminded Gumball of the time he got his arm stuck in the vending machine and had it freed after the fire department tore the snack depositor apart.

Pushing aside the hilarious memory Gumball refocused his efforts into saving the Robinsons, for he didn't want the thing touching them when it decided to search their bedroom.

He raised his scythe above his head and began shouting,

"HEY YOU BEAUTIFUL MONSTER!"

The moment the big headed kitten started shouting, the monster reacted with lightning speed. In a single, swift move, one of its wings whipped about and struck Gumball in the chest, sending him careening into the street below. The cat boy smacked into the pavement, bounced once or twice, before rolling to a stop. He laid on the road, arms and legs sprawled over the ground with quite a few scratches covering his body. Surprisingly, he was still conscious after that powerful strike dealt by the beast.

There were quite a few things that surprised Gumball in that one moment: the entity's speed, the fact that he wasn't knocked out by its contact or from the impact on the ground, and the fact that he hadn't dropped his scythe. However, he was now several feet from his house in the middle of the road, the wind was knocked out of him, his head swimming, and he was on his back like a helpless turtle at the moment.

Through the fogginess that was his mind, he somehow heard the sound of plywood and plaster being torn apart. With some effort he lifted his head and saw that the angelic being was tearing itself from the house it was searching previously. The creature had also undergone a slight change: its wings were now a dark crimson, two eyes that matched the wings in color could be seen through the helmet's slits, and its slim frame had become muscular, which was part of the reason of how it got its arm stuck in the first place. The colossus was frantically struggling to wrench the secured arm out of the tiny window, which gave Gumball an opportunity to get back up.

Regaining his breath, he allowed his head to fall back on the pavement for a moment before he checked to see if anything was broken. Surprisingly, his body was feeling peachy, aside from a few scrapes and bruises, plus the sore spot on his chest where the thing's wing had struck him. Using his scythe as a support, Gumball pulled himself up until he was standing on his own two feet again. The moment he was up, the angelic knight of terror had manage to tear its arm out of the house while managing to rip out a section of the building. Pieces of wood and debris were flung to and fro from the awesome force that the winged titan had created.

If there was a word Gumball could use to describe how he was feeling at the precise moment, it would be total dread. His main vantage point to attack the creature from was the roof, where he was level with it. Now he was on the ground, in his pajamas, with a small bladed weapon, facing a giant with strength and power that was leagues ahead of anything in Elmore. Dread and despair were more than enough to describe his inner thoughts at the moment.

Being free, the giant winged knight glared at the trembling cat boy and began pacing towards him, his menacing figure towering over the poor little thing. Without him remembering telling his body to do so, Gumball began backing up while raising his only weapon to the side as if he were about to swing it,

"W-what do want f-from us?..." he stuttered, his voice barely a squeek.

Surprisingly, the creature stopped its advance and after a few tense moments of silence, it spoke in a grating, masculine voice,

"To finish where we left off, 6,000 years ago!" it snarled, chuckling a little.

It raised its fist, like a divine god preparing to smite a mere mortal.

"DIE INSECT!" it bellowed.

It swung it's fist down at alarming speed, straight towards Gumball. The blue cat's body was so confused as to what it should do that it did two things at the same time. Right when the massive fist was a meter away from smashing his tiny body into a red pulp, he crouched and leapt with all his strength away from the impact site. At the same time, he swung his upper torso and the scythe followed in a wide arc: towards the behemoth's muscular arm. The curved blade cut through the silver skin and into it's forearm, leaving a large gash from where it sliced.

That all happened before the entity's strike reached the ground. Upon impact, the pavement cracked and formed a crater, but his forearm and hand were sent flying after striking with too much force. The dismembered limb flew off into the darkness and crashed into what was probably a car because Gumball heard the sound of glass breaking and metal being twisted.

Landing a few feet away, on the sidewalk across his house, the pre-teen cat gazed with frightened eyes towards the attacking monster he had just evaded. What he saw was simply shocking, the strike he dealt while evading the monster's attack had left said beast without a right hand! In the heat of the moment he had not only managed to dodge its attack, but also deal some damage to it as well. Peering at the stump where the giant angel's hand used to be, Gumball could see that there was nothing in it. No blood, bone, or any sort of living tissue: it was completely hollow!

Honestly, seeing a creature with a bizarre anatomy wasn't too foreign to Gumball. For starters, his classmate, Alan, was a balloon, yet he'd seen him consume food and also found out a while ago that he even had organs comprised of air. Then you had people like Leslie, who was an anthropomorphic flower, and Bobert, who was a robot. Even Teri was a complete mystery because she was a paper girl yet possessed organs, but no bones. However, what confused him about the creature that was attacking him at the moment was how was it so strong despite being completely hollow?

He had a feeling he wasn't going to gain the answer to that question anyhow, so he chose to stick with the plan at hand. The creature stood up straight once more, not even showing any sign of pain or discomfort. It's red eyes locked onto Gumball and then onto the weapon he held at the ready. He stared in silence for a solid ten seconds before shaking it's helmet head a few times, as if it just realized something,

"So you insects are still using ancient magic? Interesting." it muttered. It didn't appear to be talking to Gumball with the way it sounded.

"When I first arrived here, I was utterly disappointed in the Earth children. They still rely on their puny devices and most can't even see me. As a matter fact, most couldn't even survive being in close proximity with my being, even when I was at such a low power." he was being condescending, treating everyone he met like they mere obstacles that couldn't put up a descent struggle. Gumball could definitely deduce at this point that the stranger didn't come in peace.

After he had finished speaking something strange began happening. An unseen force began to press down on Gumball, forcing him on his knees. He hadn't a clue what was happening, but he could definitely tell the stranger was the one responsible for this. The crushing power increased in strength and intensity as time dragged on; soon it felt as if an entire ocean was pressing itself on the blue feline. _"Holy crap! This is just like my dream! What's happening? I can't move my body."_ a multitude of questions and concerns flew through the young man's oversized noggin as he struggled to move. He couldn't see what the demonic creature was doing because the only thing he could see were it's sandaled feet.

A loud hum filled the air and the light emanating from the monster's wings shifted from red to teal, something real bad was happening,

"Lay there and die, mortal!" he exclaimed, like a deity sentencing death upon a sinful creature.

The hum got louder and the light glowed with great intensity, the air began to heat up. Gumball assumed this was the end.

Before anything had actually happened, Gumball felt himself being snatched away from the ground and was hoisted into the air. A moment later, he heard something that sounded like a deafening blast and an intense flash of light illuminated the entire neighborhood. Evidently, this was the creature's attack that was meant to end the life of the eldest Watterson child. He had been saved at the last moment before he was vaporized.

Now there was the matter of who or what saved him from an impending doom. Looking around, Gumball saw that he was now riding what appeared to be an origami Hawk! He was sure that he was seeing this correctly, it was a large bird made entirely of paper, with an angular, pointed head and wide trapezoid wings that flapped as the wind carried it over the neighborhood. Before he could lose his mind over the sheer absurdity of what he was looking at, he saw a familiar bear-like girl sitting in front of him with her head turned back towards him,

"Teri!" he shouted in both confusion and bless.

She waved a flimsy, four fingered hand at him as a response and turned her attention to the front of the bird,

"I saw you in a bit of a pinch and I knew I had to rescue you." she explained, although it was hard to hear her soft voice over the roaring air that shot by.

Gumball was very grateful for his classmate's help in a seemingly peril situation and voiced his gratitude towards her,

"Thanks Teri, I owe you one!" he shouted, although he was unsure whether or not she had heard him,

"Did you set the trap, like I asked?" he asked, needing to know whether she did so for the sake of the plan.

Teri heard him and responded accordingly,

"Yes! It was so easy that I had time to make this origami hawk in case you needed help luring it over. I finished it right as that thing pinned you to the ground, are you alright by the way?" she called down to him. She couldn't see him that well and was unsure if he had been seriously injured.

The blue pajama clad pre-teen didn't feel any different than he had thirty seconds ago. Actually, he even felt better since he he had been saved (he was also curious about Teri's unusual item, but now wasn't the time to ask questions.) and that he still had the ancient weapon Carrie had blessed (was it a blessing if the object was supposedly cursed?) with him, although his chest still hurt,

"Yep, just peachy." he responded, with a hint of sarcasm.

He heard her mutter something, but he didn't think much of it, he was just glad that he was safe along with her. He quickly glanced back and noticed that they were several blocks away from the monster. He could see a faint blue glow, which indicated that they were quite a ways away from the eighteen foot monster.

Turning back to his friend, he tapped her shoulder to get the paper bear girl's attention,

"Could you take us back? If the trap is in place, then we need to lure it back so we can finish the job. We also don't want it chasing us down here or else it will cause more destruction." he pointed out.

Getting the gist of what he was saying, Teri nodded in agreement and caused the bird to bank until they were heading back in the direction of Gumball's house.

Feeling uncomfortable taking the creature head-on, Teri faced Gumball with a question,

"You aren't going to do something reckless like taking it on again?" they were a few blocks away from the monster and they could already see its form in the darkness.

Shaking his head, Gumball kept his attention on the radiant giant that nearly ended his life twice,

"That's not happening. Whatever it is, it's too powerful for either of us to take on directly. We need to fly by it and allow it to chase us to the wire trap you set up. Once we topple it, I'll decapitate it and hopefully that will end this conflict." he explained, trying to reassure the hawk pilot that they won't be doing anything that would put them in an unnecessarily risky situation.

They continued to fly straight until they were right on the entity's position. The moment the enemy had spotted them, it turned and fanned out it's twelve massive wings in an attempt to block their path. It proved futile because with a simple tilt, the hawk and it's two passengers slipped between the space in its wings. Not being closed to done, the winged knight launched another attack directed at the two. At the tip of its wings, an orb of energy appeared and began unleashing deadly beams of light in their general direction,

"Teri, evasive maneuvers!" Gumball shouted as the lasers shot by them.

Seeing the danger they were in, Teri swiftly dodging the dozens of lances made of deadly energy that melted anything they struck. After seventeen seconds of narrowly dodging lasers, Teri spotted a long cable lying in the middle of the road that was tied tightly to a nearby tree. She dove downwards until she was a few feet away from her destination before pulling up and taking them down gently.

Once they had touched down on the pavement, Gumball hopped off and readied his weapon: his task was to lure the beast over to them. Casting a glance towards Teri, who was riding the bird towards the other end of the cable, the blue cat relayed the final part of the plan to her,

"Okay, for the final part of my brilliant plan, you are going to hide in that bush with that end of the cable. I will draw him over here and when Silver Twelve is close enough, pull the cable and let him trip. Once he's down, I'll cut off his head." he recited the plan once again to her. He gave the creature the name "Silver Twelve" because he was tired of referring to it as _it._

The flat twelve year old girl had already disappeared behind the bush by the time he finished explaining his plan for the umpteenth time now. He could hear her voice whispering from being the lawn shrub,

"Are you sure this plan is going to work? Because it seems awfully simple to me, also in case if you've forgotten, I'm made of paper! I'm not exactly a heavy weight champion!" she exclaimed nervously.

Ignoring her snarky attitude, Gumball stayed where he was and gave her a quick answer,

"Simple plans are the most effective! Abraham Lincoln said so himself." he retorted. He heard her snort a little from behind the bush and he realized that he was being mocked. Something told him that she didn't think his quote was entirely accurate and to be honest, he wasn't one hundred percent sure either. Ignoring it, he finished his thoughts,

"Also, it's too late to worry about the details, here comes Silver Twelve." he gasped.

Sure enough, roughly sixty feet away, the giant was steadily approaching him. He was walking down the middle of the street, with a course that lined up straight with Gumball's position. He wasn't firing lasers or emitting some kind of deadly energy that would crush him where he stood, he just walked in a calm manner like someone who was strolling through a park on a lovely day. One thing Gumball was glad for was that silver twelve hadn't decided to take flight or else his plan would've been screwed right there. Then he pondered if the bizarre entity could fly. It had plenty of opportunities to do so, but the only thing it used its wings for was to attack or to fire off energy blasts.

With his height and pace, Silver twelve quickly closed the distance between him and his prey. The twelve year old cat person glanced his opponent up and down and saw that he was still missing his left arm and his twelve wings were back in an upright position while flashing a spectacular rainbow of lights. He also realized for the first time that he could barely hear his footsteps as he approached, this was probably due to him being really light. The angelic entity was now thirty feet or less from Gumball's position, the blue cat heard the giant chuckle,

"I figured the flat one was nearby and would show her cowardly hide sometime soon." he sneered, obviously furious at having his moment of triumph taken from him by a hawk riding, paper girl who fled from him the first time he met her,

"Now I see that she has abandoned you and is now hiding somewhere, I presume." his grating voice cut through the silent night, giving Gumball and Teri the shivers.

Gumball took a step back, then another, he kept doing this while keeping the bladed weapon leveled with his chest. In two steps he would be at the cable and Gumball wanted to put as much distance between him and the monster before he fell. However, he had to keep his composure or else he will see through his ruse.

The mischievous feline could feel his heartbeat rising as the giant's feet drew near his trap, he wondered if Teri would be able to go through with it. He seriously hoped that she wasn't going to chicken out at the last moment and leave him to fend for himself.

"No matter." the demonic creature was still monologuing as he set his sights on the frail boy that seemed no more to him than a cockroach ready to be trampled,

"Once I finish with you, I will seek her-UGH?!"

Surprisingly, the plan that Gumball had bet his and Teri's survival on actually worked! As soon as he standing at the cord lying in front of him, the line snapped upwards, catching his right foot as he began to take another step. With a surprised grunt and a flailing of his arms, the terrifying behemoth was sent downwards.

He didn't land flat on his face, like Gumball had hoped.

Instead, he dropped to one knee using his left leg to catch himself. Confused, Silver Twelve checked what had caused his ungraceful stumble and saw a limp cord slightly tangled around his right ankle. Angered at the realization that he had fallen (literally!) for such a simple trap, he reached down and tore the cord away from himself. The process also tore the tree it was attached to straight out of it's rooted spot and came tumbling down with a deafening crash.

"Clever." Silver Twelve muttered to himself,

"Hard to believe a mere mortal brought a Nephilim to one knee. You shall never live to see the morning-!" while he was talking he raised his head so that he could see his opponent clearly, but quickly discovered that the tiny mammal had disappeared.

Panicking, silver twelve whipped it's helmeted head around, trying to see where he had run off to. He had taken his eyes off of him for one moment and now the rascal had managed to scurry away somehow. The wicked creature wondered if he had somehow retreated or was planning a surprise attack. The last one didn't seem likely because he believed that he held the upper hand and that a sudden assault was futile.

In his arrogance, he should've been more prepared.

Circling around him at an altitude of 30 feet, dangling by one hand grasping the paper hawk's underside, the blue scythe wielder positioned himself until he was in the optimal striking position. As soon as he was above the nape of the neck, Teri, who had complete control of the inanimate avion, gave him the signal by lowering the bird closer to the giant and allowed him to let go and plummet towards the unaware giant below. It was do or die now, as this was their only chance to stop the Nephilim.

For a brief second, all Gumball felt was the rushing air and every doubtful thought that screamed in his mind, _this was a mistake!_ Next, he felt his feet make contact with the entity's smooth, reflective, silvery skin and found himself standing on top of the giant, peering at the back of it's head. He could see his own reflection, albeit it was a little distorted by the monster's skin texture.

It was still hunched over, which offered some level ground for him to stand on and not tumble off like a discarded sock. He also noted that he felt no warmth through the giant's skin even though he was barefoot and there was no apparent odor that he could smell. All of this sensory information was processed in an instant, as Gumball prepared himself for the final step.

Rotating his arms back, he swung the scythe downwards at an angle with all his might. The crescent blade cut through the air like water as it made its way towards Silver Twelve's exposed neck, catching the blue light on it's reflective, scarred surface. The blade sank into his flesh and tore its way through to the other side in one clean motion. Once the weapon had exited the wound, Gumball could see a clean, two foot cut running horizontally across the Nephilim's lower neck. If this had been a human, the spinal cord would have been bisected.

And with that strike, everything seemed to stop as Gumball and Teri waited for what happened next.

" _Did it work?"_ they thought in unison.

At first nothing happened. Silver twelve remained still, Gumball froze in place with the scythe blade pointing away from his target, and Teri just hovered in place above the two. Then the Nephilim's head began to move. At first Gumball feared the worst and wondered if his attack had failed and that they were doomed to die right then and there. But instead, the armored noggin of the demon tilted forward and the tear in its neck began increase in length. At the same time it's body slumped forward and began to let gravity pull it to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. Finally, the head tore itself free from the body, revealing a hollow interior, and tumbled to the ground.

This all happened in slow motion for Gumball, as his senses were completely shot with adrenaline. All he could think of was, _"I did it! It's over!"_ and watched as the once terrifying colossus fell helplessly to the ground. He didn't even notice Teri swooping in to carry him away from the corpse.

As soon as the body finished falling, the hollowed remains of the monster began to fade to black and the glow that was prominently displaying on its wings, faded as well. The life from the Nephilim had faded away and left a blackened husk behind. Next, the body spontaneously combusted into purple flames that eventually died out in less than a minute, leaving no trace of the demon giant.

The living nightmare was gone, simple as that.

 _-two minutes later, in Gumball's room-_

After Silver Twelve had been defeated, the electricity had been restored and the two could clearly see that a lot of damage had been dealt out during the fight. The Robinson's house had a large, gaping hole in the side, the street was pocketed with craters from the punch and all the laser beams fired from the monster, and a nearby tree had been uprooted and was partially blocking the road. Other than that, there wasn't much else to report and the two had both agreed on not explaining what had happened tonight. Best to leave it up for the neighborhood to sort out.

The two students had managed to slip back into the Watterson household without waking anyone (actually they were both surprised that no one had woken up during the commotion that was happening outside.) and had both snuck into Gumball's bedroom. They decided that they needed to discuss a few important matters and also needed to remain out of sight, before _someone_ happened to show up.

They both sat on the blue cat's bed, staring at the window in the darkened room. They hadn't spoken to each other, not out of disgust or anger, but more out of the fact that they had to process what just happened. It wasn't uncomfortable, as a matter of fact, Gumball felt at ease with the absence of noise and the fact that there was someone who was experiencing the same thing he was going through. On his left, Teri was also feeling appreciative for similar reasons.

Once Gumball felt that he had his thoughts together, he decided to break the silence that was suffocating the room,

"Um, Teri…" he began, glancing over at the silent paper girl.

As soon as his words reached her, she pivoted her head, allowing Gumball to see her face instead of a thin white line that was the side of her head. This often made it difficult for people to notice her when they approached her from the side, as being paper made her completely two dimensional.

Gumball's ears lowered behind his head and he clasped his hands in his lap, he spoke softly,

"Um, I wanted to thank you for helping me out back there. If it weren't for your quick thinking and your craftiness, I would have been dead. Twice." he said, nodding his head in gratitude.

Hearing that from Gumball made Teri's already pink cheeks deepen a little more in color and her flat, round ears twitch a little. She looked down at her hands and awkwardly replied,

"Oh, um, no problem. I was just really worried that you weren't going to make it." she almost fumbled on her words. After that, she decided to thank him as well,

"I also wanted to thank you for helping me out, especially when I thought you weren't going to believe me and regard me as insane. Also, you're a quick thinker too and quite brave, facing down that monster like that, even taking a hit. I really appreciate all the help you have given me." her words were sincere and it made Gumball actually feel proud of himself. Something he hadn't felt since his break up with Penny.

They both stared at each other in comfortable silence before Teri glanced at the clock and saw the time. Her eyes widened in horror as she realized how late it was and she took in a deep breath,

"Oh my gosh! I didn't realize what time it was! I gotta get home right away!" she spouted as she immediately stood up and started glancing about the room in a panicked manner.

At first, Gumball was oddly struck by her sudden outburst, until he glanced at his digital alarm clock. It read _1:03_ AM, it was really late. Realizing that her parents could be worried sick about their daughter, Gumball immediately stood up, grabbed the panicking girl by the shoulders and waited until he had her attention. As soon her eyes were on him, he whispered in a calming tone,

"It's okay, calm down." he gently assured her.

The paper girl took a moment to catch her breath and was soon calm. Gumball could feel her tense shoulders slumping as she regained her composure. Soon she was ready to speak,

"Are your parents home right now?" he asked, releasing her shoulders and taking a step back to give her some space.

Teri took a moment to ponder before she shook her head and spoke,

"No. my mom's a doctor and my dad's a surgeon. They're both working the night shift at the Elmore Hospital right now." she responded, her voice less high pitched and her expression relaxed.

The cat with an abnormally large head nodded and glanced at the window. It was still very dark out and he didn't know how far her house was. He couldn't just let his classmate walk home alone, that would be really dangerous, especially since they were just attacked. He would walk her home, as a gentleman should, but he realized that it wouldn't be any safer if they both went out in the middle of the night, them being kids and all. The only good options that came to mind were to, A.) call her parents and have them pick her up or B.) let her sleep over and explain to her folks that she had a project that needed to be done and decided to spend the night at a friend's house or something like that.

With those options in mind, he turned to Teri and laid down the options she had.

As soon as he was finished speaking, the anthropomorphic paper bear took another moment to ponder her options. While she did this, she glanced off to the side, eyebrows knit, her chin resting in her hand, and she swayed ever so slightly. Finally, an idea popped into her head and her eyes lit up as she faced the ever so patient blue cat,

"I might as well spend the night here, since my parents are usually busy." she explained, using her hands as a way to express her words,

"Besides, they'd believe me if I told them that I was sleeping over at a friend's house." and with that being said, her worries vanished at once.

Happy that another potential crisis had been averted, Gumball breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay. I have a sleeping bag in the closet that you can sleep in or you can sleep in Anais' bed since she's at her friend's house for the night." he suggested, moving his head in both the direction of the closet and the top bunk where his little sister usually slept.

Weighing her options, Teri decided to go with sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag,

"I think I'll sleep on the floor tonight. I don't like the idea of sleeping in someone else's bed, primarily because all the germs that are usually found on the pillows and bedsheets." she explained with a grimace.

Hearing Teri spewing out her irrational fear of germs caused Gumball to sigh and roll his eyes. There's the hypochondriac he knew, always ready to annoy him with her long list of reasons of why people shouldn't have fun for the sake of being "healthy" and now there's the possibility that he's going to have the neatfreak is going to deep clean the entire house and it's occupants in the middle of the night. The very thought made him shudder in disgust.

Wanting to get to bed right away, he marched over to the closet that held his belongings along with sibling's, and began rummaging through the pile of items for a sleeping bag.

While he searched, Teri watched from behind and saw the horrifying sight that was his closet and gasped out loud,

"What the-?! Why's your closet such a mess? When's the last time you cleaned it out?" she regarded in a rather loud voice.

Great. Gumball was afraid of this very specific scenario. Without stopping, he let out a sigh and answered back,

"I'm sorry if I don't waste my life making sure every square centimeter of my room is bleached. Not all of us are neat freaks like you." he muttered,

"And if you hate this mess, then you're going to _loathe_ the one under the bed." he knew he probably shouldn't have brought that up, but she was going to figure it out regardless, so might as well see her overreact to it now rather than in the middle of the night.

Her eyes widened in horror as she slowly turned in the direction of the bed where Gumball slept. Just seeing the absolute catastrophe that was his rooms storage space was like a scene straight out of horror film to her, and he was now saying that the space under his bed was somehow _worse_! She was almost too scared to even consider peeking at whatever vile things lurked under the bed.

She angrily turned towards Gumball, who had finally managed to locate a rather decent-looking red sleeping bag and was holding it over his head like it was a treasured item. She threw her arms over head in a dramatic fashion,

"You know what! I'd rather sleep on your sister's bunk than on the same level as whatever potential pandemic that is brewing under your bed." she remarked sternly, placing her hands on her hips to show how serious she was.

Not even intimidated by her tone nor her furious expression, Gumball handed her the sleeping bag along with some clean sheets from his laundry basket for her to use as a pillow. Afterwards, he hopped into his bed and nestled himself under the covers,

"Good call." he muttered, nuzzling his fluffy pillow as he got comfy,

"Could you turn off the light before you turn in for the night, please." he asked as politely as he could.

Realizing that he was about to go to sleep in spite of her rage, Teri sighed in defeat and decided to prepare for bed herself. She tossed the sleeping items Gumball handed her onto the top bunk and was about to flick the switch when two questions popped into her head,

"Hey Gumball?" she asked, gazing at the slightly moving lump underneath the sheet.

Not really asleep, Gumball lifted his head until he could see his paper classmate,

"What's up?" he asked.

"I have two questions for you." she responded.

Curious, the cat student raised an eyebrow,

"Shoot." he replied in affirmation.

She decided to start with the one she felt was the most important,

"Well, for starters, what are we going to do tomorrow?" she asked.

He had no idea what she meant. He understood what she was asking, but she wasn't exactly specific. Propping himself up with his elbows, he asked her to clarify her statement,

"What do mean, exactly?" he raised an eyebrow perplexedly.

Resting her arms on the one of the ladder rungs, Teri kept her gaze fixed on Gumball's while she spoke,

"I mean what are going to do in regards to the beast that we fought? We don't know if there are more out there and they could attack at any time, so should we try doing some research? Are we going to fight the next one that appears? How are we going to deal with these things when they decide to show themselves again?" she breezed through the list of concerning queries with her airy voice.

Understanding where she was going with this, Gumball pondered the best course of action. Obviously, they had no idea what they were up against and whether or not this was going to be a daily occurrence for them both. It was also important to note that as far as they were aware, they were only ones who could see the enemy, let alone fight them. So there was no help from the outside that they could turn to. He remembered hearing a quote from somewhere saying, _"know your enemy."_ and figured their highest priority would be gaining knowledge.

"I say tomorrow, we should do some research. I think Carrie can help us since she's an expert on the supernatural." he stated.

The bear nodded and added her own suggestion,

"Okay, that makes sense. I will head to the library at school tomorrow and see if I can pull anything up on whatever it is that attacked us. As a means to cover more ground, of course." she added.

Gumball nodded in approval and then Teri moved onto the less important question,

"And lastly, I was wondering if you had a pencil and eraser that I could borrow?" she asked, rubbing one leg with her foot and folding her long, flexible arms behind her back.

An odd request. Gumball was curious as to why she was asking for such an item, although part him had a feeling she was going to use it to draw on herself. She was made of paper after all.

"What do you need it for?" he asked, raising an eyebrow in mere curiosity.

Without any hesitation, she pointed at her eyes,

"At my house I erase my eyes and draw a blindfold before I go to bed. It helps me sleep at night." she made an erasing motion with her hands followed by gesture that mimicked a pencil drawing on her round face.

That made sense, although it was still a little strange to the young Watterson that she needed to go through such a ritual in order to assist in sleeping. He reached over to his backpack that he kept beside his bed and pulled an average looking No. 2 pencil from one of the side pockets and handed it to the paper girl standing at the foot of his bed.

Taking the desired object, Teri turned out the light, wished Gumball a good night and climbed onto the top bunk. Rolling out the sleeping bag, and setting the sheet over the pillow that most definitely belonged to his younger sister, Teri settled in for the night. Pulling the pencil out, she rubbed the eraser on her eyes until they faded away. Then she drew on a pair of blindfolds and rested her head on her makeshift pillow before placing the borrowed pencil next to her head. After a few moments, she was overcome with drowsiness and succumbed to the slumber that was beckoning her forth.

Gumball listened to his current roommate settle into bed and eventually fall asleep. One thing he was grateful for was that her body was so light that it barely made any noise, save for a slight crumpling noise as parts of her folded from the stress of various objects pressing against her as she settled in. Even her breathing was soft and peaceful. Aside from her constant hysterics regarding hygiene, Gumball was actually lead to believe that she was a pretty adequate roommate. As a matter of fact, having her here filled Gumball with sense of happiness and peace, almost as if a hole in his chest were slowly being filled.

Knowing that tomorrow was going to be a long day. Gumball closed his eyes and allowed his consciousness to slip away into the realm of dreams. Before everything faded, he prayed that there wouldn't be any more giant monsters to deal with tomorrow or any nightmares for tonight. Soon his heavy breathing filled his room and all was peaceful.

For the time being, at least.

 **(A/N) okay, so there's the first chapter of Teri x Gumball: In between worlds printed and done. This was quite the write and, honestly I'm proud of how it turned out. Before I leave, I wanna set a few things straight with ya folks reading this at home: first off, I know the fight was kind of brief. The reason for this was because I didn't want the first conflict to be a drawn out punch fest, instead I wanted to showcase how the two protagonists would work together to overcome a common enemy.**

 **Another thing I want to point out, is Teri's origami abilities. I've always imagined this as an ability of hers because it allows her take on a wide variety of obstacles in a way that compliments both her and her already established abilities in TAWOG, like her ability to fold herself. I also feel like her strengths would be her intelligence, flexibility and craftiness, which make up for her frailty and her overall lack of physical strength.**

 **As for Gumball, I chose a scythe because A.) it's my favorite melee weapon B.) it fits the theme of the story, since the enemies are malevolent spirits set on bringing about the apocalypse and C.) I feel like swords and guns are overrated and kind of cliche. As for things like power ups and training, fear not! For many wonderful things are bound to come in this magical adventure. As the story progresses Gumball, will come to realize that are bigger problems other than his failed relationship with Penny and will eventually learn to embrace the change he is destined to face.**

 **On another note, in case if you guys had noticed this by now, I'm a huge fan of the manga and anime** _ **"Bleach"**_ **by the one and only, true angel amongst men, Tite Kubo. some of the scenes in this chapter and the chapters that follow, are loosely inspired by some of the events in the series.**

 **Next chapter will follow the pair through school as they gather what knowledge they can on the mysterious Nephilim. On their quest for knowledge, they are both confronted by various friends and classmates who are curious about their sudden friendship. Meanwhile, an unseen evil is waiting to be unleashed upon the unsuspecting town. Can Gumball and Teri gather enough information on the vile spirits assaulting their world before they're inevitably attacked? Find out in chapter 2: Giants of old.**

 **Please like and post a review. I wish you all a wonderful day on this beautiful panet!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Giants of old**

Teri x Gumball

 **Hey guys! Welcome to chapter two of the romantic fantasy Teri x Gumball: In between worlds. In this chapter we shall follow the survivors of the first Nephilim assault as they search their school for answers regarding the terrifying monster that claimed the lives of three people and caused serious damage to Gumball's neighborhood. This chapter will be a long one and will be covering some details concerning the lore behind this story. As for the relationship between Teri and Gumball, it's going to start out slow, but will gain traction after a few events in the upcoming chapters. So don't worry, there'll be plenty of fluffy moments between the two later on in the story. Please enjoy and leave a review, if you wish!**

 **One last thing, I wanted to do a shout out to Villicus, my first reviewer, for giving my story positive feedback. Thank you so much for reading my story and responding to the first chapter, you really made my day when I read your post for the first time, I was smiling and bouncing up and down in my booth when I first read your review, I was just so giddy! There are more chapters on the way and I will hopefully be able to upload a chapter every week, no promises though because anything can happen. Once again, thank you so much for your positive review, Villicus, it was definitely uplifting and encouraging to hear that my first reviewer enjoyed what I had written and I hope that you and many others enjoy this story that I have been constructing for a while.**

 **(I do not own The Amazing World of Gumball. All rights belong to Ben Bocquelet, the staff, Cartoon Network, and other respective owners.)**

 _-September 9th, 2013, the Watterson household, 7:00 a.m.-_

Throughout the entirety of the night, Gumball didn't have any nightmares and he was grateful for that. Unfortunately, if he did have any dreams during the previous night, he didn't remember because the moment his alarm went off, everything filling his head through his unconscious hours vanished in an instant. _Thank heaven for mornings!_ He thought sarcastically as he groggily sat up and switched off his alarm. Stretching his limbs and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Gumball began prepping for the day that was laid out in front of him.

Remembering the events of the night prior, he shuddered and glance towards the window again. He didn't see any flashing sirens nor did he hear any commotion outside, meaning that people either haven't really reacted to the damage outside or damage control was on its way and just hasn't arrived yet. He knew Gaylord and Margaret Robinson were going to be _pretty_ upset at the damage done to their house, but that was the least of his concerns since he wasn't the one who caused it… at least this time. He was pretty sure everyone could deal with a few craters in their lawns and roads and the toppled tree was easy to avoid, although anyone driving an automobile was going to have to swerve a little.

This also brought his attention to Teri, who was still sleeping on the bed above his. Tossing the covers off of himself and swinging his legs until his feet were planted on the carpeted floor, the little cat got up and proceeded to wake up the snoozing paper bear. Reaching for the bed's side railing, he grabbed it and hoisted himself up until he was now level with the paper girl's sleeping area.

When his eyes cleared the side of the bed, he got a good look at the sleeping classmate who had come over to his house in an unexpected twist of events. She was still tucked into her sleeping bag, with her nose pointed at the ceiling, blindfold drawn on her eyes, her dark mouth hanging open as she breathed in and out. She seemed to be in a state of complete bliss and, as much as he was willing to admit, she looked kind of cute with her being tucked in neatly and her mouth hanging open slightly. She looked like a child who was in the middle of a slumber party or a camp out and if this wasn't a school day, Gumball would've let her sleep.

However, seeing as the bus was going to be here in half an hour, the blue cat knew he was going to have to disturb her peaceful state of slumber. Reaching out, he grabbed her shoulder and gently shook her,

"Teri, it's time to get up!" he said in a soft, yet commanding tone.

At the sudden contact and someone calling out to her, his paper classmate slowly stirred and sat up in a leisurely fashion. She muttered a couple incoherent words and looked around the room, but quickly discovered that she couldn't see anything,

"Wha-? Gumball…? What are you doing in my…!" she stopped herself from finishing her sentence at the sudden realization that she was talking to Gumball, in the _morning!_

Feeling that something was off, she felt around the bed (occasionally grabbing Gumball's face, much to the latter's chagrin.) before she found the pencil she kept beside her head. Erasing the blindfold that obscured her vision and drawing on her eyes, she blinked a couple of times before turning to look at Gumball, who's furry face was a little ruffled from her earlier attempts at finding her pencil.

"Rise and shine, paper girl!" he greeted with a roll of his eyes,

"We got half an hour before the bus arrives. If you need to grab a shower or prepare yourself for the day, why don't you get started on that now while my folks are still asleep, and before you ask, the bathroom is the one in hall to the right." he suggested, not even waiting for her to reply to his greeting.

After a moment of silence, the events of last night came rushing back to Teri and she remembered why and how she got here. With a slight nod, she unzipped her sleeping bag and stretched all the kinks out of her limbs before she began crawling towards the bed's edge,

"Thank you." she softly muttered, jumping off the bed and landing on her feet without making even a sound. Her face was blank, as she hadn't woken up completely and was looking forward to a refreshing shower.

Before she could grab the door handle, she heard Gumball clear his throat and turned towards the feline classmate, who had suddenly materialized a few feet behind her. He had his arms crossed and his kitty face held a slightly happy expression,

"I also figured that while you shower I could get started on breakfast. Is there anything you want in particular? I have to warn you though, there are only two options: cereal or toast. Mom bought groceries yesterday, but dad unfortunately vacuumed most of the fridge's contents the same day mom bought the goods home. Not my fault since he's pretty much a walking stomach that has no bottom. Actually, hold that thought..." he said in a joking manner. Even in light of his depression and recent events, he tends to get humorous when he has guests.

Not being able to contain her laughter, Teri chuckled a little at the prospect of Gumball's father being a ravenous being that would clear out any pantry. She'd seen him a few times before and wasn't surprised that the overweight pink bunny had a voracious appetite. She opened the door and began walking out into the vacant hallway,

"I'll have toast since I'm not a cereal person." she requested as she disappeared.

Being left alone now, Gumball quickly sprung into action. He changed out of his pajama shirt and shorts and into his brown sweater and grey trousers, his everyday attire, and made his way down the hallway and down the stairs. When he passed the bathroom, he could already hear the shower running and Teri humming to herself as she washed herself clean. As soon as he arrived downstairs, he checked on his parents to see if they were awake. To his relief they were both sound asleep, meaning he didn't have to worry about either one of them waking up and discovering that one of his female classmates was in his house and taking a shower. He already had enough on his plate and the idea of his mother flipping out over a surprise visit from Teri didn't sit well with him.

He entered the kitchen and got started on breakfast. Pouring himself a bowl of cereal and popping two slices of toast into the toaster, he checked the fridge and discovered that they were low on milk and the stick of butter had been consumed by Richard… again. Groaning in frustration, he poured the milk into his bowl and grabbed some peanut butter and jam for Teri to spread on the toast, not wanting to spread it himself since he didn't know if she'd like it or not. Eventually the toast popped from its respective heating device with a _ding!_ And Gumball grabbed a plate to set the two slices on. In record span of a minute and fifteen seconds, breakfast was set and Gumball proceeded back up to the room from whence he came.

Entering his room, he set the food on the desk where his antique computer sat and checked the time. 7:06 it read. Twenty four minutes left until the bus arrived. He decided to check his bag to see if he'd forgotten anything for school while he waited for Teri to finish up with her shower.

Going through his bag, he saw that he wasn't missing any homework. His geography textbook was gone and he remembered lending it to Banana Joe two days ago. Normally, he never had any concern for school work, but in recent times, he'd been trying to distract himself from the hurt that he was still feeling.

Thinking about Penny again made his heart sink, his whiskers droop and his tail lower along with his eyes. He really missed her and even wondered what she would think of last night's events, if he decided to talk to her about it. She'd probably be very concerned with his well being or would probably laugh it off as some kind of funny story he came up with. Either alternative sounded realistic and this made Gumball's heart ache even more. He really missed her.

Three minutes had passed when Teri finally entered his room looking refreshed and clean. She found Gumball sitting on his bed, rummaging through his backpack by the looks of it. The sight of the blue cat's bookbag made her realize, with dread, that she left her bag at home before she went out to the hospital last night and it was still sitting there, on her bed, with all her school work in it. She internally facepalmed herself and decided that she was just going to have to turn in her homework late and borrow someone else's books for the day.

She walked into the room, shutting the door behind her. She saw Gumball's sensitive ears twitch at the sound of the door clicking shut and his head spun around in surprise, focusing his eyes on the stranger that entered his room. Upon seeing that it was only Teri, Gumball relaxed, quickly stood up, and made his way towards his desk where he had set the food for him and his guest. The scent of toast made its way to Teri's nostrils and the paper bear, was immediately entranced by the aroma,

"That smells nice!" she commented, directing her attention to the food that was sitting on the computer desk and then to Gumball, who had grabbed a bowl of cereal and was now sitting down on the floor.

She grabbed her plate and joined her furry classmate on the floor. Sitting across from him, she grabbed the jar of jam and began spreading it across the bread's crispy surface,

"Thanks for letting me use your shower. I really appreciate it." she said, taking a bite out of her toast.

Gumball was in the process of shoveling a spoonful of soggy, colorful cereal in his mouth when he answered,

"Mmm… no problem… (crunch, crunch)... I said I owed you one last night, so now we're even." he reminded her. He swallowed his food and loaded his spoon with more.

Thinking back, she did remember him saying that after she had saved him the first time. She realized that despite his gross lifestyle and outrageous antics, he was actually a nice person who will look out after others when a situation called for it. Looking around his room, she could guess that this protective and helpful side of him spouted from the need to care for his little siblings. She did some self reflecting and realized her self absorbed behavior probably stemmed from the fact that she was an only child. Now that she gave it some thought, maybe she ought to hang out with him some more. She'd have to dwell on it.

She continued eating and having small talk,

"Well, I thank you for your hospitality. By the way, you guys are going to need some more shampoo in the not-too-distant future." she felt the need to address the Watterson's dwindling supply of bathroom hygiene products.

This didn't seem to concern the eldest child of the Watterson household, as he shrugged and kept eating,

"Eh, I'll put on mom's grocery list." he answered nonchalantly before eyeing the untouched jar of peanut butter next to the feminine paper doll,

"You haven't touched the peanut butter, by the way. Don't like peanut butter?" he asked.

Teri finished her first slice and shook her circular head side to side,

"I have a severe nut allergy. I can't eat that or else I'll get sick." she stated in a high pitch voice then glanced to the side and quietly added,

"I think."

Once again, the health freak's paranoia struck true and Gumball rolled his eyes while stifling some laughter. Then he thought of a joke he couldn't pass up on,

"If you're allergic to nuts then why are you sitting across from me?" he teased, raising his eyebrows to emphasize his witty banter.

The paper girl caught onto his joke and let out a groan before facepalming, which hilariously caused her flat head to bend back a little,

"Seriously! take someone else's health a bit more seriously!" she growled, pinching the bridge of her nose. Underneath the cover of her hand, she smiled a little. The joke was lame, but at the same time it was a little clever. The cat was a little nuts.

Still chuckling, Gumball waved at her and continued with his quick wit, lame jokes,

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to get Teri-ed away there!" he said. He erupted into a laughing fit at his own pun.

Wanting no more of this, Teri expressed her discontent by picking up her remaining slice of burnt bread and chucking her plate at the laughing cat's big head. The kitchen china smacked him on the forehead and he was sent reeling backwards. Teri continued to eat as if nothing happened,

"Sorry, your jokes are so bad, I thought I'd _dish_ out some punishment!" she snapped, adding her own pun to the mix.

The blue cat groaned, not from the plate hitting his face which actually didn't hurt, and muttered something that sounded like a complaint about crappy comebacks. He sat up and ate in silence.

Once he finished he eating, he he got up to place his empty bowl on the desk when something caught his eye. Shoved into the corner by his desk, was Teri's origami hawk all folded up for easier storage. He remembered when she used it and realized he'd never seen her actually do something like that before.

"Um, Teri. If it's not too much trouble, could you explain to me how you got that hawk you made to move and do your bidding?" he asked the paper girl, who was sitting down and staring at the object he was pointing at.

She looked up into his eyes and pointed at the hawk,

"Oh that! That's an ability of mine. I can manipulate paper by simply touching it. I usually use it when I need to get somewhere in a hurry or if I need to reach something that I otherwise cannot reach. So, that's why you rarely see me using that ability. It does run in my family, so I knew how to use it as a child." she explained as if it were nothing special.

Gumball felt his jaw drop to the floor. That had to be one of the coolest super powers he had ever heard of and seen up close, and the way she spoke of it made it seem like it was no more difficult than flexing a muscle. He had so many questions regarding her ability and immediately began dreaming up some awesome scenarios that he knew would rock his socks.

While his mind was being blown, the paper bender just stared at him like he was loon making a big deal out of a little thing. In a way, it was kind of like that for her. Sure she could manipulate paper that she came in contact with, but it's still just paper! It was weak, flimsy, flammable and could deteriorate when in contact with water (except for her due to the fact she should stand in the rain and not turn into a soggy mess. She couldn't swim because being submerged would kill her.), it just didn't seem like that great of an ability when compared to someone like Bobert, who could do many things, like calculate complex mathematical formulas in under a second, shoot lasers out of his eye, replay what he heard and saw on a holographic recording or Tina, a powerful T-rex that could crush metal underfoot. And that was only a couple students in her class.

Seeing Gumball getting excited over her ability actually surprised her just as much.

With wide eyes that sparkled with excitement, he placed his hands on his cheeks and let out a squealing noise,

"That's so awesome! So you can create anything you want, as long as it's made of paper, and you can control it! You and me should build a giant paper mech suit sometime or a jet or a gorilla crocodile hybrid with bull horns!" he cheered, pumping both fists in the air.

Seeing how he was acting, Teri had to admit his childish behavior was kind of cute and kind of infectious. He must have had an imagination a mile long because his energetic aura pretty much said he had more ideas. She was still confused as to why he was excited over such a feeble power, but enjoyed the attention she was receiving, so it didn't bother her for too long.

Giggling a bit, she stood up with the plate in her hand and set it on the desk next to the spazzy pre-teen,

"Hold your horses. There's a limit to what I can create and I'm pretty sure two thirds of the things you just mentioned will be very difficult to create, much less control." she said in a deadpan voice. She didn't want to crush his spirits, but she didn't have as much power as he made her out to have.

Gumball stopped jumping up and stared directly at her with the widest, craziest eyes she had ever seen on a person his size,

"Can you create horses?" he asked, apparently missing everything she had said except horses.

This forced another sigh of her and she responded slowly,

"Yes, I can create origami horses that can support both you and me." she answered with a roll of her eyes. She was slightly annoyed at his short attention span and wished that he would pay more attention to her when she was speaking.

Still wearing the same expression, the blue cat began bouncing up and down with joy. He didn't know why he felt this way, the moment Teri revealed her power to him, the spark of adventure that he thought had been extinguished, reignited his burning desire for infinite possibilities of fun. He now wanted to spend more time with Teri, despite the fact that her hypochondria drove him up the wall every time they interacted.

"Let's meet up after school, okay!" he exclaimed in a giddy tone.

This request sent a shock rippling through Teri that could be felt both physically and emotionally. She didn't know how to feel about this. She's been invited to hang out with her friends after school multiple times, but those occasions only happened because she was either just seen as extra member to have or because she was part of the cheerleader squad. She never had anyone ask her to hang out with them because they were legitimately interested in her, and what made things weirder was the fact that up until last night, she and Gumball often couldn't stand to be near each other because of their polar opposite beliefs and personalities.

With her brain feeling fuzzy, she just stared at the short cat with wide, unblinking eyes and a mouth that hung open ever so slightly. At first, Gumball just patiently waited for an answer, but after waiting for a moment or two, things began to feel a little awkward,

"Um, you okay, Teri?" he asked, waving his hand in front of her face.

The sudden motion snapped the normally serious paper girl out of her daze. She shook her head and refocused on the person in front of her,

"Guh, wha'? Oh, sorry about that, I was lost in thought there for a moment. Yes I would like to hang out with you after school. We should also use that time to discuss our findings on the Neph-!" she was abruptly cut off when Gumball placed a finger to his lips and shushed her.

At first, she was about to berate him for being rude based on instinct, but held her tongue as soon as she heard something coming from outside the bedroom door. In the silence of the room, both students recognized the sounds as footsteps climbing the stairs. Someone was coming up to the second floor and based on how light the footsteps were, it was without a doubt Nicole Watterson: Gumball's mother.

Recognizing the situation at hand, Teri immediately began to panic! Her heart was now beating like a jackhammer and her legs and arms wouldn't stop shaking. If Nicole found her in here, then Gumball was in for a world of hurt once his mom sees that he had a girl in his bedroom without properly informing them about her visit. Gumball found himself reacting in a way similar to Teri before coming up with a solution,

Turning to her, he whispered,

" _Hide!"_

A good idea, but Teri didn't know where a good hiding spot was. She was definitely not going under the bed, there wasn't any way to get into his closet without making too much noise, and if she hid under the sheets of Gumball's bed, what would happen if his mom decided to have a seat on the bed and she made a noise. Scanning the room for a better hiding spot, her eyes locked onto Gumball's backpack, and within a matter of seconds, she crumpled herself up into a ball and leapt into the cloth school sack with the other crumpled up pieces of paper.

The moment she was nestled in, the door to Gumball's room swung open.

"Gumball it's time to get going, the bus will be here in ten minutes." she ordered her son who shared similar physical features with her.

She was wearing her usual work clothes: a white T-shirt decorated with a pinned on rainbow factory button, the symbol of her work place, and a grey, mid-length skirt. She stood in the doorway, inspecting her son's room before looking at said child, who was standing in the center of the room, trying to look inconspicuous.

It worked because his mom, just stared at him with a relieved, yet surprised expression on plastered on her blue, cat face,

"Oh, so you are up! I thought I heard someone get up and grab a shower this morning. Are you feeling alright?" she asked, more concerned about her son's mood than his early awakening.

Feeling more relaxed at the fact that his mom didn't suspect anyone else was in the house other than him, herself, and his dad, he allowed his tense shoulders to slump downwards. He released the breath he had been unconsciously holding and spoke in a casual tone,

"Yep, just peachy!" he chirped with a shrug.

Nicole immediately noticed the change in her son's tone and behavior. Normally he wouldn't wake up so early in the morning and whenever he did, he was always silent and barely looked at anyone. Right now, he was bright eyed, lively, and was speaking in a normal tone. It's like the person they had for over three months was replaced with the son she had before the break up with Penny.

It was good to see him in such a way, but strange nonetheless.

"Well, I'm glad to see you acting so chipper this morning!" she commented,

"I was afraid that you weren't ever going to recover from… that, but I see that you're doing better now." she said, trying to avoid digging up anymore negative emotions Gumball had about what happened before school let out for Summer.

She gave him a pleasant smile and Gumball returned it with a smile of his own. It wasn't faked, like he was trying to hide his pain, but it wasn't exactly genuine happiness that he was displaying. It was more like, a sense of understanding that was being displayed for her.

"Okay, well, I'll be heading off now. Get to school and don't cause too much trouble. Try to have a good day." she said, grabbing the door handle and prepared to leave her son for the day.

Gumball waved at his mother, still smiling,

"Yep! I will definitely try. Have a good day mom. See you when you get home from work!" he waved goodbye and kept his tone as cheery as possible. He wasn't trying to get rid of her as soon as possible, but he didn't exactly want Teri to spend any more time as a crumpled up ball stuffed in his backpack. His mom gave him one more pleasant smile and began closing the door.

Before she could completely close the door, Nicole noticed the origami hawk resting near his desk. Curious, she re-opened the door, which surprised Gumball, who was reaching for his bag. Standing straight again, he gave the older female blue cat a confused glance,

"Is something wrong, mom?" he asked, his tail swishing a little in frustration.

Leveling her gaze at the odd paper construction, she brought his attention to it,

"Is that a new hobby of yours?" she asked.

Gumball flinched, but quickly came up with a false answer,

"Oh that! That's just something I decided to work on last night. I had this large sheet of paper I didn't know what to do with, so I decided to fold it into a hawk. Pretty cool, right?" he quickly blurted out, he had completely forgotten that he hadn't put the hawk somewhere more hidden and mentally berated himself.

Inside his backpack, if Teri could sweat nervously, she would be pouring buckets right now.

However, his mom seemed to buy his explanation, but before she could walk out, had one last question for her son,

"Hmm, I see. By the way, I was going to bring this up after I had returned from work, but were you talking to someone up here? I thought I heard a some excited shouts from downstairs." she glanced around the room once more, her expression now serious.

The tiny, blue cat began sweat a little. He knew she was referring to his excited cries when he found out about Teri's ability to manipulate paper and was mentally kicking himself for his careless behavior. Once again, from the interior of Gumball's school bag, Teri began mentally screaming in terror and wondered if she should just hop out and fess up to Gumball's observant mother.

Good news was that Gumball already cooked up a lie for this situation. Taking a deep breath, he calmly slipped his cellphone (his mom had gotten one for him at the beginning of summer after she had gotten a promotion.) out of his pocket and held it up next to his face,

"I was playing a game on my phone and I finally reached a level I had been struggling to get to for two weeks now. You can say, I was more than happy." he fibbed.

There was a moment of silence. Gumball and Teri swore they could hear some intense background music as his mom glared at her son skeptically. The music and tension cut out when her expression switched from suspicious back to relieved,

"Well that's good, I would've been pretty upset if you invited someone over without telling me. Please keep it down next time, alright." she said, shooting her son a stern glare until he complied with a promise to never be too loud again.

Before she left, Gumball asked if it was alright to hang out with a friend of his after school, not wanting to miss out on helping Teri figure out anything about the mysterious creature from last night. Seeing it as a sign that he was recovering, Nicole allowed it on the premise that he was home for dinner. Thanking her, the cat child wished his mother a good day at work and warned her to be careful driving on the road, since he noticed a few odd "potholes" that weren't there yesterday. His mom left, wishing him a good day before grumbling something about teenagers and explosives.

With his mom gone, Teri hopped out of his bag and unfurled herself until she standing at her full height again. Seeing how easily she could control her body like that, Gumball could understand why her paper skin had so many crinkles. Outside, they both heard his mom slam the car door shut, the engine roaring to life, and the sound of tires crunching on the paved driveway as she pulled out and drove off. Since Richard was most likely still asleep and probably will be until noon, the two decided it was safe to head downstairs.

Stepping out of his room, backpack slung over his shoulders, and his paper classmate following close behind, the blue cat began to head down to the living room. Before he left his room, he grabbed his folded scythe and stuffed it in his backpack: he'd rather be safe than sorry. Making it downstairs, Gumball surveyed the lower floor and noted that it was vacant and quiet. Once again, he found himself feeling grateful for the fact that his paper friend was so light that she didn't make any noise moving through the house. No wonder no one noticed her enter the house last night, with her being flat and a lightweight, you'd have to bump into her in order to notice her in the dark home.

They both left the house and made their way to the front lawn, where the school bus stopped in order to pick him and his siblings up, only this time it was just him and Teri. With the morning sun now illuminating the area, the two could see the aftermath of last night's scuffle all over the neighborhood more clearly. Nothing had changed all that much, except that Gumball could see several neighbors standing outside, some in their PJ's and some in work attire, and inspecting the damage. There was already a police officer inspecting the tree that had been uprooted the next house over and he could hear Gaylord and Margaret Robinson shouting at one another within their home. He picked out pieces of the conversation and concluded that they were both angry about the hole that suddenly appeared where the guest room wall had been. That obviously wasn't shocking.

Standing on the sidewalk, the two began to mentally go over the events of last night, trying to pick apart anything useful. Running into a dead end, Teri decided to make small talk with the silent cat next to her,

"What time is it?" she asked, wanting to know how much time they had until the bus arrived.

Hearing her request, Gumball pulled out his Iphone and checked the display,

"It's 7:27. We have three minutes until the bus arrives, give or take." he responded. He noticed a few messages had been sent by Darwin and decided to check them out later. He slipped his phone back into his pocket and continued waiting for the bus.

With that concern out of the way, the pale, bear girl gave a small grunt and nod before switching onto another topic,

"Sorry for leaving my hawk out where your mom could see it. That was extremely careless of me." she apologized, feeling quite ashamed that her careless mistake nearly got them (mainly Gumball) in trouble.

Turning to his female classmate with a baffled look on his fuzzy face, Gumball responded with his own apology,

"Oh no, that's okay! That one was easy to escape from. I'm sorry for nearly getting you caught because I couldn't contain my excitement." he was waving his hands like as if he was shaking off her apology,

"I'm just glad she didn't decide to inspect my room, or else there would've been no way to hide you." he chuckled nervously while placing a hand behind his oversized head.

Watching his nervous expression and the way he moved about as he apologized, Teri smiled and turned her attention to the road again in order to hide the positive expression that was drawing itself onto her face.

Speaking of his room,

"Yeah, if I was your mom, I'd be horrified at the state of your room. You seriously need to clean it and disinfect it, plus your backpack needs to be washed. I could smell the remains of leftover snacks the entire time I was in there." she told him, feeling herself becoming nauseous just thinking about her poor choice of hiding places.

Gumball looked offended. He grinded his teeth, furrowed his eyebrows, and glared at the nitpicky germaphobe,

"Would you lay off me for a couple of minutes!" he snarled, thrusting his arms down at his sides. He couldn't look down at her because of the height her lanky body provided her, so he had to puff out his chest to look more intimidating,

"I'm not wasting a day cleaning my room nor will I compromise my immune system sterilizing my home!" he declared.

Not fazed in the slightest, the health freak continued to glare at the road while the spazzy student next to her continued to give her the stink eye. Folding her arms, she continued to build her case against the unruly child that was her age,

"Being organized is not a waste of time." she grumbled, her usually light voice deepening a notch,

"For starters, you may find that it would be easier to locate anything you needed and a tidy room can help make thinking easier. Also, you're not strengthening your immune system by leaving moldy food under your bed and grime on your windowsill. Instead, you're only leaving your body open to infection and increasing your chances of getting sick." she wasn't just pulling this out of a book or a website she found, she was speaking from experience.

Normally, Gumball would've gotten into a heated debate with the school infirmary's most frequent visitor, but he guessed that they had only one minute until the bus arrived and wanted to get something off of his chest. Swallowing his pride and letting her comments regarding his lifestyle slide, the upright feline, pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed,

"Why did you come to my house?" he slowly asked, trying to cool down.

Not expecting this, the paper girl was taken aback. She fixed her gaze on the short watterson child,

"Wait, what?" she replied, very confused by the question.

Gumball didn't want to repeat himself, so he asked her again while rephrasing his earlier question,

"Last night you came to _my_ house and went into _my_ room! Why didn't you go to another house or ask my parents to help you?" he was now staring into her eyes, trying to find an answer.

That was an interesting question, unfortunately Teri didn't have an answer for him.

"I honestly don't know." she muttered softly, so soft that Gumball nearly missed it,

"It began chasing me the moment I spotted it emerge from that opening in the sky. I was so scared that I kept running down every possible street in Elmore in order to elude the creature. When I saw your house, I recognized it from when Sarah showed the other girls a photo, don't ask by the way, I really don't know nor do I want to, the other day and for some reason, I immediately thought that you would be able to help out." she was relaying everything she had felt during the night when she encountered Silver Twelve.

Gumball quietly listened to the somber bear girl. He noticed that her head was hanging low the whole time and she seemed confused and even unsure of herself. It was like she had reacted on an instinct and didn't know how to explain it. She was amazingly lucky with how it all worked out in the end.

He grabbed her attention by placing a hand on her shoulder, causing her to look down at the furry appendage then at his face,

"Look, I don't understand what's going on right now, but you made the right choice, even if you didn't know it at first. When we get to school let's get cracking on that research and see what's the deal with that giant." he said enthusiastically.

Teri felt grateful for his comforting words and sympathy.

A few seconds later, a yellow school bus rounded the corner and began heading their direction. It's engine roared as it pulled up in front of them, billowing foul smelling smoke from it's exhaust pipe, and the tires screeched as it came to a stop. The double doors swung open, revealing Rocky Robinson, the fuzzy, orange muppet dressed in ripped jeans and a black T-shirt with a band logo that read _AB-CD_. He was listening to some music blasting from his headphone's as he greeted the two in his usual cheery tone,

"Welcome aboard you two!" he didn't think twice as to why Teri was at Gumball's house, seeing it as none of his concern.

The two returned his friendly greeting and boarded the bus, with Teri taking the lead and Gumball following behind her. The two passengers made their way down the aisle as the bus began moving. Unbeknownst to the two newcomers, everyone else on the bus had their eyes on them (except Sussie, who was just staring out the window with her mouth hanging open.) and were completely silent.

On her way to her seat, Teri remembered something and spun around to face Gumball, who had stopped as soon as he noticed her stopping.

"Oh that's right!" she exclaimed to herself,

"Um, Gumball, I forgot my book bag at my parent's house. Can I borrow your notes and textbooks when we get to Ms. Simian's class?" she asked, glancing off to the side and fidgeting with her fingers as she was kind of embarrassed to be asking him of this. She didn't like feeling like a burden to others either and was afraid Gumball would see her request as annoying.

Fortunately, luck was on her side, as the blue cat just shrugged and nodded,

"Pfft! I don't mind. You can sit by me and we can take notes together. When you finish doing research in the Library, you wanna meet up in the school yard after lunch and talk about your findings?" he asked, since he had P.E. class during the time she went to the library.

The idea sounded reasonable to her and she gave an affirmative nod,

"Certainly. I will see you later then." she smiled and waved at him before she made her way to her usual spot and sat down by herself.

Seeing Darwin and Carrie in the back of the bus, Gumball proceeded to sit down with his adopted brother and ghostly emo friend. The two, like everyone else on the bus, were just staring at him in shock, like as if they'd seen a ghost that wasn't Carrie. This was kind of funny for Gumball because he had just fought something like a spirit last night. He plopped down next to his sibling with a smile on his face and greeted him by striking up a conversation,

"Hey dude, how did your weekend with Carrie go?" he asked nonchalantly.

Both Darwin and Carrie jumped back in surprise. Not only was he seen standing outside his house with Teri, which warranted a million questions on it's own, but now, he was sitting next to them with a cheery expression on his face whilst popping a question regarding his younger fish brother and his girlfriend. What the heck happened to the gloomy person that lived with them for over three months now!

Darwin uttered a few verbal pauses as he tried to get over his surprise and come up with an answer,

"Uhhh-yeah! It was… it was great, you know, we hung out a lot and partied with some other ghosts… uh, how was your weekend?" he replied, quickly recollecting himself.

Gumball stretched his arms and brought them back behind his head,

"It wasn't too eventful. Just spent most of my time in my room." he said. He didn't exactly sound depressed, but it was evident that he wasn't really happy with how the last two days went.

"Got my homework done, so I guess that's a given." he added and switched his focus to the ceiling.

This didn't exactly strike Darwin as odd, for the past three months he'd been acting like that due to his heart being pounded in a million pieces. To the perceptive, walking goldfish however, he knew something was up. Something must have happened in the past few days and it probably had something to do with Teri. Why else would she standing with him at the bus stop, talking about sharing notes, meeting up later, and Gumball's sudden change in personality, it was too coincidental and suspicious.

Rubbing his chin with a fin, Darwin narrowed his eyes at his absent minded cat brother and spoke to him,

"I'm glad to see you in such high spirits this morning." he commented, his high pitched voice cracking a little,

"Does it have something to do with Teri being at our house this morning." he asked, his voice laced with suspicion.

It finally hit Gumball as to why Darwin and everyone on the bus was so shocked to see him this morning. At first he thought the baffled faces and the silence that captivated everyone was due to wrecked state of the street he lived on. Now he realized that everyone was actually surprised to see the normally depressed, withdrawn Gumball Watterson with a friend, a _girl_ , standing at his bus stop, chatting with each other, and practically radiating calmness before he sat down.

He chose to take the calm approach and lie to Darwin.

Normally he would never even think to do such a thing, seeing as both he and Darwin, his closest friend and brother, were so tight that he felt that he could share anything with him. On the other hand though, if he knew what had happened to him and Teri the evening prior, he would probably flip out. What makes matters worse is that Darwin might not be able to see the Nephilim and would probably worry about him every single time he wasn't there. And Gumball knew that there were more Nephilim on the way. He recalled when he asked silver twelve what he wanted and he responded with, _"finishing where_ _we_ _left off, 6,000 years ago."_ **we** as in others like him.

Without changing his expression, he glanced at Darwin and shrugged,

"Oh, Teri? She just popped by this morning to say hi and to see if I was doing okay. We actually had a pleasant conversation, so that's why I'm feeling better." he falsely explained. He was aware that his lie had a few holes in it, but Darwin seemed to be buying it.

Carrie, on the other hand, didn't seem convinced. She knew Teri better than Gumball due to her being a social floater and having engaged in many conversations with the paper girl whenever there was no one else to talk to. One thing that didn't add up to the big headed ghost girl was the fact that Teri would swing by to say hello to Gumball instead of waiting until they got to school or by simply meeting him on the bus. Why would she waste precious time out of her morning just to say hello to someone she barely interacted with? Another thing to note, was that Teri came without her school supplies and Carrie knew that she wasn't one to easily forget something that important. Grades were important to her and she wouldn't mess up like that just to talk to someone like Gumball. Lastly, she knew Gumball was lying, with the reasons being everything she just listed, the coincidental dishevelled state of Gumball's neighborhood, and the fact that he was hiding his nervousness under a chilled expression.

The floating spirit tilted her head until she could see the mischievous sibling of her boyfriend clearly,

"Really now? And what are you two planning on "researching" later?" she asked, flipping her bangs that covered her left eye.

She caught onto their conversation, this made Gumball slightly nervous. Still wearing his mask of relaxation, he shrugged his shoulders once more and slowly turned to the transparent spirit,

"Something for the project miss Simian had assigned the class on Friday." he answered before looking up to the ceiling once more,

"By the way, Carrie, what do you know about the Nephilim?" he decided to take this opportunity to both distract Carrie Krueger from asking him more questions about what he and Teri were up to and hopefully get some answers regarding the supernatural beings that were now threatening the existence of the world at large. The way he put it, it was killing two birds with one stone.

His question achieved the desired effect, as Carrie took a moment to pull up any information she knew off hand about the Nephilim,

"The Nephilim…?" she said the name out loud, thinking on it. She turned her head to the side until her gaze was to the back of the seat in front of her.

"If memory serves me right, they were a race of magic giants that existed until around six thousand years ago. They weren't really that great, as in they used their knowledge of the ancient arts to wage wars amongst each other and corrupt the world as a whole. They nearly wiped out the small tribes of people who lived before, but they were killed off when a great deity of sorts, known as the Jade emperor, scorched the Earth with divine fire. Of course, the world survived the cataclysmic event and nothing remained of the giants of old." she tried to summarize the story to the best of her ability because heaven knew that both Gumball AND Darwin had short attention spans. She especially knew of Darwin's inability to maintain focus on an important story since she's been dating him for quite some time now.

Taking in everything he had heard, the blue cat simply nodded and allowed his chilled expression to melt off of his face. The information the trickster spirit had given was actually quite helpful and allowed Gumball to understand the motive behind Silver Twelve's actions last night. The Nephilim must be here to destroy the world and the people here because they had failed to do so the first time. However, there were still a lot of questions he needed answers to and he once again turned to Carrie.

To his dismay, he saw that Darwin was already talking to her. When he listened in, he learned that the conversation was regarding the story that Carrie just shared,

"...So in the end, the story teaches us that in order to ensure long and prosperous lives, we must take care of mother Earth or else karma will retaliate with fire!" Darwin stated, he was obviously not taking the story literally and instead treated it as a metaphor for Karmic justice.

His incorporeal girlfriend stared at her two-legged fish lover with a blank expression before giving a small shrug and a quick nod,

"I guess that's one way to interpret it." she sighed,

"Although, I believe that the story is real and explains why magic exists in the world in the first place." her expression was followed by silence.

Gumball decided to take that silent moment as a cue to ring up another question. Leaning forward so that his head was visible to Carrie, he chimed in with his next question,

"Did the story also happen to mention anything about the Nephilim returning? Perhaps not in physical form, but as invisible spirits?" he asked as casually as he could.

Darwin turned so his body/head was facing in his older brother's direction and began scrutinizing his elder sibling. He was acting really strange this morning, first his arrival with Teri and now he was hung up on the subject of ancient, magical giants. Was he helping the paper girl write a fantasy novel or was he getting involved in something suspicious?

Gumball ignored his little brother's quizzical expression and kept his focus on Carrie, who was pondering, again.

When she found an answer buried in her memories, she peaked at the male kitten from underneath her bangs and retold what she knew,

"I don't remember hearing anything about them returning with a purpose. Although there was one quote from the internet page I read this off of, that their return could signal the beginning of the apocalypse." she explained in a monotone voice.

This didn't sit well with the pre-teen kitten. He slumped forward and racked his brain while that last line from Carrie swam through his conscious. The apocalypse. The end of all things. This was happening now and only he and Teri knew about it. How could this be happening?! He and Teri were both kids, they haven't even finished middle school yet and now the world was coming to an end. He was already going through a rough patch in his life to start, but now he and some other unfortunate soul were facing events so extraordinarily horrifying that it seemed unthinkable.

Honestly, he would prefer facing a miserable life without Penny rather than face the end of the world. Sure, it already felt like the world had ended before, but now he was dealing with that _and_ an invasion of hostile spirits who wanted nothing but him and everyone in the world dead.

He was so lost in thought that he didn't notice Darwin trying to gain his attention,

"DUDE! STOP MOPING AND ANSWER ME!" Darwin shrieked in a high pitched voice.

Startled, Gumball jumped in his seat and shot a worried glance at his brother,

"Huh? Oh sorry dude, I was just thinking about something. What were you trying to tell me?' he asked, returning to a relaxed position.

The cute, former pet of the elder Watterson child studied his face a little more, trying to detect any clues that could tell him what was wrong. He knew something was wrong because after Carrie had told him that story about the Nephilim and the apocalypse, he suddenly became all mopey again. He asked him why he was so hung up on this "completely" fictional story and Gumball just sighed and answered,

"It's no big deal, man." he forced a smile on his face, but couldn't look his little brother in the eye,

"Why don't you tell me about that undead party you and Carrie went to? It sounded really awesome." he asked, trying to dodge answering anymore questions.

The walking fish and the ghost knew that they weren't going to get anything else out of him, so they humored the elusive cat by telling him about their happy weekend together. Gumball kept up the facade of paying attention while he thought about the future. Ironic, since there was probably not going to be one. He killed one Nephilim, for sure, but that was with blind luck on his side, plus Teri was able to see a flaw in his plan and filled in the gap with a back up plan which resulted in an overall success for the both of them. But at what cost? Three people had died and his neighborhood was damaged, at the cost of one evil spirit that didn't even leave _him_ unscathed.

And there were more on the way. For all he knew, they could all be descending from the sky right now. He didn't know what forms they had, what powers or weapons they possessed, or how many of them there were: thousands, millions, _trillions_! They weren't prepared for this. He brought his scythe along so that he could fight off any potential threat, even so, he still didn't feel like it would be enough to fight them off.

Contemplating his options, he placed his backpack on his lap and stared at the bulging spot where the scythe's handle was poking out of. He then glanced over to where Teri was sitting, four rows ahead of him, and saw that she was talking to Leslie, an effeminate flower that was part of the Elmore cheerleading team and a friend of the paper girl. They seemed to be having a pleasant conversation from the looks of it, since he could only see the back at Teri's round head.

He decided that he would have to worry about the future later and instead focus on getting more information out of people he figured had some knowledge on the threat at hand. He remembered that he wasn't alone in this and that he and Teri were both talented and crafty individuals. Plus, they had a fighting chance, thus they had hope. With this in mind, he concentrated on enjoying the ride with his brother and Carrie by listening to them happily reminisce about their weekend, until the bus pulled up next to the school.

 _-Elmore Junior High, 10:42 AM, third period-_

The first two school periods went by very quickly and felt like any other school day. Both Gumball and Teri sat by each other in Ms. Simian's class and as promised, Gumball shared his notes and textbooks with Teri after she had explained to the ape-like teacher that she had forgotten her supplies back at home. The elderly teacher was no doubt grouchy about this, but luckily let Teri off with a harsh scolding before returning to her lesson. When the elderly primate noticed that Gumball was in a better mood today, she became determined to make him suffer some more (also, it was Monday and it's a universal law that everyone with a soul was to be at their most miserable on these dreary beginning days.) and proceeded to give him some more assignments to do tonight. With a project due at the end of the week, Gumball was sure that it was going to be a busy night, plus he thought about possibly training himself to better fight the upcoming threat and the extra work wasn't helping with stress.

Teri listened to the teacher drone on during their math and while she focused on her notes, she thought about her earlier conversation on the bus with Leslie.

 _-flash back, on the bus, Teri POV-_

 _Teri sat down in her usual seat on the bus and watched Gumball make his way to the back where Darwin and Carrie sat. It was kind of strange to see Carrie sitting in the spot where Anais, Gumball's younger sister, once sat. She took a different bus ever since she entered high school and because Carrie was now dating Darwin, she sat beside her goofy boyfriend any time the bus picked him up. She would often hear them chatting and occasionally flirting with one another. It was such an adorable sight to see those two being all romantic around each other, although they often kept their behavior refined because Carrie wasn't comfortable with public displays of affection. Regardless, it was nice seeing young love blossom and Teri hoped that the two would remain together as long as possible._

 _On the other hand, she'd heard about Gumball and Penny's break-up and noticed the blue cat's sudden change from a happy-go-lucky kid from 6th grade to a depressed, clearly broken child_ _the first week of the second year of middle school. It honestly saddened her to see her classmate in such a state, she knew Penny meant the world to him and her moving away left him in shambles. She was one of the people who tried comforting him as soon as she heard the news from Masami, she sent him a card expressing her sympathies, but she didn't see any change in his character afterwards._

 _Seeing the way he was acting this morning after the attack, actually made her feel better. He wasn't exactly beaming with happiness or showing signs of recovery, but he was acting a little bit like the person he was before the split up. From his helpful nature, to his wise-cracking jokes, and even his irritation towards her comments about his dirty room and belongings made it seem like he was returning to normal. In some bizarre way, she was actually glad to have met him during the time she was being attacked by Silver Twelve._

 _She sat in silence while she heard the three aforementioned classmates of hers began to strike up a conversation with each other. She noted that Gumball was the first one to speak, and the anthropomorphic paper bear was actually shocked and glad at the same time to hear him engaging in a sociallable manner towards his two closest friends. It wasn't long until she realized she was being watched by a friendly flower sitting in front of her._

 _Startled, Teri jumped a little when she noticed a round, yellow face surrounded by pink flower petals peaking over the seat in front of her and was regarding her with black, friendly eyes,_

" _Morning Teri!" he greeted in an effeminate, singsong voice._

 _Catching herself, she returned the greeting and proceeded to engage the flower boy in a normal conversation. They spoke about their weekend and shared stories they thought were interesting. She made sure to leave out what happened during midnight and the sleepover at Gumball's place because she didn't feel like giving her friend and cheerleading squad member a scare. Then, there was the fact that Leslie had no idea how to keep a secret and would often gossip about what he had heard to the other girls and the last thing she needed was a rumor regarding her and Gumball._

 _Speaking of which, Leslie made sure to bring up what she and the class troublemaker were doing at the bus stop,_

" _So what's up with you and Gumball? You never told anyone that you two were going to hang out this weekend?" he asked, still smiling at her._

 _Thinking quickly, Teri thought up a very_ _ **original**_ _excuse for the prying flower,_

" _Oh, Gumball? I was just swinging by his place to say hello. I was really worried about him and we both had a pleasant conversation this morning, so that's why he's very happy this morning." she falsely explained. The story sounded believable and she hoped that Gumball had used a similar excuse himself in order to avoid confusion._

 _Lucky for her, the flamboyant flower wasn't one to dwell too long on such explanations and was immediately jumping onto the next subject. Judging by the sly look he was giving her, she could guess that he was going to talk about a certain blue cat,_

" _Worried about him, huh? Got a crush on him, I suppose?" he asked, winking once to emphasize a potential romance._

 _She called it and that still didn't make it any less frustrating to deal with. With her eyes widening in surprise and her expression contorting into one of disgust, she nearly gagged,_

" _What?! With that germ farm! I can't stand being near that epidemic center, let alone hold hands with him!' she remarked, revolted at the idea of him and her being a couple. Even being friends was pushing it a little._

 _Okay, some of that wasn't true. She really appreciated him coming to her aid last night, allowing her to sleep in his room, use his shower in the morning, make breakfast for her, and share his school supplies. He was being very kind to her and she barely did anything to deserve it, so she wouldn't mind being close friends with him, as disgusting as the idea sounded._

 _Keeping his suggestive expression, he continued pestering her,_

" _Oh really. You come over to his house because you are worried about his welfare and want to convince me that you don't feel anything for him?" he mentioned, placing his head on a leaf that served as his arm and allowed it to rest there. His expression and use of words was really getting to Teri._

 _Rolling her eyes to the side, Teri hit the peak of frustration. Leslie was the kind of person who sought out drama whenever he spotted an ample opportunity to draw it out of someone. She knew this because every time she hung with him and the other girls, he always had some kind of story that included a couple, another person's feelings, events that went unnoticed by the major student body, and of course, his own dilemma._

 _With knowledge that this conversation was going nowhere real fast, she chose to change the subject before she would have to go to the nurse's office to have her brain disinfected. She knew what to ask and folded her hands in her lap and looked at Leslie innocently,_

" _Hey leslie, I was wondering if you had any knowledge on a particular subject." she asked, the upbeat plant boy raised his head in anticipation and his already cheery face lit up like the morning sun._

 _Now that she had his undivided attention, the paper bear proceeded forward with her question,_

" _What do you know about the Nephilim?" Teri asked, tilting her head as she waited for an answer._

 _This struck Leslie as odd, which was apparent by the reaction he had when she asked because he was prepared for her ask him something that had to do with 'romance' or 'how to talk to boys?', areas that he knew how to deal with. Or so he believed._

" _Hmm? Interesting question." he muttered, scratching his pretty chin with his tendril-like leaf,_

" _Aside from an awesome band called "the Nephilim onslaught", which you should, like, totally check out cause they're pretty hardcore, I do know that they were, like, these powerful giants that lived a long time ago, not like Hector, they were worse! They destroyed a lot of things in the past and evidently the Jade emperor was like, "oh no you didn't!" and burned them all to a crisp or something. The church I volunteered at several years ago had a pastor that talked about them and he mentioned that they were like, the first beings created by the Jade emperor, which sounds really messed up because he's like their dad and he just straight up killed them because they were acting like teenagers or something. Hmm, let's see, that's about all I know. I never really paid much attention to the stories cause it was all really boring to me. That sound clear to you?" he finished, quickly turning to the paper girl._

 _Teri nodded and placed her flat, white hands together,_

" _Yes, I suppose, that was actually a lot more helpful than I had anticipated. Thank you!" she said, realizing that she basically insulted the flower to his face. Whoops! Too late now._

 _To her relief though, the flower ignored her remark and began pounding her with more questions regarding the school work that was assigned on friday. She breathed an inner sigh of relief and continued to speak with Leslie as the bus made its way to school. She wondered if Gumball had gotten any info. out of Carrie like he said he was going to do. Well, she was going to hit the books and computers once fourth period came around and was looking forward to an hour of paranormal investigation._

 _She saw Gumball slip his scythe into his backpack before he left the house this morning. It was a great reminder to her that they were no longer safe and that the unknown had made it's statement last night: this place was going to experience a series of extraordinary events on the road ahead. She hoped that her skill, Gumball's weapon, and their combined strength would be enough to take on the monsters standing at their door. Some part of her wished that this was happening to someone else. Someone who was more qualified for the job, a hero, a warrior, or a savior even._

 _The war she saw approaching was something kids could not and should not be fighting._

 _-present-_

Teri was silently scribbling the last of her notes on a lined piece of paper, provided by Gumball, as she patiently waited for third period to end. Once fourth period started, she would proceed straight to the library and begin her search in the religious and fantasy section. There was bound to be a lot of books whose topics involved evil spirits and how to fight them. She also decided that it was in her best interest to learn some banishment spells or find some protective charms that would be effective against the Nephilim. If Gumball's ancient scythe could harm them, then perhaps there was a spell for her that she could use.

She listened to haggard primate explain fractions and how to divide them on the blackboard. It wasn't something Teri was particularly excited about and she could already feel herself drifting off as the teacher continued to babble on. Soon the paper girl's flat, round, bear shaped head found itself dropping onto her desk top and soon drifted off into a horrifying nightmare.

She found herself floating above the Elmore park, how she was doing this was unclear, but Teri made no attempt to figure it out because something else was happening. It appeared to be midday and the sun was glaring down on the grassy fields, the rolling hills, gently swaying oak trees, and the pond that housed ducks, geese, various amphibians, and several other water-borne organisms. There weren't any people strolling by or riding along the paved pathway, no children playing tag or doing some other activity in the fields, or any senior citizens sitting under the protective shade of the tree and enjoying the wonderful weather outside. As strange as that was, none of it compared to _what_ she saw appear in the middle of the park.

Falling out of a dark crack in the sky, much like the one that silver twelve came out of the night prior, was another Nephilim spirit. This one was very different from the first one, but still looked terrifying. It's body was shaped like a thick, three dimensional hexagon at least twenty feet from one point to another and was covered in a black, chiton-like armor. Sprouting out from five of its six "faces" was a long, slender spider leg that looked incredibly sharp and matched the color of its central body. With its legs, it stood at an astounding height of forty feet and towered over many of the trees and structures in the park. Finally, the face that lacked an appendage had a series of ruby red eyes assembled in a chaotic cluster and they all surveyed the park frantically like it was searching for something.

She woke up when all of its eyes zeroed in on her.

Her head shot upwards as she sat upright and exited the dream. She felt her heart pounding in her flimsy body as she scanned the room in order to regain her bearings. She realized she was back in class and the monster was nowhere to be seen. She sighed in relief and felt her heartbeat return to its normal speed. It took her a moment to realize that the class was completely empty and that she was alone.

At first, Teri believed that she was still dreaming, somehow, until she looked at the clock on the wall and realized it was 11:10, ten minutes since third period had ended.

"Oh no! I slept through class and it's already fourth period!" she shouted to no one in particular.

She quickly gathered her notes, placed them in a neat pile before leaving taking them with her to put in her locker. She was about to sprint out of the classroom when the scary dream resurfaced in her mind and she remembered something Gumball had mentioned last night. Before they went to bed, he mentioned that he had a dream about Silver Twelve before she woke him up. He said that he probably slept for about twenty minutes before she had arrived and when she thought about it herself, she realized that they had about ten minutes left until class had ended when had fallen asleep. Meaning she had slept for twenty minutes.

Looking outside, she could see that the sun was almost at its highest point in the sky, just like it was in her dream. Feeling more panic rising within her, she realized that the dream might've been a vision of sorts that warned her of what was to come. She wondered if it had something to do with the fact that only she and Gumball could see them or if there was some other force behind it, but she had no time to ponder that,

"I've got to warn Gumball! There are innocent people in danger!" she screamed, grabbing the sides of her face in fright as her pupils shrunk.

She raced out of the class, down the hall, past Mr. small, whom she shoved to the side as she raced by, making him spill his herbal tea, and towards the gym class where Gumball was.

 _-the gym, phys. ed class-_

Out of all the times Gumball had found himself running for his life, chasing down a friend or family member, or being forced to hold some heavy object that threatened to crush him or someone close: he was pretty sure he donated a lot less sweat than he did working out the gym.

The humanoid cat child was practically drenched in perspiration as he forced his body off of the ground and into a plank position,

"...four…" he grunted, feeling himself starting to cry as he finished the push-up.

He felt like hell. His arms and joints were replaced with burning iron castings and his body was heavier than lead, or at least that's what it felt like. The normally inactive cat child would have avoided this kind of physical activity with an excuse from the nurse's office that he would give to coach Russo and enjoy his class time sitting on the bench.

But this time was different. The people of Elmore were in danger from an unseen threat and he was going to need to be in peak physical condition if he was to stand a better chance against the Nephilim. He knew that there was no way to beat them with sheer strength alone, he was also going to have to sharpen his skills as a scythe wielder as well as figure out other means of combating an unknown enemy with powers that were not of this world.

Around him he could hear many kids who were as unfit as him, struggling to complete their warm-up. Tobias, the multicolored, cloud-like humanoid and jock wannabe, was attempting to lift a barbell that was at least a hundred pounds in order to impress Masami Yoshida, a sentient cloud with a face and a spoiled princess personality, and Sarah G. Lato, a creepy lemon flavored ice cream and cone that had arms and legs matching the color of her head. Both girls were just standing around and talking while trying to avoid doing any sort of physical activity or looking at Tobias. On Tobias' other side was Banana Joe, a wisecracking animate banana who had a reputation of being the class clown and being rather rude on some occasions. He was busy doing squats while making fart noises every time his body dipped and laughed every time he did so.

On the other side of the gym, coach Russo, an oversized cube lady with a personality more bland than her color scheme, watched as her daughter, Jamie Russo, a husky little girl with short, round, messy orange hair that hid her eyes and a pair of cow horns that stuck out on either side of her head and curved downwards, expertly jumped and flipped several times at an incredible height from a trampoline. Coach Russo congratulated her everytime she completed a jump with her gravelly monotone voice. Gumball still wondered to this day, how those two could be related, since they both neither acted or looked the same. Okay, they were both rude, but that was still a stretch when compared the world of differences that often displayed themselves whenever the two would interact with him.

Also, standing right next to the Russos was Tina Rex, the school bully that resembled the famous Tyrannosaur. She was currently lifting over 200 pound weights with her tail and she wasn't even breaking a sweat.

The next activity after the warm-ups was indoor baseball, which Gumball was dying to get to (literally.) since he could work on swinging and hitting something with precision. It would also help increase his awareness and reaction time. He wanted to utilize every spare moment he had here in order to prep for the oncoming fights ahead. He hoped Teri was having luck in her research, any additional info. on these creatures would be very useful in the nearby future.

He heard the gym doors slam open in the background and wondered who was visiting the class at this time of day. Probably principle Brown needing to talk to the coach about a staff meeting or something. Gumball ignored it and began to work on his fifth push-up: his goal was to reach ten.

He heard a soft, airy voice and light footsteps on the gym floor drawing nearer to his area as he practically screamed in agony as he managed to push his wobbly arms until they were straight. He was so out of breath and out of shape that he couldn't even utter the number he was on. Maybe he oughta stop at five for today before his arms snapped off.

"GUMBALL! WE NEED TO GO, NOW!"

He recognized the frantic, high pitched, feminine voice that was being directed at him and collapsed onto his stomach and into the puddle that was his effort with a sickening splash. He got up, albeit slowly, and wiped the film of sweat from his forehead and slowly turned his head to the person he didn't expect to see here,

"...Teri…?" he panted, exhaustion overcoming his frail body,

"What are you doing here?" he wheezed, sucking in another gust of air afterwards.

Teri was hunched over herself and panting like the person she was talking to. She looked like she had been sprinting down the halls and her expression was hard to read because only the back of her head was visible. Being a piece of paper had some real pitfalls and Gumball was starting to understand why she was so nervous all the time. He could clearly tell that she was in distress due to her being here and the fact that she looked like she was in a rush.

"No time to explain…" she gasped,

"The park! it's going to appear at the park! I saw it in a dream." she blurted out as fast as she could.

Gumball remembered seeing Teri sleeping at her desk before he left class and assumed that she was just resting her head. That would explain her dream, but Gumball wasn't so sure about leaving gym class just yet. Also there was the fact, that he didn't think that a Nephilim would appear so soon.

"Okay, Teri we'll deal with it after school. Right now I got to focus on-oof!" he grunted as Teri grabbed a nearby basketball during his explanation and slammed it into his stomach.

This caused him to double over and fall to the ground while clutching his lower abdomen. He couldn't scream because he was completely winded by the paper girl's swift yet powerful strike. He felt her hands grab him by the shoulders, hoist him up a little and she began dragging him towards the door, all the while shouting,

"Oh dear! Gumball you're hurt! I gotta get you down to the nurse's office right away! Coach Russo, can you call Ms. Markham, please!" she shouted so the whole class could hear her,

"Ugh! Why are you so slimy? How hard were you working out?" she uttered in disgust as she felt Gumball's sweat pour from his body.

She disappeared with Gumball through the exit doors and out into the hallway.

The entire gymnasium was left in shock. It was so quiet that a pin dropping to the floor could be heard from across the vast room. The guys stood still with their mouths agape and eyes their eyes popping from their skulls, while the girls, just glared at the door with a mixture of sour expressions and genuine awe.

Coach Russo was the one to break the silence as she just sighed in annoyance and muttered.

"When Mr. Watterson comes to his senses, tell him he could have avoided that ball if he had participated more in dodgeball." she said, completely disregarding the fact that the two had already left. With that said, she ordered the students to stop gawking and carry on with the workout.

Everyone did as they were told and resumed their workout routines or whatever activity that didn't require much effort. The entire class began quietly chatting about the scene Teri had made not even a minute ago. There were confused questions including whether Teri was actually sick for once, did she want to beat up Gumball for something he said or did earlier, were they a thing now, or was Teri conducting some kind of operation that involved kidnapping people from their respective classes in order to disinfect them. Some of the girls even seemed rather awestruck or jealous that Teri was actually bold enough to pull off that kind of stunt.

The two other guys in the gym were thinking of other things. Mainly Tobias, seeing as he always allowed his mind to wonder in the drama zone when it came to events like the one that just transpired. It was just so much for him to take in: first Gumball was mopey, then he and Teri show up together at the bus stop, they exchange some kind of secret code when they spoke to each other on the vehicle, then she literally walks right in here in order to steal away her man! Gumball seriously had it going!

Unable to contain the emotions bubbling within and the drive to cause drama, Tobias whispered to Banana Joe, who was now doing jumping jacks with his wiry arms and legs,

"Dude! You saw that, right?" he exclaimed, pretending to do some stretches.

Banana Joe let out a hysterical laugh, his googly eyes bouncing about some more,

"Yeah, she just knocked him down with a ball! What a loser! Ha Ha!" he laughed harder this time, nearly falling on his backside.

"No. she knocked him down so that she could drag him out of here." he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Banana Joe didn't seem to be on the same page. He just stared at the sporty cloud kid with his mouth hanging open.

Tobias could tell he was lost, so he chose to better clarify what he meant,

"She used his injury as an excuse to drag him out of gym so she could… you know… be _alone_ with him." he explained with a wink.

Banana Joe's eyes widened and his mouth formed an _"ooooohhhhh!"_ like someone who had just understood the punchline of a witty joke and winked back at Tobias,

"I see… so she just wanted to talk to him." he said. He continued doing jumping jacks.

Tobias knew instantly that the fruity jester had completely missed the point he was trying to make and facepalmed himself so hard that the smack could be heard all around the gym.

"NO! Dude! She's dragging him out of this class because she wants to smooch him!" he shouted,

"You saw them today on the bus, man! She was at his house! I don't know what happened, but I'm just going to assume that they were up to romantic stuff. You gotta know how girls work, man." his voice was lower now.

Hearing this, the banana immediately bought into it, even though he was positive that Teri showed absolutely no interest in him before. Though, he did have to admit, this morning's bus ride and what just happened not two minutes ago did seem kind of off,

"Hmm, well, good for him." he simply replied before going back to his workout.

Tobias gave up in trying to talk to him. He thought that he would have a bro to join him on an angsty rant about how Gumball always got the girls, even though he only ever dated one girl and the only other girl to show him any affection was Sarah, but that was entirely unintentional. Plus, Teri being with him for one day wasn't exactly legitimate proof of a blooming relationship. Either way, Tobias was Tobias and whenever things didn't go his way, he'd pin the blame on the person he despised the most. He was also mad at the fact that Teri, like the other girls on the cheerleading squad or any popular girl in that matter, was a target of his constant flirting attempts and yet, she shows up at Gumball's house after a month of him doing nothing but acting like a depressed loser. Seriously, the world was a cruel and unfair place for the blue-orange delusional jock and he couldn't make heads or tails as to why.

While Tobias seethed in silence as he paced the gym, the closet door opened and out stepped Darwin with a jump rope in his fin. He was confused when he saw that the mood of the gymnasium had changed. Everyone was either, huddled in groups, whispering amongst themselves, or just looking rather confused or awkward. He could see Tobias angrily pacing the area where Banana Joe, Sarah, and Masami were hanging out, but that could be any number of things, seeing as the whiny rich kid was always in a bad mood about something. One thing that he noticed right off the bat was that Gumball was absent. He had gone to the closet to get a jump rope and left him there to do his push-ups and after rummaging through the messy pile that was the gym equipment, he got out only to discover his brother from another mother had gone missing.

He looked around at all the faces in the gym and placed a flipper on the side of his body as if he were placing a hand on his hip,

"What did I miss?"

 _-1 mile from Elmore park, twenty minutes later-_

With the sun high in the sky, the temperature outside has risen dramatically, to the point most people moving about in the heat had retreated indoors to enjoy the shade of their homes and the air conditioning. It was pretty hot out for a casual day in September, but being in California it was bound to happen occasionally. The summer may have left, but the heat certainly hadn't and it probably won't until later in the fall.

For our two heroes racing across the sky in an origami F-18, the outdoor temperature was the least of their worries. When they left the gym, they first visited their lockers to retrieve Gumball's deadly spirit slaying weapon and several blanket-sized sheets of paper Teri's parents gave her for emergencies. After that, they paid a quick visit to the nurses office where Joan checked Gumball for any serious injuries before diagnosing him as fine and sending the two on their way. They did this to throw off any suspicion and to buy themselves a little extra time before anyone noticed that they were missing. After leaving the infirmary, the two fleeing students rushed outside until they were in front of the main doors and steps before Teri formed her jet and the two were soon airborne. They were now on an intercept course that lead straight to the park Teri saw in her dream.

Gumball ducked down in order to keep the rushing air from smacking him in the face and to eliminate on parasitic drag. Teri sat in front of him and was also ducking down for the same reasons although she was controlling the high speed aircraft through her manipulation abilities. Even though she formed an F-18 out of paper, there was no cockpit or passenger cabin to sit in, so Teri found herself sitting on the nose of the model strike craft and Gumball was positioned behind her near the spot where the cockpit connected to the fuselage. With his scythe folded in his right hand, he secured himself to the bizarre transport by wrapping his left arm around and legs around the narrow pilot's cabin and held on for dear life.

With the wind tearing across his fur and filling his ears, the little blue cat felt somewhat nervous, as he wasn't comfortable with flying this high and fast while being on the outside, and cold due to the high altitude and the little protective clothing he had on his body. He seriously hoped that Teri was right about this and that there was a Nephilim spirit appearing at the park they were quickly approaching. He estimated that they had about fifteen minutes before lunch started and wanted to make this quick.

"You know, if there's nothing there and we find out that this was a colossal waste of time, I'm expecting a huge apology when we get back and an ice pack!" he shouted over the screaming wind, the throb of his stomach was just as painful as the cold, frigid air that burned his fingers.

Teri kept her eyes straight on the small green smudge that was the park and willed the jet to increase in speed. The sun was at its highest peak, they had little time until it would appear: provided that her dream was correct, of course.

She heard Gumball over the rushing air and answered,

"I know it's there! It stands to reason that if it appeared shortly after you had your dream, then it will appear here where my dream said so." she would be irritated at his previous statement, but she was too focused on dealing with the current problem at hand,

"Besides, even if it wasn't there, it would be better to be safe than sorry."

That did make a lot of sense to the Watterson child, it would be better to deal with a possible threat now, than to leave it up to chance and risk having multiple people getting hurt or worse. She explained on the way to Joan's office the details of her dream and the absence of people in the park. At least that allowed them to fight without any risk of civilian casualties.

"Fine, but next time could you at least use an excuse that doesn't involve a ball striking any of my sensitive spots!" he shouted, not pleased with how the paper girl handled their "getaway" excuse.

The plane's pilot snickered a little at the cat's misfortune and shrugged,

"Yeah, sure. Next time I'll just frame you for something bad and have us both sent down to Mr. Brown's office." she replied sarcastically. Although, she wouldn't mind going through that plan and even had a few ideas on how to pull it off.

Hearing her snappy comeback, a tick mark formed on the cat's gargantuan head and he gritted his teeth in frustration. He let out a growl that was directed at his snarky, paper cut-out classmate,

"Let's just focus on the Nephilim and plan out our escape plans later." he grumbled, saving his energy for the potential fight ahead.

Teri was about to form a clever quip to further frustrate her passenger/partner, but they had already reached the park: just as the Nephilim spirit arrived.

When the two reached the expanse of green land that served as a recreational area for the citizens of Elmore, Teri slowed the origami F-18 and began to circle the area. As soon as they had arrived, a dark shadow tore across the blue, cloudless skies, as if the heavens themselves were cracking, and opened, revealing a murky black void. From this void the five legged monstrosity descended and gracefully landed on the grass with it's long, delicate-looking legs. The portal closed behind the hideous, spider-like spirit and the Nephilim's various eyes scanned the area in a frenzied fashion: like a predator searching a new habitat for potential prey.

The good news was that it hadn't spotted the two circling it at an altitude of five hundred feet. The bad news: the beast began tearing across the field at unbelievable speeds towards the populated city itself. They had to react fast or else the malevolent spirit was going to reach the populated center in a short time span.

Gumball nearly jumped out of his skin the moment he saw the tall, five legged daddy long legs of death,

"What the what! That spider is huge!" he shrieked, his arachnophobia taking control of his better judgement.

Teri checked on her passenger and saw that he was wide eyed with fear and his body was trembling in terror. She was unaware of his fear of spiders, so this was quite the news for her and it was actually kind of funny too. Gumball, the fearless, impulsive, class troublemaker was scared of spiders. It just seemed relatively ridiculous to the paper bear girl, but was a subtle reminder that you could only know someone so well.

"Gumball, that's not a spider. Spiders have eight legs, not five, along with two body segments instead of one, blocky, hexagonal one." she explained, knowing a little bit about bug and insect anatomy, since she feared the possibilities of infection by bug bite.

"Besides, do you have a plan for fighting that thing?" she asked, carefully watching the thing make its way towards the bustling city.

The blue cat didn't have many clues as to where this thing's weakness was, but he could assume that the cluster of red eyes was a good place to start as any. The places to avoid were its legs of course, seeing as they looked rather sharp and precise. Combined with its speed, it was the perfect killing weapon and would be hard to avoid. There were a lot of unknown factors regarding the multi-legged monster, but they didn't have the luxury to study their opponent's capabilities as they were rapidly running out of time.

He spotted a glaring weakness in the bug's defenses: the top of its "body" where its five legs connected. With that, he knew how he was going to approach this creepy crawly conundrum and readied himself for the inevitable confrontation. Steeling his nerves, he scooted towards Teri, his weight throwing off the plane's balance a little, and tapped her shoulder, grabbing her attention,

"Seeing as I'd rather end this fight the fastest way imaginable, I want you to circle around until you're on top of it. I'm going to jump off and start hacking away at its face, until it disappears. I think it's safe to say that it's weak spot is it's eyes." he told his plan as quietly as he could. He knew it probably couldn't hear him while they were five hundred feet above it, but he wasn't quite willing to risk the possibility of his most horrible nightmare overhearing his plan.

Following along with what he was saying, Teri agreed that it was the best approach seeing as it probably couldn't react if Gumball was standing atop its center. However, she did have a concern for this kind of plan,

"So we're basically using the same trick that we used to defeat silver twelve?" she called back to him.

Gumball gave a confident nod, although his eyes held some uncertainty.

She wasn't convinced that this plan was going to be as easy as that,

"Okay, we'll go through with it, BUT if it somehow sees you before you land or you miss somehow, I'm coming down to pick you up. That monster is really fast so you'll need me to help you keep up." she stated as a matter of fact.

Understanding what she meant, Gumball respected her decision and gave one more determined nod and placed his scythe in both hands. With a click of two separate buttons, the ancient weapon's shaft extended to its full four feet and the curved blade snapped outwards like a claw being extended. The blade gleamed in the sunlight and the runes etched on its surface contrasted the glaring light. Standing up, the blue cat made his way to the back of the jet while Teri guided said aircraft towards the striding monstrosity.

The Nephilim spirit made some progress clearing the park. Being taller than most of the objects in the surrounding area, the insect-like monster easily made its way over trees, lamp posts, benches, even entire hills. Anything that was caught within its path was either knocked aside or pierced by its sharp, narrow appendages not even hesitating to impale small animals like squirrels or birds. With its nimble body, it had already cleared half of the park and was approaching the closest street at an alarming rate.

Knowing that the road was busy with people in their automobiles, trying to beat the afternoon heat, Teri moved faster until she and Gumball had closed in on the beast. Dropping down until she was least ten feet above the creature, Teri approached the five legged bug of terror from the left and was preparing to fly over and allow Gumball to drop onto its body. With a hundred feet to cover, she slowed her approach in a way that allowed her to catch the wandering spirit and allow Gumball to jump with little error in his timing. Within twelve seconds, the two had reached the Nephilim and Gumball prepared his attack, it was the moment of truth.

Then it stopped and turned in their direction.

Time seemed to stop for Teri as soon as its many eyes rested on her. The thing had reacted so fast, that it seemed to outrun time itself. All Teri could think at that moment was _"how?"_ they weren't supposed to be seen nor heard. Did it have a sixth sense? Some way to detect incoming objects within a certain proximity? She didn't think that they would be discovered until they had completed their attack run.

Then she remembered Gumball.

He wasn't facing the creature like she was and instead, was standing at the back of the plane getting ready to jump. He didn't know that it had spotted them already and was now preparing to attack it head on. He was unknowingly jumping to his doom and she needed to react now!

With a mighty tug on the aircraft's nose and a split second decision, Teri pulled the F-18 into a steep climb while at the same time accelerating into the sky. She had only one thing on her mind and that was to simply evade the creature before it could do anything to the both of them. Her heart raced as the aircraft shot upwards and the wind from the sudden increase in speed caused her eyes to sting.

Unfortunately for her, while she managed to escape a potential attack from the creature that had spotted them: Gumball had jumped, believing that it was time to do so and that his partner was pulling away for another round.

Feeling the sudden decrease in weight towards the rear, the paper aircraft's pilot turned back only to see that Gumball had vanished! She shrieked in fear and pivoted her head until she could see both Gumball and the five legged monster clearly. She watched as the blue cat sailed towards the entity with his scythe raised above his head. The monsters eyes all focused on Gumballs falling form and with a flick of one of its frontal legs, it batted Gumball out of the air and into the clearing about thirty feet away.

The strike was so fast and powerful that Gumball barely felt himself hit the ground and tumble to a stop. His body must have been in shock because his breathing seemed to stop right there and he didn't notice any pain despite the fact he was struck in the stomach by a solid appendage traveling at traveling at speeds that rivaled professional baseball batters. Today was just not a good day for his lower abdomen.

At first he just wanted to lay where he was and cry for what it was worth: he just wanted this day to be over with. However, as soon as he opened his eyes, he saw that the five legged monster was already upon him and was in the process of raising a needle-like appendage to impale him with. With his adrenaline suddenly kicking in, his survival instincts told him roll to the left and he did so with amazing reaction time. Just as he moved, he heard a _whoosh!_ followed by the sound of something slamming into the ground where his head was once resting. He had managed to dodge getting his head pulverized with only half a second to spare!

After rolling around a few more times to avoid being in the creature's next line of attacks, Gumball got to his feet and surveyed his surroundings. He was covered in dirt and his sweater was torn at the shoulder, but this didn't bother him as much as the fact that he had dropped his scythe. The weapon Carrie had given him left his hands after he had taken a hit from the monster during his first attempt to attack it. It was probably lying nearby, at least he hoped it was.

After a few quick glances, he spotted the weapon sticking out of the ground with its blade sinking into the soil. It was several yards away and would take him a few seconds to reach it if he sprinted. The only problem was that the Penta-crawler, the name he had given the Nephilim, was already looming over him with two, forty foot legs raised to attack. He wondered if Teri was on her way now because even if he reached the scythe he wouldn't be able to keep up with the monster's lightning-quick strikes,

With only one way but forward, Gumball raced towards his weapon all the while keeping an eye on the Penta-crawler's raised legs. As soon as he began running, he caught sight of one of the spear-like appendages racing towards him and jumped to the side as soon as it struck the ground where his feet once were. The first attack was followed by a second one, causing the blue cat to dodge in the other direction as the sharp limb sent dirt flying upon impact. So far he had managed to barely dodge each strike and he was already no more than five yards away from the desired item.

The tall abnormality continued to stalk Gumball as it slashed and stabbed at the tiny cat who continued to make his way towards his weapon. Its attacks continued to land no direct fatal hits, but did manage to graze the kitten on more than one occasion. Unbeknownst to both the Penta-crawler and the fleeing Gumball, Teri had managed to set down nearby and reform her F-18 into a folded Lion, no bigger than a bicycle, and began tearing across the field to where the desperate struggle ensued.

With only a few feet remaining between Gumball and the mystical weapon, Gumball decided to close the distance by leaping forward. Bending his knees, he launched himself at the discarded weapon, arms reaching out towards the raised handle just as the crawler's leg pierced the ground where he once stood. He was successful in retrieving the weapon, feeling the cold, metal handle within his enclosed fingers as he tugged the weapon out of the ground, but fumbled on the landing as his momentum carried him forward and into a roll that left the cat dizzy.

He found himself on his back, once again, and was now gazing into the murderous eyes of a deadly spirit as it towered above him, blocking out the sunlight. Steadying itself on its hind leg and its left rear leg, the Penta-crawler raised its three other legs menacingly and a hissing noise could be heard from an unseen sound organ. Gumball realized that there was no way he dodge all three legs while lying on his back. Even if he dodged one, the other two would get him for sure. In sheer desperation he raised the staffed weapon above with the hopes of somehow diverting the simultaneous attacks.

As quick as a lightning strike, the impaling weapons shot towards the helpless student on the ground.

The only thing the beast struck was dirt because the second before the attack begun, Gumball was snatched up by a small paper lion with a humanoid bear mount of the same material. The Penta-crawler hissed angrily and turned to see where the speeding animal had run off to. To its surprise, Teri, Gumball, and the paper lion hadn't gone far, but instead were encircling it like a pair of cowboys circling some restless cattle.

Pulling the dazed cat onto the folded feline, Teri checked and saw that Gumball was okay albeit a little scratched up and terrified. He held onto the scythe as tightly as possible, not wanting to lose it a second time, while his life flashed before his eyes.

"Are you alright?!" Teri shouted back to him.

Gumball managed a nod and continued to stare straight ahead,

"Y-yeah… I don't think my plan worked, though." he gasped.

That couldn't have been clearer than glass.

Seeing that the spindly creature wasn't doing anything except watching them racing around itself, Teri let her body relax and her mind clear up,

"It's not attacking us at the moment. I think it's because we're moving too fast for it to follow." she pointed out.

The Nephilim version of daddy long legs didn't even attempt to attack the two of them and instead just kept an eye(s?) on the couple of students riding their strange beast.

Gumball saw this as an opportunity to form a counter strategy. One thing he had noticed was that this one didn't attack unless the target was in range. Another thing to note was that while it's legs and body were hard, its joints had to be softer in order to increase its overall flexibility. From what he could see was that it had three joints per leg, with the lowest joint being roughly 20 feet off the ground. If they could reach one of the legs pivotal areas then maybe he could inflict some damage or even disable the monster.

Once again, it was do or die and Gumball didn't want to wait around and see what other tricks the sorta-spider of the apocalypse had in store,

"Teri, do you think you can somehow get us both up to the lowest joint on its hind leg?" he asked, using his scythe as a pointer to indicate the area he was referring to.

Looking at the monster's hind leg, she saw it and understood what Gumball's plan was,

"Yeah, I'm sure I can get us both up there. HANG ON!" she shouted, willing the Lion to pick up the pace towards the monster.

Gumball wrapped his free arm around Teri's thin waist, causing both them to blush a little at the sudden close contact, while they picked up speed. He hoped to the heavens above that he didn't accidentally rip the feeble hypochondriac in half.

They reached the Nephilim spirit within the span of ten seconds and commenced their plan of attack. As soon as they were both in range, the Penta-crawler immediately lashed out at them. Thrusting a front, right leg into the ground, the paper lion swiftly dodged before leaping onto said limb and began scrambling up the spindly appendage. Gumball experimented a little and sliced a few times at the crawler's leg and as expected, the blade bounced off harmlessly in a cascade of sparks followed by the hollow sound of metal striking metal.

Before they could reach the first legs joint, the penta-crawler quickly retaliated by swiping at the two with another leg. Just like with the first one, the lion bearing two riders gracefully leapt upwards and onto the striking limb with little effort. When they landed on the opposing appendage, Gumball noticed that its flexible, pivot point was just within striking distance and swung the scythe until it sank into the penta-crawler's vulnerable flesh. Teri knew he was about to attack and ducked before Gumball swung, giving him easy access to his target. The crescent blade sliced through the joint with ease and Teri forced the origami lion to leap off as the leg was severed from the monster's body. It fell to the ground with a heavy crash and into a writhing heap as Gumball and Teri managed to reach its hind leg and repeated the procedure.

With another limb severed, it was down to just three legs.

Unfortunately, what Gumball hadn't counted on was the beast being able to sense where they are and being able to use its rear legs to attack as well. Both of them didn't see the spear-like limb racing towards them and with a quick swipe, it knocked both of them out of the air. The two students separated from their folded paper mount and tumbled to the ground, well Gumball did at least, Teri on the other hand just kind of floated down to earth. Her origami jungle cat struck the ground lifelessly, tumbled a bit, before rolling to a complete stop several yards away.

When Gumball and Teri reached the ground, they both immediately stood up and faced the creature looming above them. With only three legs to stand on and move around, the beast became slower. Teri and Gumball easily leapt out of the way when the Penta-crawler tried to trample them both underfoot. It occasionally stabbed at the two with Teri simply bending and contorting herself to avoid being struck, while Gumball sidestepped, leapt, or deflected each strike away with his scythes handle,

"We can't hold out like this!" he shouted, swiping at the beast's rapidly striking piercer,

"Teri, go grab your lion while I hold this thing's attention!"

His paper accomplice nodded and complied to his order and took off running. Unfortunately, the Nephilim saw this and with a quick strike from one of its hind legs, it severed Teri's right leg from her body!

Gumball screamed in horror as his classmate went down,

"TERI!"

He was about to rush to her side when one of the monster's legs shot outwards and sent the small cat flying like a soccer ball. He landed quite a ways away from his downed teammate and near her discarded origami tool. His ribs burned and felt like an invisible shark took a bite out of his right side, he might've bruised a rib or two. The sharp and sudden pain caused him to vomit while he used his shaky arms to prop himself up.

Meanwhile, in front of the Penta-crawler while holding the stump that was what was left of her right leg, Teri screamed in agony. This wasn't the first time the paper girl had some part of her torn off, as a matter of fact, her frailty is one of the factors that played into her fear of germs and serious injury. No matter how many times she had been torn in the past, it was always painful and horrifying to the animate paper doll.

What made it worse, was that now it was very possible that she could die here, at this very moment, helpless and left in agony.

The Penta-crawler didn't opt to shred his wounded prey into paper scraps. Instead, it lowered its body until its ugly mess of a face was a dozen feet from the quivering paper bear. Teri saw the monster's cluster of scarlet orbs drawing nearer and began backing away as fast as she could, using her hands and remaining leg to push herself backwards. She knew it was a pointless endeavor and was reacting purely on instinct, but she wanted to be as far away from the ghastly face that peering at her weakened body.

In what was considered a bizarre move, the Penta-crawler's eyes first began to vibrate rapidly, then they all began to merge together like a clump of platelet cells, to form one large, circular eye with a midnight black pupil at the center. The large ocular organ bore into Teri's own two and the paper bear began feel a tremendous force pressing down on her, driving her into the ground. Her flat body was spread out on the grass and Teri even found it getting increasingly difficult to breathe.

Following the strange force, a glowing, red orb of what appeared to be plasma or some exotic form of energy materialized in front of the single red eye and began increasing from the size of a tennis ball to something larger. The air around Teri began heating up and a loud hum could be heard resonating from the energy orb. Teri guessed that she had seconds before that thing released its final attack and vaporized her from the face of the planet. Closing her eyes tightly, and uttering a final prayer, she braced herself for the ending attack. Kind of ironic, since she always thought she was going to get killed by an invader no one else could see or perceive.

"Are you alright?" a low voice uttered. It sounded pained, like as if the person speaking was having trouble breathing.

Opening her eyes and straining her eyes downwards, she saw Gumball standing in front of her! His body was a silhouette against the overwhelmingly bright glow of the crawler's charging energy sphere, but she could clearly see the chibi-like cat reaching towards her as if to help her up. In his other hand was her lion and his scythe, the lion being easy to carry since it was made from one of the lightest materials on the planet. Teri couldn't exactly place the words in her mouth, but she was very confused as to how Gumball had gotten to her so quickly when he appeared to be injured by the way he was hunched over.

He didn't bother waiting for an answer though, as he just grabbed her by the hand and threw her onto the Lion,

"I'll take the the surprised look on your face as a yes. NOW FLOOR IT!" he screamed, as the deadly orb of energy's glow switched from slightly bright to blinding red intensity. The hum was now thunderous and deafening, causing both student's ears to surge with pain as the overwhelming noise assaulted their eardrums.

Letting go of any doubts, fears, or any confusion, Teri willed the beast to shoot forward and as far away from the blast as possible. They got away just as a beam of ruby, red, scorching death burned a hole ten feet wide and four feet deep into the earth where they once stood. Even though they'd manage to cover a lot of ground in the last few seconds, the smell of burning grass reached their nostrils.

After narrowly dodging a quick death by incineration, the two spirit fighters made their way to a large tree and dove behind it before the crawler spotted them. Pressed against the trunk, the two took a moment to catch their breath, the sound of heavy breathing, hearts thumping and Teri's body crinkling as she trembled could all be heard by one another. They both had their fair shares of avoiding death at the last moment and that last one was by far the most intense. They both wondered how they were going to survive an uncountable number of these things when they couldn't seem to make it past today.

Wiping his forehead, Gumball turned to check on Teri and saw her missing leg,

"Y-you're hurt!" he panicked, he was really scared for his friend.

Becoming aware of her missing leg again, Teri glanced down at the ripped stump of her right leg. She gulped down her anxiety, she couldn't afford to worry about an infection, especially not when they had limited time before the attacking creature located them or decides to attack the unsuspecting populace.

She waved the concerned cat away and shook her head,

"Don't worry about it for now! Once the fight is over we'll find the leg and disinfect the wound before we head back to school." she said, fighting hard to keep her voice from cracking.

Gumball thought about school for a moment and took a second to take out his phone to check the time. He found that the phone wasn't turning on and remembered that the Nephilim had the ability to prevent any electric device from working, like an EMP. He didn't know how much time they had until lunch starts, but he knew that they had to defeat this thing fast!

The Nephilim hadn't spotted them yet or sensed their presence, he could tell because he could hear the _thump thump thump_ of its legs as it wondered the area in search of its missing prey. They had Teri's origami Lion, so at least they still had mobility and that meant he didn't have to worry about leaving her somewhere unprotected. He knew she was light, but he was very, _very_ well aware of his own recklessness and didn't want to place her in harm's way if he could help it. One thing he had noticed about the Penta-crawler (at this point, it was hardly a _penta-_ and more of a _tri-_ ) was that when it fired its beam weapon, it lowered his body. However, it only lowered its head when it felt that its victims were disabled.

That's when it hit him.

With his expression lighting up at the sudden realization, he turned to Teri once more, seeing as she was the crucial element to this plan,

"Teri!" he whispered, although his voice came out a little louder than he intended.

The paper girl raised her head and looked at Gumball expectantly,

"I have an idea that will work! However, it's an all or nothing kind of plan. Are you willing to hear me out?" he definitely wasn't hiding the fact that this was potentially, by far, one of his riskiest ideas out of the other two they tried out so far.

Honestly, it didn't matter to the injured anthropomorphic paper bear whether the plan was suicidal or not, so her answer was clear and to the point,

"It's not like it can be any worse than sitting here and waiting for it to find us and pick us both off." she replied with a very lighthearted chuckle.

That was the answer Gumball assumed he would receive and was already handing his scythe to her,

"Good! Cause' you're going to bring it down this time!" he beamed at her as she slowly took the weapon with a confused look plastered on her face.

He sat down and quickly went over his final, last ditch plan of attack.

 _-one minute later-_

The Penta-crawler was surveying a bush when the eldest Watterson child revealed himself. He let out a loud, pained moan (which actually wasn't fake due to how much pain he found himself in.) and slowly crawled his way out from behind the large oak tree. He pretended like he was attempting to flee in an unseen fashion, whimpering as he pulled his body forward and away from the tree, but not too far.

The Nephilim immediately spotted the cat person and scrambled over to see what kind of condition he was in. It appeared to Gumball that this Nephilim spirit was more animal-like than the one that came before it, as that one actually spoke to Gumball and was able to recognize a trap for what it was. This one came scuttling over without so much as a glance to the tree he came crawling from. Within a second it was upon the pre-teen cat.

The Penta-crawler regarded Gumball with its many eyes, scrutinizing the boy like a beast sizing up an opponent for anything that might potentially bring it harm. So it had a sense of caution at least, Gumball was surprised that the multi-legged monster had a survival instinct and wasn't some senseless killing machine. It was still dangerous, just an interesting observation was all.

After a long thirty seconds that felt like a century to the little, defenseless cat, the beast stopped scanning him and allowed its cluster of eyes to form into their single, massive, red one. Immediately, Gumball felt a familiar pressure being exerted on him and he was effectively pinned to the ground. A hum filled the air and the ball of red energy began to materialize once again. It lowered its body until it was a mere dozen feet from the helpless child.

Gumball smirked at the sight and at what was to follow,

"You… should… keep… all… your… eyes open!" he stammered as he delivered his one-liner, the invisible force made it hard for him to breathe, let alone talk.

The tree branches above Gumball rustled, sending a few red/orange leaves fluttering downwards. This caught the attention of the Nephilim and forced it to abort its attack. The single eye shot upwards to catch a glimpse of what was in the tree.

From the tree's dense foliage, sprang a white scorpion no bigger than a mattress, that sailed on to the creature's head and latched on with its pincers. Startled, the Penta-crawler lurched backwards in reaction to the sudden appearance of the unfamiliar creature and began scurrying around in order to throw it off. Gumball, free of the monster's invisible hold on him, found himself gasping for air as he sat up and watched his planned out surprise attack unfold before his very eyes.

On the scorpion's back was Teri, who was clinging tightly to the origami's thin armor plating. The pincers and legs did a great job of clinging to the top of the Nephilim's body, as she did not slide off its glossy, black, chiton surface as it frantically rushed from one spot to another. Wrapped within the paper arachnids tail was the ancient scythe itself, serving as the tails stinger. The tail was poised high, blade gleaming, and ready to strike.

Placing her thoughts into actions, she willed the flat, paper arachnid to position itself over the demonic daddy long legs eye. With a powerful thrust, the tail whipped forward, and sank into the soft, red ocular organ. The monster hissed in pain and shook around some more in order to throw off its attacker: to no avail. With its vain attempt to discard Teri and her newly formed scorpion a complete failure, Teri repeatedly stabbed it in the eye over and over again. Each strike opened a new gash that ran deeper than the previous ones and eventually the eyeball itself was reduced to a few red strands of hollow tissue.

Then the monster stopped moving entirely.

The air grew silent as the monster's movements halted as if the creature itself was paused by a cosmic remote. It's glossy shine faded as it's form became murky and the remaining legs that kept it standing upright, gave way and allowed gravity to pull its carcass to the dirt below. Teri hopped off just as its crumpled body burst into purple flames and left no trace of the monster behind.

Gumball watched the whole thing go down and was now smiling at the success of his plan. The fruits of his knowledge and Teri's effort allowed them to succeed and bring peace to Elmore, for the time being at least. He hoped that there weren't going to be anymore evil spirits appearing soon: two in one day was more than enough excitement for the mischievous child of the Watterson household.

He watched Teri approach him, positioned on her bizarre mount and with a tired look on her face. She seemed relaxed and Gumball could even swear he caught a prideful smirk playing across her thin lips. When she reached him, she lowered the scorpion's tail and allowed the scythe to slide back into Gumball's hands.

He smiled at the familiar touch of the weapon and then returned his gaze to his crafty teammate,

"Good job on that last attack, Teri! I'm glad that at least one of my brilliant plans turned out-!"

"WHO THE HECK CARES ABOUT YOUR STUPID PLAN! HELP ME FIND MY LEG AND GET BACK TO SCHOOL BEFORE IT GETS INFECTED!" she shrieked hysterically.

Gumball just stood there with his jaw hanging open like a dope. He knew it was only a matter of time before her inner hypochondriac came rushing forth, he just didn't think it would be this soon.

Without uttering a word discontent, he climbed aboard the origami scorpion, and the two set off towards the area where she had lost her leg in the first place. While they moved, Gumball surveyed the park and saw the damage done to it. The grassy fields were pocketed with holes and freshly turned up dirt. Dented, torn trash cans and broken trees were scattered about and then there was the big smoking crater from where the Penta-crawler fired its beam attack. There might've been a lot of damage done to the area, but at least no one lost their lives this time, well aside from a few helpless animals that got in the way of the Nephilim's path.

Teri spotted her dismembered limb gently rolling about the grass like a white feather in the wind and proceeded to chase after it. While the scorpion picked up speed, her blue passenger contemplated their two battles and what the future held in store for them. The Nephilim they have fought varied in form, intelligence and power, so it could be deduced that every fight from now on will be a different and difficult challenge.

He'd only been with Teri for one day, but throughout both fights she had proven to be a very crafty and helpful partner. Now that he actually thought about it, he wouldn't mind facing whatever came, as long as she was by his side and willing to help him through the challenges that lay ahead. This thought gave him a warm feeling inside that he hadn't felt in a while and quite couldn't explain what it was.

After she caught her missing leg, Teri converted the scorpion into a small helicopter that could carry the two of them and they were soon airborne. They had five minutes until lunch started. Teri told Gumball that she was going to go to her locker, spread some disinfectant on the torn areas, reattach the limb with some tape she also keeps on her, and allow her parents to fix it when she got home. She noticed the scrapes and bruises Gumball had received after getting knocked around in the earlier fight and offered to treat him, but he politely turned her down and told her that the only thing was concerned about was his busted rib cage. He was probably going to have to pay the school nurse a second visit.

With the supernatural battle being finished in a short period of time, the two continued to make their way towards Elmore Junior High to continue on with their normal lives.

 **(A/N): and that concludes chapter two! This was definitely a fun writing experience and I'm very happy with how this chapter turned out. This didn't take me very long to write and took even less time to go over and edit. I really hope I spotted as many mistakes as possible and I also hope that anyone reading this enjoys the story without being put off by such little things.**

 **Can't wait for more reviews and, hopefully, constructive criticism!**

 **As for the lore presented in the chapter itself, the amount of information given on the Nephilim is about as much as we're going to get for a while, but we will learn more about them in the later chapters. We also got a name drop from another mysterious figure known as the Jade emperor, who is in fact based off of the ruler of the heavens in the fantastic story, "Journey to the west." originating from Chinese mythology. I do have a fondness for ancient myths and legends from popular locations around the worlds, i.e. Greek mythology, Norse mythology, stories from the bible and Jewish texts, and also stories from the east. Even the name "Nephilim" refers to the ancient giants described in the book of genesis and Enoch. However, the figures appearing in this story share only names with their mythological counterparts and don't necessarily share any other characteristics with them, mostly.**

 **This chapter and the previous one were made to kind of set the stage and to show what the two main characters of the story are going to be dealing with and how they are going to proceed from here. The next chapter will follow Teri and Gumball as they find help from an odd person they never will suspect, someone who has some knowledge on the Nephilim and is willing to wage war against the vile spirits in an unlikely alliance. There will also be a time skip in the following chapter, as an entire week will pass and the two resident Nephilim slayers will have gained more experience in fighting the ancient giants.**

 **That is all I'm willing to share today, I hope you guys have a lovely day and I will be publishing the third chapter next week. See you guys around for chapter 3: Magic for Teri.**

 **Don't forget to leave a review and a like for this chapter. Have a nice day!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Magic for Teri**

Teri x Gumball

 **Hello fans of the amazing world of Gumball and random readers! I hope you are all having a good day today because I know I am! Welcome to chapter three of the romantic fantasy fan fiction Teri x Gumball: In between worlds and in this chapter we'll be focusing on Gumball's social life while Teri tries to learn some magic in order to further assist her partner in defeating the nefarious Nephilim spirits.**

 **In this chapter I'll also be introducing Teri's parents as OC's because the show hasn't given us a proper introduction of them, so I'm going to be filling in the gaps for the audience. On a side note, I've also given Teri a last name, "pepakuma" which, according to google translate, means "paper bear" in Japanese. If any of you are familiar with the language and find this to be a mistake, please let me know in the review down below. I kind of decided to give them a name of Japanese origin because the way Teri's face is drawn reminds me of an anime girl's face and I feel that this makes sense for her character.**

 **I also wanted to thank all of you for your reviews and your overall support of my story, it makes me really happy to know that you guys are enjoying the story and I'm grateful for all the feedback.**

 **Please read, enjoy, and leave a review down below.**

 **(I do not own The Amazing World of Gumball. All rights belong to Ben Bocquelet, the staff, Cartoon Network, and other respective owners.)**

 _-September 15th, 2013, 7:12 PM, the Pepakuma household-_

"So, Mr. Watterson. What career do you intend on focusing on after you finish high school?"

Gumball found himself sitting at the dinner table with Teri and her parents, Dr. Fukijima Pepakuma and Dr. Yui Pepakuma. It had been a rather pleasant evening, although Gumball had been a little nervous meeting Teri's parents, seeing as the first time he'd met them he and Darwin unknowingly folded them both into Origami swans as a means to help his little brother curb his potato cravings. Even though they said they had forgiven him, he couldn't help but feel a little tension between them and himself.

It had been six days since he and Teri had fought both silver twelve and penta-crawler and they had been involved in three more supernatural confrontations in the span of those six days. On this particular Sunday, an Orangutan-like Nephilim showed up in the forest of doom. While chasing the wily creature through the trees, avoiding its sonic blasts, and steering clear of the various forest monsters that inhabited the deadly forest, Teri accidentally dropped Gumball in a mud puddle after trying to avoid the Nephilim's sonic blast. He wasn't hurt by any means and the two managed to lure it into a cluster of tree roots where Gumball was easily able to decapitate it, but the paper girl felt bad for dropping him and wanted to make it up to him by inviting him to her house to grab a shower, clean his clothes, work on school work, and have dinner with her folks, who just so happened to be home.

Which brings him to now, where he was eating a scrumptious meal of warm rice curry while answering her father's onslaught of personal questions. He chewed his food and swallowed, taking a moment to ponder older male paper bear's latest question,

"Hmm… I honestly haven't given it much thought yet. I guess it's undecided for now." he responded as politely as he could.

Mr. Pepakuma, narrowed his eyes at the young cat and raised an eyebrow, causing the said child to sweat nervously. Teri's father was a surgeon at Elmore hospital and even though Gumball hadn't talked to him much, he could tell that he was a very serious and straightforward kind of man, which kind of reminded him of Patrick Fitzgerald, his ex-girlfriend's overprotective father. The only difference between him and Patrick was that Dr. Pepakuma gave out less threats and seemed more approachable.

Like his daughter, he was an anthropomorphic paper bear with a face and clothes that had been drawn on by a marker. He was taller than both his daughter and wife and had a more rectangular frame. His shoulders were square with sharp angles and his head was shaped like a rectangle with two square ears poking out from the top. His face was crudely drawn like a bear's only his eyes were more narrow and resting on his snout were a pair of spectacles. He wore a simple, button-up, dress shirt, a black tie, and simple trousers: all drawn on of course.

It made Gumball wonder why they all owned a washer and dryer when their clothes were simply drawn on their bodies. Earlier, he had changed out of his dirty clothes before climbing into the shower and changed into his gym clothes while his normal ones were still in the washer. There were so many questions that he wanted to ask, but decided that the washer and dryer were there for guests or that it could've just came with the house and they hadn't gotten around to selling it.

Fukijima continued eating his dinner and began grumbling,

"You should focus on your future while you still can. You're halfway through middle school and soon you'll be in high school. If you don't have everything planned out by then, you may find it difficult to get a proper foothold in life." he said gruffly.

Gumball knew he wasn't trying to be rude, but he didn't exactly like feeling pressured into deciding what career he wanted to be stuck with for the rest of his life. He already had a negative opinion on the prospect of working a pointless job for who knows what stupid reasons only to die unsatisfied with the life that he had lived. Also, there was the fact that the world may be ending and getting past middle school seemed like a hopeful yet, fleeting dream.

"Honey, you know he's got plenty of time to decide his what he's going to do with his life. What matters most is how well he does in school and how he spends his time with his friends." his wife, Yui Pepakuma countered, looking from her plate and to her husband.

Teri's mom resembled her the most, she was roughly Teri's height, was somewhat slim like her, and had a face just like hers. The only difference was that her face and ears were completely circular in contrast to Teri's round, yet, slightly angular one's and that she had short, straight black hair drawn onto her head with some bangs covering her forehead. She also had a few age lines drawn at the corners of her eyes, but they were rather small and unnoticeable from a distance. She wore a simple dress like Teri's, only this one was covered in horizontal stripes and had sleeves that ended at her wrists. She was usually quiet and soft spoken, but could be a little stern when the situation called for it. According to Teri, her mom is an allergist who specializes in treating immune system disorders, food allergies, and other body defense disorders.

With two serious parents in the house, Gumball could understand why Teri was always so shy and quiet. The other stuff he couldn't quite put his finger on, but he could guess that it had something to do with her parents being medical professionals.

"I suppose." her husband muttered into his food.

Gumball's eyes flicked over to Teri, who was delicately eating her chicken curry with a pair of chopsticks while not saying anything. From what he could gather, Teri was the only one in the family who was a germaphobe, as he saw both parents acting carefully when handling certain materials, but not to the crazy extent that his paranoid classmate would. She even told him that she was the one who kept their house spotless when he commented on how clean it was.

She caught him staring at her and he quickly diverted his attention away from her,

"I really like your rice curry, Mrs. Pepakuma! You really outdid yourself." he commented to Teri's mother, trying to generate a positive mood at the table.

Yui took her eyes off of her plate and gave Gumball a grateful smile,

"Why thank you Gumball, but there's no need for flattery. It's a simple recipe I picked up when I was around Teri's age. Her father really likes it though, so I try to make it as often as possible." she said, glancing at her husband, who returned her stare with a smile, but kept his eyes on the chopstick holding the steaming piece of chicken.

"Well, it's really good!" Gumball gave one last comment before he sunk his fork into the curry dish.

"Well, thank you very much." she responded once more before moving onto another question,

"Say Gumball, I've been wondering. How long have you and Teri been going out?" she asked casually.

Unfortunately, that 'casually' asked question elicited quite the response from a startled Teri and the little girl nearly spat out her curry,

"MOM! THAT'S NOT- WE'RE NOT-!" she stammered, her face a bright crimson and her eyes wide with embarrassment. she kept glancing to all the faces at the table, especially Gumball's, who just sat there with his face slowly turning pale. Evidently they weren't as serious as he initially thought and made Gumball think twice before assuming a personality after just meeting them.

Her mom was cackling with laughter upon seeing her daughter's overreaction to her innocent little joke,

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Couldn't help myself there!" she chuckled to herself,

"You two should see your faces!" she was pointing at both kids now.

Teri pushed away her food and allowed her head to fall to the table, she could feel her face burning and her humiliation rising. Gumball just sat in place as he focused on getting the blood to start pumping to his head again. Not only was he embarrassed, he nearly felt himself die right there because he was afraid that she was asking a serious question and wasn't quite sure how her father would react to such a thing. Luckily for him, Teri's father just smirked a little at his wife's twisted sense of humor and simply shook his head before shoving another chopstick loaded with rice curry into his mouth. Gumball was the only one using a fork since he wasn't used to eating in this particular style.

" _I was worried for a sec that these people would be deadpans throughout the entire meal, but looks like I was horribly wrong."_ he thought in relief. He was thankful in knowing that both he and Teri had parents that would take an opportunity to tease their children, although his do it unintentionally. After her mother told her to stop face planting the table, Teri sat up and continued eating her meal, albeit with a redder face and less eye contact with anyone.

"But, seriously how long have you two known each other? It seems like since the beginning of September you two have been hanging out a lot, but I don't remember hearing Teri mentioning your name a whole lot other than a few stories here and there before that." she asked with a serious face.

That was an interesting question. Gumball was first about to answer with, _"I knew her in sixth grade."_ since that was the first time they actually interacted with each other, but he actually remembered seeing her in kindergarten. He never talked to her much, but he did remember waving at her a couple times and her returning the gesture before he would return to whatever activity he was invested in. In hindsight, he guessed that could count as an interaction of sorts.

"That's hard to say." he said, rubbing the back of his head,

"I saw her a couple times at Kindergarten and in elementary school, but we didn't exactly start speaking to each other until sixth grade. She came over to my house around last Monday and we started hanging out more because… we discovered that we had a few 'things' in common." he answered, not so sure how to explain the last part without giving away the secret the two shared.

Yui raised an eyebrow as she analyzed his face before deciding that the answer registered as okay and went back to eating,

"That sounds pleasant. I'm glad you two get along so well. Me and Fukijima are always busy at the hospital and so we're not home all the time to watch over Teri. We appreciate hearing that someone is on good enough terms with our daughter to hang out and spend time with her. She's always so happy when we get home, she usually likes to talk about cheerleading practice and recently she's been talking about you as well." she explained, rubbing her daughters head affectionately. Teri blushed some more as her mother mentioned the last part.

Mr. Pepakuma finished his curry and stood up to place his dirty dishes in the sink. He turned to Teri and gave her a stern glare,

"Finish your food. You got a biology and a math assignment to finish up on." he ordered.

He then focused his glare on Gumball,

"And you. You're parents said they were alright with you sleeping over, correct?" he asked.

Gumball gave a quick nod and looked him straight in the eye.

The square paper bear registered the affirmative action and made his way to the kitchen,

"Very well then. I'll bring out the inflatable mattress for you to sleep on. Bedtime is at 10:00 sharp. No T.V. until your homework is finished, both of you!" he said, pointing at the both of them.

They both nodded in understanding and he left the kitchen.

Looking at the clock on the wall, Gumball saw that it was 7:17 PM and began eating at a faster pace. Mrs. Pepakuma finished her food and stood up to join her husband in the kitchen. Before she got going, she decided to say one more thing to Gumball,

"Oh, and Gumball! When you're hanging out with my daughter, try to stay out of trouble. When you two first started hanging out, I had to glue my little one's leg back together." her voice was steady, but slightly accusing, as if she suspected he had something to do with it.

Gumball sweat dropped and waved his hands nervously, he figured that they were going to connect the dots and immediately become suspicious of all the accidents they've been getting into,

"Yeah, that was my bad. When we were heading back to class, her foot got caught in the door and I tried to help her out, but I only made it worse. I'm sorry for her injury and for making you guys worry. I will make sure to be careful when she's around me." he declared.

The day after the attack of silver twelve and Penta-crawler, Teri had told him that her mom had patched her up and that she had to lie about getting her foot stuck in the door. It was obviously a good way to throw off suspicion, but they could both tell that neither one of them actually enjoyed lying to their loved ones. Unfortunately, as the week began to pass, lies like that became more common as the two often needed excuses to leave and go fight the Nephilim that were constantly plaguing Elmore. On the plus side, they were saving many lives in the process, their teamwork and coordination improved a little as each battle progressed, and they got to know and trust one another the more time they spent with each other.

Mrs. Pepakuma was about to add something else to the conversation, but her pocket began beeping. Grabbing a pencil, she drew on a pocket and pulled a pager out. She glanced at it and sighed,

"It's Dr. Burns again." she said in exasperation,

"I'm needed down at the office, most likely one of my patient's symptoms are acting up again. You two finish eating and go do your homework, I'll be back in a few hours or so." she said, rushing to grab her white coat.

Mr. Pepakuma saw her leaving and grabbed her dishes to place them in the sink,

"Would you like me to drive you there, honey?" he asked while rinsing off the dirty plate.

She nodded while she threw on her doctor's coat and pivoted on her heel to face the kids one more time,

"You two have a good night. Teri, I expect a phone call from Ms. Simian tomorrow about your assignment from yesterday and don't forget you have cheerleading practice tomorrow. I love you!" she said, before making her way to the door.

"Love you mom!" Teri called out to her and waved.

Her mom waved back and left the dining room, leaving them with Mr. Pepakuma. He grabbed the car keys from a clean, glass jar on the Kitchen counter and followed after his wife,

"All right you two, I expect you both to be well behaved and productive. I'm gonna drop her off at the hospital and go pick up some groceries from the supermarket. I should be back in an hour. If for whatever reason I am summoned to the ER then I will text you and I expect that you two will be in bed by ten. Gumball, the inflatable mattress is rolled up in the closet next to the restroom. Love you, Teribear!" he said, using her nickname.

Teri blushed a darker shade at hearing her parent's pet name for her being mentioned when she had a friend over. Gumball had to stifle a snicker, but his efforts were in vain because the paper girl noticed his forced expression and glared at him menacingly,

"Shut it, Gummypuss!" she snarled, using his mom's pet name for him in retaliation.

The blue cat burst out laughing. He didn't care whether she used his nickname or not, he thought her reaction was funny. Now he knew how to address her at school, there were so many possibilities to inconvenience her.

While a beet, red Teri was attempting to jab a hysterical Gumball in the eye with her chopstick, her father gave Gumball one last sinister glare from behind his spectacles,

"And Mr. Watterson!" he said in a raised voice.

Gumball stopped laughing and Teri stopped trying to attack him. They both sat perfectly still with their eyes focused on the square paper man bear.

He raised a flimsy pointer finger until it was directed at Gumball. The tension in the air made the blue cat feel as if he were being held at gunpoint and his heart rate began accelerating.

"No funny business! I'm entrusting you with my daughter's safety and I expect you to act responsibly. Do I make myself clear?" he growled.

It was a simple message that held a lot of weight and dire consequences if he messed up. The pre-teen gulped and squeeked out a "yes sir!" before shakily saluting. Why are girl's fathers so terrifying, even when this one was made of paper and could be knocked down by blowing on him.

Fukijima snorted like a bull once he got Gumball's word and stormed out of the house, shutting the door behind him. The two listened as the Pepakuma's car rolled out of the driveway and made its way down the road to the hospital. As soon as they were gone, Gumball allowed all the stress that was building within to be released in a single act of exhaling. They were alone now and that meant they could discuss plans for tomorrow.

Teri noticed Gumball's stressed state and cleared her throat,

"My parents aren't really that scary, just a little strict. They want me to do my best in school, so they lay down all these ground rules to make sure my academic performances are top level. They also worry about my health because we're all pretty feeble and have to take extra care not to get hurt." she explained.

The blue cat boy mentally took back his earlier comment about her developing a fear of germs on her own because she was crazy, but due to the fact that her family was literally so frail that they had to take many precautions to ensure their own safety. He understood what it was like to have someone worry about him because he would often get himself in all sorts of trouble. However, the Watterson's were kind of a tough sort that could recover from the most dangerous of incidents. Teri on the other hand, was flexible, but extremely vulnerable to even the slightest of injuries. He could understand why this family acted a little paranoid and protective.

"I can see why that is." he commented in sympathy.

The two finished their meal, washed their dishes (Gumball helped to make the process go a bit faster, but found it slightly irritating when Teri would criticize every little thing he did.), and headed upstairs to her bedroom.

Her room was like the rest of the house: very clean and organized. Looking around, Gumball could not find a single trace of dust on any of the various surfaces nor a single smudge on the bedroom's single window. Her bedsheets were thoroughly washed and filled the air with the scent of fresh detergent. Along her shelves were various books about biology, origami, paper crafting, and even some manga! On her dresser that sat in the corner of her room were several different origami animals that sat in a neatly arranged formation. He could also see that she had a television sitting on a table opposite of her dresser and was facing her bed. Lastly, he noticed her green, bedroom walls were decorated with posters depicting several J-pop stars.

It was a nice room, but if sterile had taken a form it would be this space.

"Your room is very… nice!" Gumball said in awe, setting his backpack down on the floor.

Teri walked over to her desk and set her stuff down next to it. She gestured Gumball to sit on the spare chair next to hers.

"Thank you. I wake up early every morning to clean it." she boasted. Beaming with pride.

Gumball dragged his book bag over to the spot next to her and pulled out his biology textbook, notes, and finally, the assignment itself. Teri followed suit and the two got to work. It was an agonizing hour for the two because Gumball couldn't sit still for two minutes and would often try to slack off or find something to distract himself with. Teri would often chastise him for messing with the various objects in her room or when ever she found herself being distracted by the cat's wild antics. After a serious argument that lasted a few minutes, the two sat down and plowed through their two assignments. Eventually, both had finished their homework and made sure everything was correct and ready to be turned in.

Mentally exhausted, Teri flopped down on her bed and let out an irritated sigh while staring at the single, glaring light bulb that illuminated her entire room,

"And now I understand why they say age isn't the only thing that gives you wrinkles." she sighed, allowing herself to relax on the bed sheets.

Spinning around on his chair, balancing a ruler on his nose, Gumball wasn't looking at her, but heard her comment nonetheless,

"You sure about that? You're made of paper, you already have wrinkles!" he jeered, stopping himself from spinning after getting dizzy.

Having enough of his mockery, a tick mark formed on the paper girl's forehead as she grabbed a bottle of hand sanitizer from her nightstand and lobbed it at the snarky cat's head. Being large as it was, made it an easy target for Teri's fury and the bottle of disinfectant struck him on the temple, sending him tumbling off his chair with a crash. Teri sneered at the sight and layed back down, having accomplished her retaliation with satisfaction.

Gumball peeled his face off of the carpet and propped himself up. His expression had gone from relaxed to straight up murderous as he picked up the offending bottle of hand sanitizer. He got up and turned to Teri, who was still ignoring him,

"It was a joke! Don't throw things at me!" he snarled.

Teri snorted at his angered comment and didn't even look at him,

"I wasn't throwing it at you. Your big head just got in the way was all!" she remarked sarcastically.

Her comment on his big head tipped him over to the petty side and he smiled in a wicked fashion, his eyes turning red at the evil comeback he was about to unleash upon her,

"Well you've got pretty bad aim!" he started, placing the jar on her nightstand,

"And I'm sorry for what I said earlier. I meant to say you look like a soggy gym sock who spent too much time at a daycare!" he laughed out loud.

More tick marks formed on Teri's head and she grabbed something harder (the T.V. remote) to throw at him. Gumball saw this coming and threw up his thin arms to protect his sensitive face,

"AHH! TRUCE! TRUCE!" he pleaded.

Lowering the remote, she glared at him and switched on the T.V. after clicking the power button,

"What do you want to watch?" she asked, venom still in her voice.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Gumball placed a paw on his chin and thought about what was on right now,

"How about _Z-Crashers_? It's this cool show about a teenager who discovers a mysterious alien car and competes in these wild races, while also stopping an alien inv-!"

"We're watching _Under the stethoscope_." she interrupted, switching the channel to the desired show.

Gumball just remained where he was as if on pause before his anger returned and he began shouting at her.

"What the what!? Why bother giving me an option when we were just going to watch what you wanted anyway? Also what is this garbage anyway?" he asked, plopping down next to her at the edge of her bed.

Teri shot a lazy glance at him before turning her attention to the screen once more,

"You didn't apologize so we're watching what I want, and _Under the stethoscope_ is a medical drama/comedy centering around a group of doctors who start out as interns at _piece of heart_ hospital and follows their everyday routine. And it is not garbage!" she crossed her arms and huffed in annoyance.

Groaning, the blue cat leaned back on the bed's headrest, trying to keep some space between himself and Teri, and focused his attention on the show,

"I'll say." he grumbled,

"I'm legitimately sorry for my earlier comments. You don't look look wrinkled or like a gym sock, you're actually very pretty." he apologized. He wanted to compliment her, but didn't want to risk going over the top and sounding flirty.

Hearing his apology and his compliment, Teri felt herself lighten up a little and her cheeks burn a bit. _"Did he just say I'm very pretty?"_

"Well, apology accepted." she stated, sneaking a glance at her friend,

"But we're still watching _Under the stethoscope_. My room, my rules." she said as a final statement.

Gumball rolled his eyes and settled into his spot. Looks like he was in for this whether he liked it or not. It honestly couldn't be as bad as watching _Daisy the donkey_ with Anais, he still trembled with disgust at hearing the name of that dreaded kids show. He actually felt a little better though and sitting in this cozy room with Teri was actually making him feel happy.

Half an hour passed by quickly and the two students found themselves holding their aching sides as laughter consumed the two of them. This was probably one of the funniest shows that Gumball had ever had the pleasure of watching. He actually regretted calling it garbage and realized that Teri actually had a good sense of humor.

He continued to laugh as he wiped several tears from his eyes,

"Man… that doctor Crox! He's gotta be the most grumpiest yet wittiest character on the show! I mean, who can come up with such insults to your boss on the fly like that!" he let loose another round of laughter and lurched forward as his sides began splitting from another one-liner from said T.V. character.

Next to him, resting in the fetal position while tightly hugging her pillow and trying to catch her breath from all her chortling,

"Oh no… (wheeze!) It gets funnier when… his ex-wife comes into the hospital. The way they interact is beautiful." with that she burst into another fit of laughter and hugged her pillow tighter.

The two pre-teens were now very close to one another, practically brushing each other every time they moved. Both could feel each others warmth radiating from the person at their respective side, and neither minded one bit. Gumball was so happy, comfortable and content that he was unaware of his body's actions, until Teri noticed it.

It felt very small and faint at first, so it was barely registering to her. Then it became more frequent and noticeable that Teri couldn't help, but wonder what the cause of it was. Her bed was vibrating and there was a low noise coming from besides her where Gumball was. At first she thought it was the boy's cell phone vibrating, but then after listening for a few more seconds and seeing the calm, pleased look on his face, she realized the cause all at once: he was purring!

She sat up to get a better look at the furry, blue, Watterson child and cocked an eyebrow as she stared at him in curiosity,

"Are you purring?" she asked.

When Gumball first heard the question it didn't register in his mind and he blanked out for a second. Then, when a moment had passed, he realized what she had said and what he was doing. His face immediately began burning up with a blush at the sudden realization that he was emanating pure comfort and happiness in the form of his soothing, throaty vibrations. He didn't know why he was embarrassed, he was caught off guard by all this and now felt completely silly.

"Oh, sorry! I didn't know- I didn't mean to disturb you- I was just- ah, forget it." he groaned, his face burning up more. What made it worse was that he was still purring.

Seeing him getting flustered about his natural response to being happy and comfortable forced a smile on Teri's face,

"No, no, no, don't be upset! I don't mind it, I actually think it's very cute!" she giggled.

Her response and the laughter that followed made the blue cat turn a deeper shade of red. She just called him cute! To be fair, he did call her very pretty earlier, and she was! He meant it mainly as a compliment and as a way to apologize for hurting her feelings earlier. The truth was that he actually did find Teri to be very attractive and when she called him cute just now, he discovered that he actually _liked_ the compliment.

He buried his red face into his knees in order to hide his expression from the paper girl next to him, whom was still giggling. He rested like that for a few minutes, trying to get his rampant emotions under control. He didn't understand why her calling him cute made him so flustered or happy and just wanted his face to return to its natural shade of blue before she noticed. He stopped hiding his face after he felt four, flimsy fingers make their way to the top of his head and begun scratching the spot between his ears.

Realizing that Teri was gently scratching his head, his noggin pivoted so quickly that he sprained a muscle in the back of neck. He saw his paper friend reaching over, scratching the top of his head, and was wearing the biggest smile he had ever seen.

"I wonder if I can make you purr louder if I scratch the top of your head like this?" she said in a sly tone.

To her surprise and Gumball's, it actually worked and the soothing vibrations could be heard over the television. What made things worse was that Gumball, despite his wide eyed, shocked expression, was actually enjoying the feel of her fingers caressing his fur and the sensitive spot between his ears. While she did this, Gumball came up with a dubious plan and smiled his trademark grin of mischievousness.

"Say Teri… I wonder what sound you'll make if I did THIS!"

with the final word being shouted, he lunged towards the surprised paper girl and began furiously tickling her armpits. With the blue cat's sudden barrage of tickling, Teri fell back on her bed and began laughing furiously as Gumball kept up his attack. She desperately squirmed and tried to wiggle herself away from Gumball's fast fingers, but to no avail, for the kitten had her pinned.

"Gumball, (hysterical laughter) stop… I'm gonna pee!" she squealed while trying to push his arms away.

Gumball did as she asked and stopped his hilarious onslaught and flopped back onto his spot while cackling mischievously,

"I'm sorry! I didn't realize that I _tickled_ you the wrong way!" he teased.

Teri found herself rolling her eyes and groaning at Gumball's lame pun and took a moment to reclaim her breath. She sat back up next to her friend and continued to watch her show,

"No need to apologize. That move was _purr_ -fectly timed." she retaliated with her own witty comeback. This caused the Watterson child to sigh and allow his head to drop on the pillow he had grabbed for this exact scenario.

In another thirty minutes, the show had ended and the two were left in tears and out of breath from all the wacky humor that was blasted at them through the screen and the audio system. It was 9:30, so that meant they had another half hour to stay up until bedtime. Teri had checked her messages and found that her father was needed in the E.R. and that he had dropped off the groceries about an hour ago. He told her that she and Gumball had better be in their respective beds by ten and that if he caught them up any later then there will be consequences. She wished him a good night and put her phone away.

"Oh man, that was awesome!" Gumball exclaimed as he sat up,

"I didn't think I'd have this much fun on a Sunday evening. Hey, do you mind if I sit with you on the bus tomorrow?" he asked.

Feeling quite excited by that idea as well as grateful, she sat up next to her friend and looked him in the eye,

"Sure thing!" she replied in cheery tone,

"Although, wouldn't you want to sit next to Darwin and Carrie?" she thought it was kind of odd that he would choose to sit next to her on the bus when he would normally sit next to his best friend and sibling.

Gumball shrugged and turned his attention towards the window. It was really dark out and he could hear the insects forming a chorus of noises as the night dragged on,

"I would, but he got in trouble last Friday when Tobias made fun of Tina's breath and Tina took her anger out on the two of them. Principal Brown caught the three of them fighting and assumed they were both guilty for hurting Tina's feelings and phoned both Tobias' mom and my mom. So Darwin was grounded and not allowed to hang out with his girlfriend over the weekend and, with that being said, I'm pretty sure when they meet on the bus they're gonna get… _lovey-dovey_!" he grimaced at the last two words.

Teri wasn't surprised at Gumball's reluctance to sit next to his brother and his ghostly girlfriend. She even found it rather uncomfortable to be sitting by a couple who seemed to enjoy spending time getting cuddly. It wasn't like she despised couples everywhere, she just didn't like all the love between two people being prominently displayed in public areas. Maybe she'll change her mind when she has a special someone of her own, but for now, she wanted to avoid any PDA as much as possible. Also, the idea of kissing freaked her out because of the exchange of saliva between two different people: it was like asking to get infected.

"On a scale of one to ten, how lovey-dovey will Carrie and Darwin get?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"With those two, about an eight, I suppose. They're not all over each other like Alan and Carmen, but they will cuddle and hug for most of the trip's duration." he explained.

When the two had seriously begun dating, they at first started out slow and only flirted while also enjoying some romantic activities together. Then after a month, they began doing things like holding hands and sharing food in the cafeteria. Once summer rolled around, Darwin and Carrie began visiting each other more often and going on dates whenever time made it convenient for the walking fish and emo ghost. When Penny and Gumball broke up, the two had even more time to hang out, since Gumball was going through his depression.

In all honesty, the depression hadn't gone away. He still missed her a lot and found himself getting sad any time he was by himself. He hadn't been mopey like he was during the summer and first week of school because he was too busy worrying about saving Elmore from the Nephilim alongside Teri.

While Gumball thought about Elmore and his plans on defending it, Teri had something she wanted to talk to Gumball about and decided now was the right time to bring it up.

Mumbling to herself, she stated that she understood what Gumball said and spoke about her next topic,

"It's unfortunate that you won't be able to speak to Carrie on the bus." she started, sounding more disappointed than Gumball was at the moment,

"I was hoping that you could ask her if there were any items she could lend me so I can fight the Nephilim too." she muttered to herself all the while checking Gumball's face for any visible signs that he may know something.

This was came as a surprise to Gumball. She was asking him if there were any ways _she_ could fight the evil spirits from beyond? This was kind of confusing to the blue cat because even though it would make more sense to find some way to arm his only accomplice with a way to fight them off, he thought that they were doing well as a team. Her paper manipulation was more than enough cover for his and her weaknesses.

"Huh? Why would you want a magical item to help you fight the Nephilim? I thought you were doing fine with all your origami constructs." he asked in bewilderment.

Teri saw that one coming and sat up straighter, looking at Gumball with more concern written on her bear face,

"I'm not saying I feel weak or like a burden to you. I'm more concerned about the possibility of a Nephilim attacking when you are gone, for whatever reason, and I'm the only one who can see it, but I won't be able to fight back effectively." she explained, although she did lie about the first part, she actually did feel a bit like a burden to him because while he had to defend himself, he also had to look out for her as well. That was just something she did not want to continue and wanted to find a better way to assist him.

That actually made sense to Gumball. It was true that she wasn't holding him back by not being able to kill or damage a Nephilim, but in the event that he was gone for a while or they lose the scythe, there wouldn't be much that they or she could do to stop them. Now that he thought about it, it wouldn't hurt to find alternative means of fighting the constant threats to Elmore's citizens.

"You have a fair point Teri. Tomorrow, I shall talk to Carrie at lunch and see if she has anything to offer you in terms of spiritual warfare." he declared in a mighty voice he imitated from a TV show he'd once seen,

"I shall also look into finding a way to better hone my scythe skills and probably finding a secondary weapon, like a magical dagger or a gun that fires lightning bolts!" he mentions with child-like excitement.

Teri tilted her head to side a little, causing a shadow to fall over most of her features,

"Scythe skills?" she asked with slight intrigue and criticism,

"You mean to tell me that the way you've been swinging that metal rod with the hook blade was actually a set of coordinated moves that have been rehearsed?" she mocked him with a slight smile.

Gumball felt the sting of her words and stopped looking all excited in order to shoot her a glare that could melt steel. The paper bear just smiled at him sarcastically as a response to his leering. Of course, the adventurous child took this as a personal challenge and hopped off the bed to where his backpack lay.

Seeing where he was going and what he was about to do, Teri shot upwards on her bed with a look of terror mixed with anger bolted on her flat face,

"GUMBALL! DON'T YOU DARE SWING THAT SCYTHE IN MY ROOM!" she shrieked, realizing right away that she may have overreacted.

Pulling the scythe out of his backpack, his paw found the button that extended the shaft to the full length and was soon holding the weapon in its full length form. Two things that had always bothered him about the weapon was that Carrie mentioned that it was a thousand years old and yet it looked and felt brand new, also, it was always the perfect weight for him without feeling clumsy or too light in his paws. He didn't pull out the blade, he only extended the handle.

He held it up in front of him and took his position in the center of her room,

"I'm not going to extend the blade, I'm just going to show you an impressive move I recently perfected." he said with a grin and a suggestive raise of an eyebrow.

Despite his promise not to break anything, Teri still didn't feel at ease, but allowed to continue on the silent premise that if he _did_ break anything in her room, he was paying for it.

He swung the handle until the closed weapon was resting at his hip. Teri laid herself on her stomach and placed her head on her hands as she watched in amusement,

" _This should be an interesting show, at the very least."_ she chuckled inwardly.

The blue cat spread his legs until they were at shoulder length, bent his knees, and took a deep breath,

"BE AMAZED!" he roared.

Snapping his body into action, he leapt up in the air and twirled the folded scythe with both hands. The spinning weapon made a grey circle as it swung around in the child's paws and made a slight whooshing noise as it caught the air. Unfortunately, he didn't stick the landing too well and he fumbled with the weapon as he was caught off balance.

The four foot metal rod smacked him square in the face, drawing blood from his tiny, orange, triangular nose as he fell backwards from the painful mistake.

Dropping the weapon, he fell on his back, hands clasping his throbbing nose as he rolled about the carpet. He groaned in pain as the sharp, burning sensation made its way up his face and throughout his body. His eyes were stinging with tears and he could feel blood running from his nostrils down to his upper lip. He mentally blamed his mistake on peer pressure, stage fright, and the light burning his eyes.

Seeing the scythe wielder hurt by his own blunder, Teri leapt up from her bed and fetched a box of tissues from her nightstand and rushed to Gumball's side. She sat down beside his curled form and pried his arms away from his face. She could see the tears starting to form in his eyes as he stared at the ceiling,

"Gumball! Are you okay?" she cried out in an wispy voice.

With a groan, the blue cat gave the paper girl a sideways glance and saw her wide, black eyes full of concern and sadness, he felt bad seeing her like this and decided to try and cheer her up,

"Yeah, well you should see the other guy when I perfect the dragon spin and leave his jaw on the floor, cause' I'm gonna slice it off with that surprise finishing move!" he boasted with a hearty laugh, ignoring the pain his face was in.

Rolling her eyes once again, she began dabbing at his bleeding nostrils in order to clean up the area,

"Here, use this, and don't tilt your head backwards. I know that's probably what other people have told you in the past, but I've done my research and I know that it increases the risk of letting blood into your lungs." she explained, giving the blue cat her usual as-a-matter-fact tone and know-it-all face. She handed him another tissue and he pressed it against his nose while tilting his head forward.

"Go downstairs and wash up in the bathroom!" she directed.

Gumball uttered a 'thank you' and left the room. Once Teri was alone, she cleaned up any stray drops of blood from the carpet with extensive care. After she had finished cleaning the potential bloodborne pathogen from her floor, she went and retrieved the inflatable air mattress from the closet and began pumping it up for the night using a hand pump that came along with it. She was in the process of retrieving some spare blankets and a pillow when Gumball had exited the bathroom and met her in the hallway at the bottom of the stairs. His face was clean, but Teri could see that the fur on his snout was still wet.

"You ready for bed?" she asked, poking her face out from behind the stack of blankets and the pillow that rested in her arms.

The cat boy nodded and stretched his arms as fatigue made itself present within his body,

"Yeah." he yawned,

"By the way, I made sure to clean the sink so it looks as nice as it was before I used it. I didn't want you waking up and going to the bathroom only to find dry blood in the sink." he added.

"Thank you for doing that." Teri replied, handing him his sheets and pillow,

"Speaking of cleaning, I'm going to be waking up at 5 a.m. to clean my room. The bus stops in front of my house at around 6:30, so if you wish to sleep in I'll wake at 6 so you can eat breakfast, shower, and get dressed for the day." she was already climbing the steps when she said the last sentence.

Gumball followed behind her, being careful to watch where he was stepping since he couldn't see over the clean sheets he held, and silently acknowledged what she said. Five o' clock wasn't a terrible time to wake up, he was used to waking up at seven on a school day, but at least she was giving him the option to sleep in an extra hour. He'd probably do something nice for her tomorrow morning, seeing as she's been a wonderful hostess and she brought him over as a way to pay him back for getting his clothes dirty in the first place. He thought about ways he could help her out in the morning.

They reached the top of the stairs and proceeded to make their way to the bedroom across the short hall. Upon entering, Gumball spread his blanket on the air mattress that awaited him and flopped down its fluffy surface. Teri turned off the light and got under the covers to her own bed and began the process of "applying" her blindfold onto her face.

"Night, Gumball." she said silently.

Gumball nestled himself under the soft covers and snuggled his head into the pillow provided for him. He curled up and allowed his eyes to close,

"Night, Teri." he replied,

"Thank you for having me over. I had a lot fun tonight." he mumbled, feeling his consciousness starting to fade into the dreamworld.

Though blind, Teri turned to face him and formed a sleepy smile on her face.

"You're welcome! It was nice having you over and I had a lot of fun as well." she responded in her airy voice.

After a few moments, she could hear Gumball's breathing grow soft and the room was completely silent. It was quite pleasant to the paper bear girl and she hoped that they would be able to do this more often. Over the past few days, she found herself growing more attached to the troublesome blue cat that was her classmate and now one of her best friends. They've faced and defeated seven Nephilim spirits together. For an apocalypse, things were moving along at a pleasant pace for them. It actually gave the young girl hope that there was a future that didn't involve the end of this world. A future where she could grow up with her friends, finish school, get a job as a nurse, and possibly get married and settle down with a family of her own.

She and Gumball did their fair share of research on the evil spirits, but haven't pulled up much in terms of useful information. They did learn that they were once the first beings to inherit the Earth, but they turned their backs on the Jade emperor, their father and creator of the world according to certain texts, and for that they were wiped off the planet. In some other articles it was said that the Nephilim lived alongside the Earth children, the people that live on Earth today, but treated them as they would any other animal and proceeded to crush them underfoot. The Earth children had no way of fighting back against the powerful giants and when they cried to the heavens for help, the Jade emperor pitied them and scorched the world in order to rid it of the fearsome giants.

It seemed that that was the only info. they could dig up in the library or from other people, but while surfing the web, Teri did come across an article that discussed their "theoretical" return. It said that the Earth children, while diverse in body and spirit, also began diverge from the true path the emperor of the celestial heavens had set out for us. It described a few vague events that were predicted to happen in the future, but one them included the spirit of the Nephilim returning to the Earth in order to wreak havoc amongst the peoples of this age. Some said the Nephilim's return was just the beginning of the end, other theological theorists claim that the Nephilim were returning to reclaim the world as the true inheritors, and some hopeful optimists had posted that the war between the spirit realm and the Earthly realm will bring about a new age that will ensure prosperity and enlightenment amongst the children of the Jade emperor.

It provided some insight for the two spirit fighters of Elmore, but it still remained unclear for the pair as to what was actually going on. The world was clueless or simply just didn't care for such events. It was likely that they were on their own for the time being.

Teri felt herself start to grow weary of all the questions and possibilities that spun through her head. It had been a stressful week and September will be drawing to a close soon. Once they get to school, they'll find better ways to combat the wrathful spirits of old so that all these possibilities don't become realities. Teri allowed herself to rest and eventually drifted into her subconscious. She prayed that she'll never dream of the Nephilim tonight along with Gumball.

Thankfully her prayers were answered.

 _-September 16th, 2013, Elmore Junior High, 12:00 P.M.-_

The lunch room was as rowdy as ever, leaving not even a moment of silence. Gumball sat at his table with Darwin, Carrie, and Tobias with a tray full of cafeteria slop in front of him. His body ached all over from his intense workout in the gym. He had pushed himself beyond his limits and even asked coach Russo to help out by giving tips on how to build muscle faster. Sadly the overweight, middle age, cube woman just prattled him to keep up the good work without actually giving out any good advice. His reflexes have increased a little thanks to the baseball pitching machine he rigged up to fire at him while he dodged and deflected each ball with a bat. He was improving overall, but still had a lot of work to do.

While he waited for his three friends to finish speaking, he peeked over at Teri's table and saw that she was sitting with Leslie, Masami, and Molly while reading a book of sorts. She hadn't even touched her food, which made Gumball assume that she was studying something important or she too was disgusted by the ugly green slop that looked like tossed out pig feed. Knowing how cheap the school could be at times, it could very much be pig slop.

The morning had gone on with little incident. When Teri's alarm clock started ringing, Gumball and Teri both got up and began handling separate tasks. When Teri started cleaning her room, Gumball informed her that he'll be handling breakfast and went down to the kitchen. Her parents hadn't woken up yet, so the house was quiet and seemed empty to the blue cat. He sorted through their pantry and fridge and remembered that Teri often said that she enjoyed oatmeal and decided to make that for his friend upstairs.

Not being a fan of oatmeal, Gumball made himself a sandwich and fried up some bacon he found in the fridge. Once their meal was ready, Gumball set it on the table and went up to tell Teri that breakfast was ready. When he opened her door, he accidently opened it too fast and the gust of wind sent her flying across the room. After a brief argument, Gumball apologized and informed her that breakfast was ready and they both went downstairs, ate together, and continued with their morning rituals.

After taking a shower and dressing up for the day, the blue cat helped Teri finish up her chores in order for her to take a shower and clean herself before the bus arrived.

They rode the bus together and sure enough, in the back of the bus Darwin and his incorporeal love were cuddling while retelling the tale of their long weekend. While that happened, the two spirit fighters discussed their plan for the day and decided to meet up again at the schoolyard like they have been doing for a while now. Gumball suggested that she should look in the magic section of the library and if they couldn't find anything to help her at the school, then they could pay a visit to Hector's mom, Ms. Jotenheim, to see if she had a spell or charm that could assist in the extermination of the evil dead.

During class time, the paper bear and the blue cat sat next to each other and helped take notes. Darwin sat on the opposite end and would often pester his older brother about what he was doing at Teri's house. Both of them had been completely unaware of the rumors that had been spreading around the school regarding the two and their potential "relationship". Darwin had also been caught in the cycle of rumors as well, but didn't dwell too much within them. He believed that Gumball had made better connections with the school germaphobe and was now hanging out with her. To the goldfish, this was good news because it was a sign that he was recovering from the fallout of his previous relationship.

When fourth period swung around the corner, Gumball made his way to gym class while Teri took off for the library. She went to the magic section like Gumball had suggested, but she only found books that contained fairy tales and other bizarre stories and offered no help in the ways of defending oneself against otherworldly monsters. Next, she tried the internet, but to her frustration most of the sites were either censored because of school policy or were from people who spent too much time playing RPG's and definitely were not to be trusted as credible sources of information. Finally, she decided to consult a few teachers who may know of such things such as Mr. Small, but he only gave her vague advice about battling inner demons and spirits of negativity by the power of positive vibes.

Regardless, she got nowhere real fast and decided to find a book with a story that closely resembled fighting evil spirits and figured maybe there was something in those books that she could replicate or use before lunch period had started. If Ms. Jotenheim had nothing for her, then she may have to ask Carrie for help, although she was reluctant to do so because she was afraid that the emo student might become suspicious of her requests. She may wind up having to rely on Gumball to kill the ancient monsters and that didn't bode well for her at all.

Watching his fighting partner carefully reading what appeared to be a fantasy story of sorts, Gumball decided that he should probably ask Carrie to help him out with something. Unfortunately, both she and Darwin were in the middle of a heated argument with Tobias over the events that occured last Friday and from the sounds of it, the worst wasn't over yet. At least, they still had one plan to enact upon before the next monster showed up and Gumball was not looking forward to either of those things.

"WATTERSON!" a gruff, feminine voice roared.

It wasn't enough to cause a disruption in the cafeteria, but it did cause a certain cat to knit his brow, allow his pointy ears to droop, tail wag in an angry manner, and his stomach churn in disgust. He recognized the voice and it was bad enough he had to see _her_ in the gym, now she was here to cause more trouble for him. Marching towards his table on short stubby legs, yellow hair hiding her glaring eyes, and a nasty sneer full of pointy white teeth, was the coach's daughter herself: Jamie Russo.

Gumball could feel himself falling into a deep funk and a sour taste came into his mouth upon seeing the half cow, half troglodyte. He kept his expression somewhat neutral albeit a little annoyed if you saw his eyebrows as he came up with a classic zinger as a greeting,

"Did the zoo lose another one or did they decide to let you out for once?" he said, voice heavy with sarcasm, but behind it was a little nervousness as well. He didn't have the best track record with the tiny, yet brash bully and frankly, he was hoping that she'd just come here to tease him a bit before storming off to join her friend Tina and their lackey piece of toast, Anton.

The insult flew right over her head as she continued towards his table, looking devious as ever,

"I saw you at gym class today-!"

"Wait! you can actually see through that yellow haystack you call hair?!" he exclaimed mockingly. Widening his eyes in pretend surprise.

She snorted at being interrupted and gave him a growl,

"I WASN'T FINISHED, YOU TWERP!" she shouted.

Now she had the attention of Carrie, Darwin, and Tobias, who saw the husky little pest and decided to move somewhere else while her attention was on someone else.

"I'm sorry. I was just so surprised because you always blindly lash out at people that I just assumed you couldn't see past your bangs or sensitive inferiority complex." he shrugged. He knew he shouldn't egg her on, but the snarky side of him wanted to bite today.

This caused the short tempered friend of Tina to launch into a flurry of insults and threats directed at the cat who was currently sassing her. She jumped up and down, slammed her meaty fist into her oversized mit and bared her fangs at him. If he could see her eyes, they'd probably be spewing flames or lasers or daggers or pretty much every deadly artifact known to man.

She eventually cooled her jets a little, but was now a few inches closer and was still looking venomous,

"As I was saying, I saw you working hard in gym class!" she fumed,

"Trying to knock me down a peg, I see! Well, before you think you can even hold a candle to me, I'm going to take you to my personal workout that involves you running for your life and testing your endurance against my two best pals: Papa knuckles and big bro slammer!" she threatened, pounding her fists together in order to better emphasize her point.

So Jamie felt threatened by Gumball because he was working out today. Gumball felt his eyes roll in his noggin at the sheer stupidity of that revelation. Doesn't Jamie realize that even if he gets stronger, he still won't be able to defeat her or the T-rex that also assists in bullying the school children.

He was too tired and sore to run or fight back so he just braced himself for what was to come.

Jamie saw her opportunity to punch the cowering kitten and raised her fist to deliver the first painful blow. Luckily, she never got to throw a punch or deliver any sort of pain to her back talking classmate because her arm was caught as it was reeling back. Looking back in confusion and surprise, she saw that her thick, little arm was being held in place by a greyish black, four fingered hand.

Before she could react or turn her head to face the intruder, another hand placed itself on top of her round, horned head. She felt the fingers dig into her scalp and her body was lifted off the ground by an amazing force. She kicked her stubby legs as they dangled in the air, flailed about with her free arm, and shouted a few curses as she tried to figure out who was doing this.

And with a sudden and quick motion, the arms holding her swung around at full force: dragging the screaming bully in a half circle. Once enough force was gathered, the arms released their hold and Jamie was sent flying out the window. The last thing she saw before she crashed through the glass was a distorted, polygonal figure with one eye, grinning at her as she flew away.

Gumball watched in shock as he watched one of the school's most notorious fiends get tossed out of the school like a sack of potatoes by someone he knew all too well.

"DOCTOR WRECKER!" he shouted.

The disfigured arch-nemesis of Gumball and Darwin spun around on his heel to face the surprised child. His head was polygonal with patches of brown hair shaped in the same way covering the upper portion to resemble bangs. His cheeks and left arm displayed static and his single yellow eye was narrowed at the blue cat with a slit pupil focusing on his figure. He was very tall and lanky with scrawny limbs and legs: how he was able to throw Jamie so easily was beyond Gumball. He wore a yellow T-shirt with orange sleeves, a brown backpack, and red shorts. Despite his simple appearance he was quite unsettling to look at and being Gumball's mortal enemy, his presence here meant there was trouble ahead.

With Jamie being replaced with this evil genius, it was like jumping out of the frying pan and into a bonfire.

Dr. Wrecker sneered at his frightened opponent and placed a pink hand on his forehead,

"Geez Gumball, how many times do we have to go over this. It's just Rob!" he scolded in annoyance, his voice was slightly high pitched, like a teenager going through puberty.

"And stop looking so frightened, you don't know why I'm here." he folded his arms and continued to leer at him.

Gumball wasn't exactly sure if he could trust the former student of Elmore Junior High and sat up straight, looking his opponent in the eye,

"Um, dude! No offense, but you kinda just tossed a student out the window!" he replied, holding both hands out in front of him in the direction of the broken window that was attracting several curious students.

Rob's eye widened at the realization of his actions and he quickly turned to glance at the window. After a moment of analyzing the damage, he turned his attention to Gumball once more with a relaxed expression melting away the worried one,

"She'll be fine." he remarked nonchalantly.

BOOM!

The moment Rob uttered those words, an explosion erupted in the background where the main road was, conveniently in the same direction Jamie was thrown in. This caused the students gathered at the window to scream in panic and run towards the exit. The blue cat narrowed his eyes at the villainous figure and crossed his arms in response to the terrible accident that occured just a second ago.

Rob still looked calm and just shrugged, like it was just a minor inconvenience,

"No one's going to miss her." he said, glancing off to the side.

"JAMIE!" both coach Russo and Tina Rex screamed in unison, having witnessed the whole fiasco, and rushed for the exit to check on the fallen student.

Gumball raised an eyebrow to further emphasize the consequences of Rob's actions.

At this point Rob was losing his patience and threw his arms up in a rage,

"OKAY! I GET IT!" he roared,

"Can I talk to you about something, since that's what I came here to do in the first place!"

"If you're here to destroy me, you should have waited. Either Jamie or the school lunch would have caused a death more painful than anything you could have come up with." He replied snidely, clearly in a bad mood.

The former background character now-turned-villain paused before he could come back with a snappy reply and then held up a finger,

"Uh- is that a challenge?" he asked, grinning wickedly.

Having enough of people seeking to destroy him for the day, Gumball hopped off his seat and proceeded to dump his tray of chemical sludge in one of the few trash bins placed in the cafeteria. He noticed that Teri was gone and assumed she had left with the other students after Rob's "explosive" entrance. There were a couple places she could be that Gumball could think of off the top of his head: out on the school yard waiting for him or observing the damage, or she could be in the infirmary for a plethora of reasons. He would have to pay a visit to the infirmary first because that was the first and most likely place the hypochondriac was.

Rob saw his nemesis walking away without waiting for him to explain the reason for why he was here and raced after him. He was slightly irritated that he was being ignored like that and wanted to give the obnoxious feline a piece of his mind. He easily caught up to him (with his legs being longer it took him only three strides to do so.), waited for him to dump his trash, and began walking beside him as he made his way towards the school hall.

Gumball walked in angered silence, as he didn't appreciate Rob's presence, but had no choice but to let him walk beside him since he couldn't send him away. He saw the disfigured cyclops studying his expression and pretended to pay him no mind. However, with lady luck going against him today, Rob immediately began speaking,

"Um, so where are we heading?" he asked, trying to break the awkward silence.

Gumball continued to glare ahead of him and pushed aside a set of double door,

"The infirmary." he simply answered.

"Why are you heading there? Are you ill?" he studied him some more for any sign of illness.

"No. I'm visiting a friend. Would you buzz off!"

"Who's your friend?"

"Teri."

"Who's she again?"

"Oh right, you were sucked into the void and you don't remember any of your former classmates." Gumball said, remembering the past events concerning the villain,

"She's the paper girl who looks like a bear, very feeble, a huge germaphobe, and is always checking in to the nurse's office. I think the nurse and her get along really well." he explained, although he wasn't entirely sure about that last line.

Rob kept his pace and pondered on the kitten's words. Searching his distorted memory he picked up a few things regarding the girl whom Gumball was referring to. Unfortunately, his memories were still too hazy to land any meaningful definitions.

"I think I know who you're talking about." he responded slowly.

His pupil narrowed into a slit again as he remembered what he was here for. Now that he was engaged in a conversation with Gumball, he could focus on the topic he had on his mind. Looking ahead of him and his current companion, he saw that they were nearing Gumball's desired destination and decided to bring up what he knew,

"Is she the one who has been helping you defeat the Nephilim that have been attacking Elmore?" he asked, lowering his gaze to the student's face.

Shock immediately gripped the Watterson child, forcing him to stop in place. With a baffled complexion, he twisted his head until it was facing his nemesis. His eyes searched his face for any hints of a joke, but couldn't find anything seeing as his face was rather unreadable. Plus, why would he joke about something he'd probably known about for a while now. To Gumball, it made logical sense that someone was going to notice the two of them going about their various encounters eventually. What he hadn't guessed though, was that someone would see them _and_ the Nephilim.

If Rob could see them, could there be others that could see the evil spirits as well?

"You… can… see them too?!" he fumbled with his words.

Feeling appreciative of the fact that he had Gumball's attention, Rob smirked a little and continued to relay what he had gathered,

"Oh yes! As clear as day! And I can even see them in my dreams before they even arrive." he answered with full confidence.

Gumball felt his jaw drop and hit the floor. Rob continued to ramble on about his findings,

"I'm guessing you and Teri have been experiencing the same things as I, because every time I went out to investigate, I always find you two already engaging the creatures. I bet you two didn't know that I found a way to help combat the spirits from beyond!" he stated.

There was a slight pause as Gumball stared at him perplexed,

"Of course we didn't know!" he exclaimed rather loudly,

"We didn't know you were spying on us, we didn't know that you could you could see them and of course, we didn't know you'd find a way to fight them. We didn't even know that were other people that were aware of the Nephilims existence up till now!"

Rob listened to his rant and glared at the blue cat in frustration,

"Well were you two aware that the entire world is under attack and that your town is just a small target when compared to other sites." he snapped back.

This caught Gumball off guard. He wasn't aware that there were other Nephilim monsters attacking various areas around the globe. He was so caught up in defending Elmore from their apocalyptic plight that he hadn't even considered the possibility of other places being attacked. However, as alarming as that was, it wasn't that much of a concern for him because his fight and focus were in his hometown.

His expression soften up a little and he cooled the fire that was burning within him,

"So the whole world is under attack by these things?" he asked aloud.

"That's literally what I just said." Rob replied in a monotone voice as he stared at him in a dull fashion,

"Anyway, the reason I'm here right now is because, as much as I hate the idea, I wish to TEMPORARILY drop all hostilities and have you and your girlfriend join me in an alliance to defend Elmore against the forces of evil." he offered, raising his voice on the word "temporarily" in order to highlight that such an alliance was only for this one task.

Honestly, Gumball wasn't as shocked by this offer as he was when he found out Rob could see the invisible threat that loomed over the citizens of this strange town. This by no means, was a pleasant idea to Gumball when he thought about teaming up with the person who could backstab him when the opportunity presented itself. On the plus side though, it would mean an extra pair of hands would be joining the cause that was their survival. Rob was also very crafty and full of knowledge that would be of a benefit to him and Teri.

Gumball decided to take the road of caution, a route he very rarely used,

"How do I know that you're not going to betray us as a means to gain more power or something? Also, Teri's not my girlfriend!" the last part was more out of irritation than anything else.

Rolling his eye in frustration, Rob snorted at Gumball's reasonable, yet cautious response before answering in a tone akin to an adult trying to convince his child to go to the doctor,

"These things are going to destroy the world. If they were out to get you, then I would've helped them, but since all our lives are on the line, I'd sooner help you so I can live to destroy you one day rather than let something else exterminate the rest of us." he responded before adding,

"And, pfft! Whatever, you and paper girl are so joined at the hip nowadays you might as well be going out. You're a lot happier than when Penny moved out and trust me when I say, that's a good thing. I hate tormenting you when you're all depressed and mopey."

Gumball pushed down the tide of depressing thoughts that usually flooded his mind when someone mentioned the name of his ex-girlfriend and let out a heavy, agitated sigh. He understood where Rob was going at and it made sense to Gumball, apart from the thing where he said he and Teri should be dating. He liked her as a friend and he could tell that they were getting closer as pals, but wasn't sure if he felt anything that resembled romantic desire towards her.

"Okay. I'll let you join our team **if** Teri agrees on you joining as well." he responded, adding the little catch at the end.

The villainous cyclops didn't seem to mind the extra inconvenience of getting Teri to let him join his team and instead, just readjusted the straps on his backpack. Nodding in quiet agreement, he took a step forward and began making his way to infirmary. Gumball noticed his odd response, but thought nothing of it. Rob's face was showing signs of irritation, but it seemed like he wanted to visit Teri by the way he immediately began heading in her supposed direction. Gumball decided to take it as Rob killing two birds with one stone and took off after him.

There were no sounds in the hallway except for the soft pitter patter of feet echoing through the voluminous space.

 _-Nurses office-_

The door that separated the school medical office from the passageway that allowed students and staff to transverse throughout the school was flung open with a crash and Teri was pushed out of the office by a pair of red, stick-like appendages. She had only been in there for two minutes and was already being tossed out by the rather brash school nurse. She didn't make a sound when she was being pushed out from behind, but her eyes were wide with disbelief and her mouth was pursed.

"Next time you choose to waste my time with another fake ailment, I'll have them send you to the therapist where they can treat your _real_ problem." Ms. Markham snarled before slamming the door shut on the paper girl.

Getting over her shock, Teri balled up her fist and lowered her head until she could see only her feet. She was very upset. When she got to the lunchroom, she tried to pick apart, in a metaphorical sense, the book, _detergent,_ a story describing the adventures of a teenage boy who fought evil spirits similar to the ones she and Gumball fought, when her head started hurting for some unknown reason. Deciding it was a sign of some horrendous sickness, Teri left to go see if there was a treatment for whatever she was feeling. Before she left, she saw Gumball talking to Jamie for reasons unknown to her.

She made her way down here, told the band-aid nurse what was happening, and before she knew it, was shoved back out into the hall and humiliated for the umpteenth time.

"That nurse is such a quack!" she muttered to herself.

She sucked in a huge breath of air and let off some steam by exhaling. She was better at anger management than most of her classmates and was quite used to being ridiculed for her frequent visits to the medical room. What's funny about it all was the fact that that was how she ran into Silver Twelve and met up with Gumball. She was visiting her mom in the hospital because she believed her dream was a sign of an illness and when she was sent out, she ran into Silver Twelve and the rest was history.

She still wished that people would take her seriously.

She heard the sound of approaching footsteps drawing nearer and she raised her head to see who was coming. To her surprise, it was Gumball and some mysterious person she had seen once on the bus. She recalled him going by the title of Dr. Wrecker and was Gumball's self proclaimed nemesis. She didn't understand why they were walking side by side towards her instead of attacking one another and this caused her to fear something was up.

Nervous, she took a step in the direction opposite of the two,

"Hey Gumball. Hey… Dr. wrecker was it?" she greeted skittishly.

As soon as she mentioned his evil alias, Rob threw his mismatched hands in the air, glared at her as his pupil narrowed once again, and left his jaw hanging open,

"Seriously! It's Rob!" he shouted in offense.

Gumball elbowed him in the rib, causing the lanky cyclops to flinch as a sharp pain shot through his side,

"Dude! You forgot about her when I brought her up, hypocrite!" Gumball retorted gesturing with both hands towards the nervous girl in question.

Rob glared at him and looked like he was about to counter his point, but after a moment of thinking he realized he was in the wrong and kept his lips zipped. He turned until he was facing away from the cat and muttered some snarky comment under his breath. Gumball rolled his eyes and continued to explain to Teri what was going on,

"Teri, this is Rob." he introduced the mad doctor, who just gave her a slight wave before turning his attention elsewhere,

"He's actually one of the original students of EJH and was in our class last year. He was thrown into the void, a weird dimension parallel to our own where all the worlds mistakes are thrown into to be forgotten, last year and became disfigured like this and barely remembers his past. He became Elmore's villain and now he wants to help us fight the Nephilim because it turns out he can see them and has been stalking us throughout our various battles. Sound simple?" he summarized the story as best as he could and wanted to make sure his partner understood what was being told to her.

"Honestly, as much as I dislike him, I wouldn't mind him joining us to fight seeing as we're barely holding our own against these things. However, I wanted to check with you to see if it was alright if he joined us because your opinion matters too." he added in, looking first at Rob and then back at her.

Teri just stared at Gumball blankly. After seeing her friend show up with a past figure that threatened to destroy them once before and explain that he was once one of the students that went here and now wants to join them in their own little war, was a bit much for the paper girl to take in at the moment. However, one thing she did notice right away was that Gumball showed up with Rob without appearing threatened or showing any signs that he was doing this against his own free will that would normally set off a red flag for the normally paranoid female student. It seemed as though the two had come to some understanding and were coming to her for her input.

Before Teri could say anything, Rob pulled something out of his backpack and approached her with said item in an outstretched hand. Curious and slightly confused, Teri grabbed the object as soon as it was within her reach and looked it over. It appeared to be just a plain, old notebook one would buy at a convenience store with a blue cover and a title written in black marker that read " **Rob's notes** " in neat handwriting. She opened it and began flipping through the pages and discovered, to her fascination, each page had a rune, similar to the ones etched into Gumball's scythe blade, drawn in it. There were only five runes written in the notebook, leaving the remaining pages blank.

Closing the book, Teri looked up at mysterious villain and asked,

"Where did you get these?"

The cyclops gave her a little shrug and stepped back to where Gumball was,

"I thought the symbols on Gumball's weapon looked familiar, so I snuck into Ms. Jotenheim's cave and dug through her ancient texts. I found a section dedicated to fighting the Nephilim, but most of it didn't survive the test of time (actually a lot of books in that section were practically a year away from turning into dust.) so I could only copy five symbols." he explained, his static cheeks darkening with his disappointment.

Well that was very inconvenient because this is exactly what Teri was looking for, but only had a limited stock to fight with. Still, it was more than enough because it now meant she had a fighting chance against the malevolent entities. The blue cat, on the other hand, was skeptical of his gifts and wanted some answers.

He walked over to Teri, flipped open the notebook she held and analyzed the runes displayed on the five pages,

"And how are these supposed to help her fight the Nephilim?" he asked, both he and Teri regarding Rob with skeptical looks.

Once again, Rob didn't seem caught off guard as he smiled confidently and stood tall as he spoke,

"After finding those symbols, I did a little field test on a Nephilim spirit that appeared at the mall. I brought with me a gun, a jar of paint, a brush and the notebook itself. When it appeared, I painted one of the runes on a bullet and fired at the creature. As I suspected the creature burst into flames and disappeared. I fled the mall before security could arrive along with you two."

Both listeners stood there in shock as they listened to his story. While Teri was surprised that such a simple trick could actually work, Gumball was in a rage,

"Wait!" he said in a raised voice,

"So you mean to tell me you're the reason why Teri and I wandered around the mall for two hours, three days ago!" he angrily accused the distorted cyclops.

Rob waved off him off before quickly making his way down the hall. He looked over his shoulder towards the two and jerked his head towards the direction he was walking, indicating he wanted the two to follow along. The two children silently agreed and began following the tall child of the same age. They weren't sure where he was taking them, but they could definitely tell by his body language that he wanted to move quickly.

Teri looked over the symbols once again and memorized them,

"So you painted them on a regular bullet and it killed the Nephilim spirit, just like that?" she asked silently.

Rob looked over his shoulder towards the paper bear girl he had recently decided was trustworthy enough to share vital information with and continued to provide her with intel,

"Well, I didn't just pick a random spot to shoot at. I observed how you guys fought and chose to shoot its vital area, it died instantly. I think those runes have different powers." he now directed his intel towards Gumball,

"I also believe that scythe you wield has other powers seeing as it has three runes inscribed on the blade."

This was the only thing Rob said that struck Gumball as interesting. He noticed the runes etched onto the blade a couple of times, but didn't look into it that much. Now that he thought about it, he did feel _something_ resonating through the weapon and into himself whenever it came in contact with a Nephilim spirit. He knew he wasn't all that good at studying, especially ancient, magical, mumbo jumbo, but Rob on the other hand, was actually good at overcoming complex puzzles. Maybe he could help unlock potential ways to fight the dark forces because for all the blue cat knew, the Nephilim weren't going to be easier to fight as time goes on. There will be more and each one had the potential to grow stronger, meaning they had to get stronger themselves.

"I have a proposal." Rob stated, breaking Gumball out of his thoughts,

"There's a Nephilim that's going to appear in the desert, near a toxic chemical plant about an hour from now. Teri, why don't you use this opportunity as a field test for your new powers and Gumball, you can let me assist you in fighting the creature off. If I prove to be of use to you two, you will let me join you guys. If not, then we'll go our separate ways and never-!"

"You're in!" they both said in unison.

Halting in his tracks, the brilliant madman of Elmore pivoted on his heel with an expression that screamed, _"this isn't what I expected!"_ as soon as the two unanimously gave him their consent.

"Wait, wha- but I didn't go through my trial, I didn't earn your friendship, or rite of passage- DON'T YOU TWO HAVE AT LEAST A LITTLE COMMON SENSE?!" he hysterically pulled at his polygonal hair as he tried to find some reasoning behind their actions.

Teri was the first to speak up,

"Well, I agree that you're not the first person I'd trust, considering you tried blowing us up on a bus about a year back, but you did approach us with some knowledge that we definitely needed. Also, you resolved an issue I was having since last night, so all in all, I'd say you're worthy of working with us." she casually pointed out.

Gumball was the next to speak, but he still looked unpleased about the whole situation,

"Yeah, like Teri said, you did some pretty bad things in the past, but you have fought the Nephilim before and seeing as you told me you despise them, I'd count you as an ally in this case."

They both walked over to him and shook his hand one at a time, symbolizing a newfound alliance. While both Gumball and Teri seemed uneasy about the idea, Rob seemed to be pleased with it as he was smiling kindly at the two. His smile quickly became a frown as he focused his one eye on his former nemesis,

"And for the record Gumball, you're not so much a saint either." he pointed out with a little malice.

"Yeah, we all know that, but it's okay, we're not perfect." a high pitched voice sounded behind Rob, who reacted nervously by jumping at the sound of a stranger invading their little circle.

The high pitched voice belonged to Allen, a teal balloon with a handsome face drawn on his head and a heart of gold filling his hollow body. He drifted by and greeted Gumball, Rob and Teri in a pleasant manner. Right as he was out of earshot, Gumball pulled a straw out of his pocket along with a few stones and fired the rock pellets from his mouth, through the straw and at Allen. The balloon popped after being struck by three, high speed projectiles.

Gumball sighed happily and put the straw away, before turning back to a disturbed Rob,

"You're definitely right about that." he mentioned with a sly grin.

Teri shook her head and glared at the blue cat,

"Gumball! Next time we see him, you're going to apologize. That was very mean!" she cried, placing her hands on her hips in a scolding manner.

Shrugging, the elder child of the Watterson family made a fake promise to do so, thus further proving Rob's point. They began heading towards the main doors of the building.

"Okay, after recess is over there's going to be an assembly that will last an hour. That'll give us plenty of time to get to the desert, fight the monster, and get back before your next class starts." Rob whispered to the two students following him.

This left Teri with a question and she tugged at Rob's T-shirt in order to summon his attention,

"Not to be a downer or bringer of bad news, but the desert is quite a ways away from here and I don't think any aircraft I form will be able to support all our weight. Plus, we need to stop by our lockers so Gumball can retrieve his scythe and I have to grab some paper and pencils." she said, pointing a flimsy finger towards the hallway where their lockers were located.

Rob glared ahead with his one eye and took a deep breath before releasing it,

"Not to worry, I have acquired a mode of transportation three weeks ago and as for the other thing- WAIT WHAT! You guys keep weapons at school?" he questioned in surprise.

It was kind of uncanny for Rob, the evil villain out to destroy Gumball and everyone he loves, to be worried over school safety like that. It was so unbelievable and random that both children just stood in place with vacant looks as they wondered if this is the real Rob they were talking to.

"Um, no offense, but have you seen this school. We got a brutish T-rex, a robot that can shoot lasers, a prickly, walking cactus, a sentient cloud that shoot lightning and create powerful gales via emotional outbursts, a giant that could flatten a city block by sitting, and much more. Do you really think a scythe is going to lower the school safety regulations?" he responded, his voice laced with derision.

It didn't take a mad scientist to know that this school was far from safe and rob saw the flaw in his earlier outburst. Facepalming, he shook his head in disbelief,

"Okay, okay, that was dumb of me. First, we'll stop by your lockers then we'll hunt down the beast!" he exclaimed.

The three cheered in determination and pumped their fists in the air.

GROOWLL! GUUURRRGGLE! GRRRNNN!

Their stomachs were loud enough to drown out their cheers with roars of protest. The three sweat dropped in unison as they stared at their empty abdomens in surprise. An awkward silence filled the air and Rob raised a hand to point at the ceiling in a grand gesture,

"To the lockers, then Joyful Burger, THEN we hunt the beast!" the mad cyclops shouted.

The three cheered in unison once more and the duo rushed to their lockers while Rob rushed to the main entrance.

 _-on the highway running through Elmore desert. 12:07 p.m.-_

The afternoon was searing hot once again as the sun basked everything within its fiery glow. The desert was dry and devoid of trees and large animals. There was little vegetation save for a few shrubs that could retain a lot of water for extended periods and could withstand the dry heat.

Unfortunately for a certain trio driving in a 1997 Geo Metro with a purple paint job and a rattling muffler, they had to share the dry heat of the desert. With Gumball and Teri sitting in the back seat that was several times their size due to their short stature (Teri's feet were able to hang off the edge of the seat seeing as she was a little taller than Gumball.) and Rob in the driver's seat. The three were sitting in uncomfortable silence while the heat trapped in the car baked them. Rob had told them that the AC didn't work and the window's were jammed for some reason and he couldn't get it fixed until he could afford to get a license. It goes without saying, but the children knew that Rob didn't acquire this car by any legal means.

They had left around half an hour ago, avoided a near embarrassing encounter with Gumball's dad at Joyful Burger (seriously, you'd think with 23 JB chains located throughout the town, against all odds, they find Richard at this particular one near their school!) and had beaten traffic to get to the vast swathe of dry land and were now three miles out from the chemical factory. After they had finished eating, both Gumball and Teri took a short nap to see if they could identify the Nephilim that was bound to appear in the near future. What they saw was a massive, pill-shape monster covered in reflective, segmented armor. It had no visible facial features and instead of walking or crawling on a set or sets of legs, it levitated about 20 feet from the ground. It appeared to be one hundred feet in length and forty feet in width.

When Gumball and Teri woke up, they described what they had seen to Rob and he confirmed that the floating pillbug was the same thing he saw in his dream. Teri was curious as to why Rob could see the things an hour ahead of time while she and Gumball could only see them around twenty to thirty minutes before they arrived. That also brought up the question of how many people were actually aware of the invisible world. On their way out to the desert Rob explained to them that the Nephilim were attacking cities and other locations around the globe. If that was the case, then how come there wasn't a massive death toll being reported, were there others doing the same thing she, Gumball, and Rob were doing: fighting a war for survival. Whatever the answer may be, she was going to have to look into it when she got home.

 _If_ they got home that is.

Checking his rear view mirror, the grey cyclops spotted Gumball and Teri's reflection in the small, rectangular slab of glass. Gumball's face and hands resembled raisins that had been left in the sun for too long and his breath sounded dry and raspy, like a pile of autumn leaves being blown across a yard. Teri seemed fine, except that she had drawn multiple drops of sweat running down her face and arms and she looked like everything was bothering her. The heat, the trash on the floor, Gumball's raspy breathing, the horrid smell, and the blinding sun, all this made her face scrunch up in irritation.

Rob was in no pleasant condition either. He was drenched in perspiration, causing his T-shirt to stick to his body and his exposed thighs were now practically glued to the leather seat. He felt like a wet towel welded to a turtle's back side and what made it worse was the constant rattling the muffler made as the car drove along the vacant highway was slowly driving him bonkers.

"I'm sorry for the lack of air conditioning, guys. I was going to install an AC after I installed some surface-to-air missiles on the sides, a flamethrower next to the exhaust pipe, some magnetic deployable mines and a mine launcher in the trunk." he listed off after apologizing for the seventeenth time,

"Oh and a drone equipped with a submachine gun and infrared optics that can launch from the roof, kind of like that one in the film _Bladesprinter 2059_. Have either of you guys seen that one?"

"No." they both said unison.

"My mom and dad won't allow me to see rated R movies." Teri explained irritatedly.

"Same. Also, glad to hear that you're going pro with the whole villain thing. You got a name for your car?" Gumball asked, smacking his dry lips.

Rob pondered the idea for a moment before shaking his head,

"No not really. I want to give it a good name that doesn't sound too cliche, but I haven't thought up of anything yet." he sighed in disappointment and returned his eye to the road.

Gumball slumped back into his seat some more and found his eyes drifting towards the empty soda bottle he had finished twenty minutes ago. He knew the cup was completely dry, but couldn't help but wonder if there were a few drops left that could moisturize his shriveled up tongue. He was starting to regret finishing his drink in a matter of seconds.

"It's okay man, no need to rush yourself. You only need to name it once you install all the weapons and repaint the vehicle." he wheezed, still looking at the empty cup.

Rob grunted at his answer and put more pressure on the gas pedal. They were now traveling at 80 mph, five miles above the speed limit. They should be able to reach the target zone within ten minutes or so, which would leave them twenty minutes to prepare for its arrival.

Teri drew another sweat drop on her forehead and placed the pencil in the cup holder next to her seat. She was roasting in this car and was wondering why she and Gumball couldn't just fly above Rob's car in a paper helicopter or plane. At least they'd have the wind blowing in their faces. However, that would still leave the one eyed villain in the car and there was the chance of someone who knew them spotting them.

She turned her attention to the notebook that sat in between her and Gumball along with several sheets of blank paper, both large and small, and the folded scythe. She picked up the worn down collection of notes and began studying the runes once more. One that really caught her eye was one that resembled a hexagon locked in a circle with lines sprouting out from the hexagon's corners and extended beyond the circles borders. It looked easy to draw and she saw a note underneath that read, _explosive rune._

She didn't quite know what that meant, but as the name implied it probably acted as a bomb or perhaps a landmine. That was when she realized that she didn't know how to use the ancient symbols. She peeled her eyes from the book and shot a question towards the original owner of the notebook,

"Hey Rob?" she asked, seeing his singular orb twitch to the rearview mirror hanging overhead,

"How do I use these runes?" she held the notebook up for him to see.

She heard another grunt from the polygonal figure as he placed a pink finger on his chin,

"Hmm, I guess for you, you'd have to draw a symbol on a sheet of paper or on one of your paper beasts. It doesn't matter what you draw it on as long as it's drawn correctly and that it comes in contact with the spirit. I don't know if it can be used once or repeatedly, you're going to have to figure that out yourself." he replied, keeping one hand on the wheel as he spoke.

Looking back at the simple symbol, Teri understood now that in order to be effective in combat she'd have to know which of the five symbols to use and be able to draw them quickly. This was going to involve more training, as she needed to improve her overall speed, reflexes and ability to assess a situation. She didn't know much about the giant, floating pillbug she saw in her dream and realized that the upcoming battle was going to be more difficult because the monster had no distinguishable weaknesses.

She placed the notebook on her lap and began viewing the passing landscape. There was a lot less vegetation now and a few dust devils were swirling about the red sand, flinging dust every which way and that.

"Thanks for the advice." she said softly.

"No problem. We're about five minutes away from the targeted area. It's going to appear half a mile from the chemical plant, which I believe is it's target." Rob replied, choosing to brief them now on the monster's possible destination and motivation.

The paper girls ears perked up upon hearing the news and turned towards the driver. She raised an eyebrow as she asked,

"Why would it be heading for the chemical plant?"

Rob watched a semi-truck pass them by with a logo that read _Channax incorporated_ on the side of the trailer. Afterwards he peered into the backseat at the two passengers in order to look them in the eye,

"It's kind of obvious. If it destroys the chemical treatment plant then it will release millions of tons of toxic gas into the air that will travel along the wind current, back to Elmore, and poison all the citizens there." he explained in a serious tone before shifting his focus back to the road.

Gumball, who had been playing around with the empty soda cup for a minute now, suddenly reverted back to his healthy hydrated form in order to inform the driver of something he had realized. It was really bothering him, so he looked more annoyed than he did surprised,

"Then why would it land half a mile away from it's target? It's not like anyone there is going to see it!" he rambled.

Rob raised his fingers while keeping his thumbs locked on the wheel as he shook his head and shrugged in confusion,

"I don't know! Maybe their portals aren't that accurate or maybe it's being cautious?" he suggested, although it sounded more like a question.

"Sounds like lazy writing if you were to ask me." he muttered as he folded his arms and slumped back in his chair.

It really was odd for the enemy to appear so far away from its designated target, but at least it gave them time to figure out a way to destroy it. Recess had just ended, now they had half an hour to fight before they needed to be back. Seeing as it was an assembly being held by Mr. Brown, who was going to be informing the students about a field trip that was being held on October 4th, they probably weren't going to be aware of the two student's absence and Rob had nothing to worry about since he was forgotten by everyone.

Spotting a familiar landscape, Rob quickly pulled over on the side of the road and killed the engine. The car went silent and the three sat and observed their surroundings: it definitely looked familiar. Popping the trunk, Rob opened the driver door, climbed out and pulled the seat lever that slid the driver seat forward in order to let his fellow passengers out. After the boy and girl gathered their supplies, they hopped out and followed Rob to the rear of the two-door Geo Metro.

Swinging the back hatch open, the polygonal cyclops grinned wildly at an object that occupied the storage space,

"I've been waiting a while to test this thing out!" he gleefully spoke as he reached in and pulled out a sinister-looking weapon.

To Gumball and Teri, the device Rob held in his hands resembled a futuristic rifle that boasted a length of four feet and required the madman to hold it with both hands. Unlike regular guns seen in action movies, military videos, or in gun stores, this one was shaped like a rectangle prism with four vertically aligned barrels of varying sizes at the end, two different sized magazines that stuck out horizontally on each side two feet from the barrel, a digital scope placed on the top, and a trigger placed within a handle at the bottom. The device gleamed within the sunlight as Rob rested it against the car to retrieve some more magazines and what appeared to be self-propelled explosives.

Gumball felt his jaw drop as he gawked at the weapon that Rob was hiding in the car trunk right behind them,

"Rob! What is that!" Gumball shouted in exasperation.

After sliding the extra ammo into his backpack, the villain smiled at Gumball and Teri, who seemed surprised at the sight of the overly destructive weapon, but not to the same degree as her blue friend, and picked up the weapon as if showing it off,

"Oh, this? This is a little thing I cooked up in my duplex. It's called _Cuatro Oblivion_!" he explained while caressing the gun as if it were a beloved pet,

"It features two electromagnetic accelerator cannons on the top, with the first being able to fire .50 caliber AP rounds and the second being able to fire .25 caliber rounds at a range of two miles. The third barrel is a launcher for self-propelled HE rounds and the bottom barrel is a flamethrower." he listed off the deadly features like a salesman offering a product via TV commercial.

Suddenly, Gumball felt as though his weapon of choice was utterly insignificant. It came as no surprise to the cat that the former void wanderer would create something with amazing power. He on the other hand, had an ancient weapon that was given to him by a friend that may or may not contain some magic that he could utilize in the future.

Teri was wondering about something as well, but it wasn't about the weapon, moreover what the enemy was capable of. She raised an eyebrow and directed some of her suspicion towards the evil genius,

"That's great and all, but what about the Nephilim's ability to knock out electricity. Every Nephilim spirit Gumball and I fought had the ability to temporarily knock out any form of software within a certain radius." she pointed out, folding her arms and taking a step back.

"Not to worry, I've thought of everything!" he proclaimed in a matter of fact,

"Number one, this weapon has quite a range as I've explained earlier. Two, all the electronics are housed in an EMP resistant casing for in case I have to get close or if their EM field range is wider than I thought. Also, in case if you're wondering, each round has been engraved with a rune in order to assure that the Nephilim is effectively damaged on impact."

With that being said he began to march in the direction of the evil spirit's supposed drop point. He gestured with his blocky head for the two to follow along,

"Come on now! We shouldn't waste our time discussing weapon schematics when we got a town to save." he called out behind him.

The paper girl and her cat friend began to trudge behind the brilliant inventor. The heat was worse now because there was no roof providing them cover. Rob's grey head was very reflective in the afternoon sun and shone like a lighthouse beacon. The dust crunched underfoot as the three made their way from the car and into the barren environment,

Gumball swung his scythe over his shoulder and allowed it to rest there while he glared at the back of Rob's head,

"You know I just realized that we're helping my nemesis defeat genocidal monsters just so he can go off and commit even more crimes against humanity." he whispered to the paper bear next to him.

Teri held the notebook in one hand, her various papers tucked underneath the opposite arm, and her pencil was placed within the crook of her left ear. She turned to her fighting partner and gave him a quizzical look,

"Well, yeah! Of course we are. I may not agree with his antics and all that, but we're all united in a fight against an enemy that wishes for our demise. To shorten it up, we're fighting for everyone's right to live and choose who they want to be." she explained.

Realizing that she had a point, Gumball stopped his rebuttal against her statement and kept his mouth clamped shut. Yeah, that was true, Rob did choose to become like this (with some encouragement from himself and Darwin.) and even though it was a destructive path, Rob did seem to enjoy himself. On the plus side, maybe his inventive nature and brilliant mind will lead him somewhere where he will prosper.

Nodding his bulbous head in agreement, he picked up the pace so he could keep up with the figure in question,

"You're right. We're not saving the world so we can judge others. I'm actually glad he's using his talents to help us for a change." he said in a lightened tone.

Trailing them Teri continued to wonder about how she could help in the upcoming battle. Rob has a highly lethal killing machine that could probably reduce an army of low-level Nephilim to purple flames, Gumball had his scythe and some experience to back him up, plus a plan at the ready. She had her runes now, but she had to get in close in order to be effective. At least she had a wide range of animals, vehicles, and tools to construct.

She'll have to find out once they confront the Pillbug of Death.

 _-20 minutes later-_

After fighting over several evil spirits in the past week alone, seeing the behemoth drop out of the dark portal barely fazed the trio standing out in the open, roughly two hundred feet away. The Nephilim's plated armor caught the sun's rays and began to glow intensely, to the point that it was hard to look at. It floated several feet above the ground like a flat blimp that hadn't taken off yet. Without any horrific features to cover its simplistic shape, the entity seemed pretty harmless from a distance, with only its size causing a bit of unease for the three odd figures watching.

The creature was drifting away from Rob, Gumball, and Teri, and was heading in the direction of the chemical treatment plant Rob had mentioned. They had ten minutes to fight and defeat the monster before they had to return to the car and get back in time for their next class. At the speed it was going, catching up to it was going to be no big problem, considering it was moving as fast as a golf cart.

Gumball snickered at the Nephilim's appearance and directed a joke towards Teri,

"Hey Teri, I think that pill is going to be a bit hard for you to swallow, but if you wanna give it a try, it might help you conquer your fears." he snickered.

Teri shot him a glare, pulled out a sheet of paper, and began scribbling an explosion rune onto its surface,

"Don't talk to me about medication after you learn how wash your mouth, and I meant that both literally and metaphorically because your jokes are lame." she snapped, finishing her drawing and began walking towards the evil spirit. Gumball rolled his eyes, but breathed into his hand and sniffed before grimacing.

Rob held out a grey hand in front of her and stopped the feeble paper girl from getting any closer. She looked up at him with a curious glance and saw that he was raising his multipurpose weapon to his left shoulder, all four barrels directed towards the target,

"I think we should try taking it out at a distance before we try confronting it up close." he cautiously explained as he leveled the scope with his eye. While the weapon locked on to its oversized target, he gestured towards the paper girl and the blue cat,

"Teri why don't you form a helicopter and stand by for take off. Gumball I want you in front of me, on my left. You're going to be on guard in case something goes wrong and I want Teri in the air to report anything on it in case something unexpected happens." he noted their strengths and weaknesses and wanted them placed accordingly. Just because the Nephilim was visually lacking any offensive weapons didn't mean they were non-existent.

His first move was to let loose a round of five .50 caliber AP rounds to test out the floater's armor strength. The targeting optics zeroed in on the pillbugs frontal section, right onto the the crevice of the second armor plate where it's defensive strength was weakest. With its chink marked, Rob held his breath and pressed a button above the trigger. The weapon made a humming noise as the electric coils lining the top barrel began charging up. Within thirty seconds, _Cuatro Oblivion_ 's AP weapon was completely charged.

Time seemed to stand still as Rob's senses heightened when his pink index finger squeezed the trigger.

 _BRAKKA! BRAKKA! BRAKKA! BRAKKA! BRAKKA!_

All five rounds streaked from the barrel and tore their way towards the metallic beast. By the time Rob's recoil finished, the bullets reached their target and struck with enough force to punch through several inches of titanium. Unfortunately, the projectiles never reached the beast that now hovered three hundred feet away from them. Instead, they slammed into what appeared to be an invisible barrier that lit up with interconnecting, blue hexagons from where the airborne AP rounds struck.

Rob just stared up at it in confusion while Gumball and Teri let their jaws drop in shock. Before they had a moment to register that the monster had an invisible barrier of sorts, the floating pillbug stopped its advance and a orb of blue energy began to materialize towards its rear. Gumball saw what was coming and reacted as quickly as he could by jumping directly in front of his one-eyed ally with his scythe raised.

A blue beam erupted from the orb, it was smaller than the red beams fired by the previous monsters, but was several times faster. Gumball barely had time to swipe horizontally with his shafted weapon. The blade's arc caught the beam before it stuck the cat of the matching color in the chest and deflected it to the side, away from his teammates, and into the dirt where it exploded.

It wasn't as strong as the red one's either because the crater it left behind was no bigger than a basketball and it didn't even knock the scythe wielder back.

Gumball could feel his heart racing as he kept his eyes glued on the Nephilim that was slowly rotating towards them. He could not believe that he had just done what he did and was unsure if he should be excited or just plain grateful. He chuckled nervously and slowly turned his head towards the two behind him,

"J-just like baseball p-practice!" he squeaked, clutching his weapon tightly until his knuckles turned white.

Teri was watching the whole ordeal and was actually quite impressed. She knew he was secretly honing his skills in the gym and it seemed as though they were paying off. She was glad to see that his hard work was actually benefiting him and felt encouraged to work harder herself when this battle was finished. She was definitely going to need to consider adding the runes in her training regimine and was wondering about certain areas to practice in.

With her helicopter already formed, she quickly took off, leaving behind a cloud of dust kicked up by the alternating pressure caused by the paper rotors. She quickly began to circle around the battlefield while searching for a notable weakness in the Nephilim's defensive barrier. Unfortunately, the barrier was completely invisible to the naked eye and was giving the paper bear a difficult time discerning the nature of the shield.

On the ground, Rob had gotten over his initial shock, and began moving backwards as he fired a couple more rounds at the slowly approaching Nephilim. As expected, the magic bullets did nothing except crumple on impact and bounce off the transparent field that protected the pill shaped monster. Even though it lacked eyes, it seemed to know where Rob was and fired a few rounds of blue beams towards the disfigured Elmore citizen. He dodged them while Gumball swatted a few more death beams away from them both and continued to act as defense.

Rob growled at the ineffectiveness of his weapon and switched to HE rounds,

"If armor piercing rounds can't get the job done, then some high explosive rockets should do the trick!" he exclaimed. Gumball heard him and stepped aside so he was clear of the weapons path.

The mad cyclops estimated that the monster was 275 feet away and the shield was set around the creature at a distance of ten feet. Quickly calculating the speed of the target's approach, the arc of the rocket, the distance of the barrier, and other factors, he set the detonator on the rocket to explode upon impact of the barrier using the digital HUD (Heads Up Display) on the scope.

He carefully took aim and fired one rocket towards the Nephilim in front of him and Gumball. The self propelled explosive shot in an arc towards the reflective behemoth and erupted in a brilliant ball of flame. The thunderous roar and shockwave spread across the area and nearly knocked Gumball down. Dust and smoke filled the air in a massive, dirty, dark plume and began to settle within seconds.

Seeing as the target was obscured, Gumball regained his balance and peered into the cloud of debris in order to see if the Nephilim had been affected by the magically enhanced explosive round,

"Did it work?" he asked no one in particular, although Rob had been listening and was squinting as hard as he could so he could confirm the target's status.

Dread immediately filled the two when the smoke and sand cleared. The floating pillbug was still hovering in place and its force field was completely lit up in a blue honeycomb pattern. With the barrier and the beast completely unharmed, it began an immediate counterattack. This time a larger, red orb of energy began to form at the front of the triumphant monster. A hum filled the air and a force began to press down on Gumball and Rob. It was the doom blast utilized by all the Nephilim spirits.

Both boys shrank back in terror upon recognition of this attack and were now at a loss as to what to do. Rob immediately collapsed to the ground and didn't move. Gumball, on the other hand, didn't fall, rather he stood in place and trembled in fear. It was going to be a few seconds until the beast fired it's devastating weapon and the poor cat boy didn't know what to do.

He didn't understand why he was able to suddenly withstand the power of the Nephilim's force, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to deflect the blast away from himself or drag Rob away in time before the scarlet energy lance of death fired. When he looked up, he could see Teri hovering above in her origami copter, but she wouldn't be able to rescue the both of them in time.

The hum grew louder and the air began heating up around them.

It was at that moment Gumball felt something. It was faint at first, like a spark, but then it erupted into a powerful, resonating energy that traveled from his scythe and into his body. He looked at the moon shaped, serrated blade that glinted in the sun and noticed that one of the three runes was glowing and emitting a grey, fiery aura. The rune was shaped like a sun with a vertical line bisecting it. Gumball didn't know what it meant, but it seemed to be reacting to the Nephilim's energy or was it activating due to some other factor?.

The massive red orb collapsed into a narrow line of ruby devastation and shot towards the two boys at incredible speed.

For the anthropomorphic cat, the mid-ranged attack seemed to travel rather slowly as he spun on one foot and allowed the curved blade to spin with him. As he picked up speed, the blade became engulfed in grey fire and soon formed a glowing ring around the spinning cat. The doom blast struck the blazing blade and vanished upon contact.

It happened so quickly, that the universe itself didn't seem to catch it and the world was still. Then in a moment's passing, the world caught on and everything seemed to return to a normal speed. Rob felt the intense gravitational force that pressed into his back, head, and shoulders suddenly release it's hold and he scrambled to his feet,

"What happened? I thought we were dead?!" he blurted out, swishing his blocky head side to side in frenzied attempt to assess the situation.

Not exactly sure as to what that was either, the dizzy cat tried his hardest to regain his bearings and explain to the nefarious inventor what he just did. One thing he noticed right away was that whatever that grey fiery aura did, it sapped a lot of energy out of him and left the middle-schooler feeling rather drained and dizzy. One of his rolling eyes caught something glowing and when he tried to focus on it, he could see that the Nephilim was charging up two blue orbs. He quickly turned to Rob and desperately shouted,

"MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!''

Seeing the oncoming attack, Rob's slit pupil narrowed in fear as he scrambled to find cover. Gumball scurried away, screaming as a storm of rapidly moving blue projectiles began peppering the ground around him. The two found cover behind a potato shaped rock and while Gumball huddled behind the stony obstacle, Rob peeked out from behind the rock and began firing several shots at the approaching enemy,

"I don't know what it was you did back there, but at least it saved us for the time being!" he shouted over the sound of gunfire.

He ducked down after a few blue bolts struck near the spot where his head was and began switching out magazines. After resupplying his depleted ammo, he checked once more where the Nephilim was and saw that it was closing in on them at a distance of two hundred feet. He scowled at the approaching monster and ducked down once more as a few stray projectiles flew overhead,

"I hope Teri's found a weak spot in that things barrier or else we're going to have to find more cover!" he shouted to Gumball, who was now taking a chance to peek out at the entity after feeling some of his energy return to him.

The cat boy pondered his next plan of action after seeing that Rob's weapon was having no effect on the Nephilim's protective barrier,

"If that's the case maybe I should try to attack it's barrier with my scythe!" Gumball exclaimed, flinching as a projectile slammed into the rock, leaving behind a smoking, black spot,

"By the way, what do you think I should name the scythe? Carrie never told me whether it had a name or not, so I wanted to know if you had any suggestions?" he directed his attention at the shooting cyclops.

"Dude! Do you really think that **now** is a good time to discuss a title for your pathetic weapon!" he shouted as he fired another rocket towards the floating, legless, pillbug Nephilim. The rocket once again exploded with no effect on the shield.

Gumball rubbed his chin and discussed with his inner self before answering,

"Yes…?" he shrugged.

The doctor just let out a raspy and tired sigh. If he could facepalm, he would have smacked his head so hard that it would've left him in a coma. He mentally reminded himself to never underestimate the cat's stupidity and kept firing at the monster that was returning with a cascade of energy projectiles. They were stuck at the moment and all it would take for the Nephilim to wipe out their hiding spot was either to knock it aside with its shield or fire a red doom blast and just incinerate the rock and them with it.

Either way, things were looking bad and Rob guessed that they had five minutes left until they had to be leaving. They could stay longer to fight the beast, but then they would be late or worse they could exhaust themselves trying to break that thing's defenses.

"Where's Teri when you need her?" Rob muttered to himself.

Sitting still and pondering a good name for the mysterious magical weapon that rested on his lap, Gumball heard Rob's self-inquiry and answered nonchalantly even though there was no need to,

"I'm pretty sure she's noticed _something_ at this point!" he boasted confidently.

The blasts became louder and Gumball could sense that Toxic Pill (the name he just came up with!) was drawing near. He stood, scythe in hand, and prepared for the worse to come.

Meanwhile, up in the air, a certain paper girl rested on her helicopter's landing skid as she observed the battle down below. She was well aware that Toxic Pill was nearly one hundred feet away from the two hiding fighters and estimated that they had less than a minute before the hovering tank of a monster reached them. She had witnessed Rob's various attacks and concluded that conventional weapons weren't very effective even when tipped with runes. She also saw Gumball's spectacular deflection of the doom blast and had wondered how on Earth he was able to perform such a feat when the attack left it's targets vulnerable. It was confusing to say at the least, but thanks to their efforts, she had gathered some helpful info regarding Toxic Pill's shield.

The first thing she noticed was that the energy barrier was dome-shaped, as was prevalent during Rob's missile strike. With the option of attacking from above out of the question, she focused on the sides of the shields. However, the whole barrier appeared to be equally as strong throughout so there weren't any areas that neither of them could pick away at.

To her fascination, whatever seemed to come in contact with the barrier, the Nephilim would notice as was made evident by how it sensed where Rob was after he fired upon it. She noticed that Toxic Pill wasn't firing at the both of them, but only at Rob because it was using the barrier to predict where he was located and would fire upon his position. She also noticed that its shield seemed to be generated from the center of the flat, pill shaped, armored creature because she saw a pillar of energy stemming from the mid-section after Rob fired a second rocket. So she knew where to hit it in order to disable it's shields.

However, her most important discovery, was that the shield didn't block out everything. From her perch in the air, she could see that whenever the shield came in contact with something like a large stone or bush, it will cut it off ten centimeters from the surface. She had to draw on a pair of electronic binoculars in order to notice such a detail, but nonetheless she exploited a weak spot in its otherwise perfect defense.

With a plan mapped out in her head, she swooped downwards, behind the Nephilim. It was do or die time!

She landed a foot behind where she estimated the shield to be and unfolded her helicopter into its basic form. She turned and watched the Nephilim's actions and noticed that its attention was still focused on eliminating the boys in front of it. It appeared that she was right about its awareness being only limited to what came in contact with its shield. The sounds of exchanging gunfire could be heard, (She wondered if Rob was shooting at Toxic Pill because he was trying to exploit a weak spot himself or was just trying to keep its attention on him.) and she saw that it was now seventy five feet from their hiding spot. She had less than a minute to act!

Gathering up her courage, she charged forward, dropping her notebook and pencil (seeing as they were likely to get caught in the barrier.) and dove straight forward as low to the ground as possible. Being about a millimeter thick, the feature that proved to be one of Teri's greatest setbacks proved to be her greatest strength in this situation, as she easily passed underneath the moving barrier with both her large piece of paper and her note page with the explosion rune inscribed on it. She flew a bit of a distance before she landed on her face and accidently swallowed some dirt, causing her to cough and recoil at the foul taste,

" _I'm going to need to wash my mouth out when I get back to school and take a few meds when I get home!"_ she thought bitterly to herself,

" _Sounds perfectly reasonable."_

When she got up, she quickly dusted herself off and immediately noticed that it had gotten considerably darker. She wondered if she had gotten underneath the barrier and what could possibly be blocking out the sun. Curious, she looked up and saw herself looking back at her! She squeaked in fear and jumped back, startled a little by the image, before she realized that she was looking at reflective underside of the titanic monster several dozen feet above her.

She was quite amazed at the sheer size of the Nephilim, with it being forty feet wide and one hundred feet long, it was like looking at a building sized mirror or a floating silver lake! It seemed to stretch out in front of her as it slowly moved ahead, she could make out the armored segments clearly, and saw that they were sealed tightly. She wondered if her bomb rune would even make a dent in its armor. It was most likely hollow like the other Nephilim, but its body was ten feet thick and could have at least a foot of metallic plating covering it. This thing was built like a hovering tank!

While she gawked at the monster, it passed over her and allowed sunlight to strike her flat, white face once more. The absence of its shadow snapped Teri back to her senses and after blinking a couple times to readjust her vision, she willed the paper to form a simple, diamond-like dragonfly the size of a motorcycle and flew up towards the top of the oval shaped spirit.

In a graceful arc, she circled over top and landed on the mid-section of Toxic Pill. Seeing as the dragonfly lacked legs, she had to use her own feet to position herself on the smooth, metallic surface that served as its armor and skin. The first thing the dragonfly mounted paper bear noticed was that the armor she stood on was scorching hot. Being in the sun for a few minutes, the shiny reflective surface was so hot, it felt cold, like a stove being lit for an hour. She screeched in pain as soon as her feet touched the surface and she launched herself in the air again.

Hovering a foot above the monster, Teri allowed her seering feet to cool down a moment and recollected her troubled thoughts. She now knew that the armor encasing Toxic Pill was super conductive when it came to heat and wasn't safe to land on. She looked over the side, but couldn't see past the fifty feet, or so, of Nephilim that expanded outwards. She knew they had to be at least fifty feet from the boys and in the second that she thought that, she heard an all too familiar hum and realized it was charging another doom blast! So much for charging in, it was going to just blow them away as simple as that.

Raising the hand that held the rune note in front of her, Teri swooped downwards and planted the paper onto the Nephilim's backside. Originally, she planned on holding it there until it began to take effect (she reminded herself to get some tape or sticky notes the next time she and her mom went shopping.), but the magic activated immediately upon contact with Toxic Pill's armor. It stuck there as if glued to the monsters backside and the hexagonal symbol began to glow orange and began to flash warningly. The rapid dimming and glowing of the symbol indicated that Teri had a short amount of time to clear the blast area.

Realizing this, Teri darted away and flew towards the rear of the Nephilim tank. She made her way to the ground and abandoned her dragonfly in order to dive through the small space between the shield and the dirt. Laying flat on the ground, Teri covered her ears and prayed that the blast wouldn't be too large. She also hoped that her assumption was correct and that the explosive magic weapon will take out the Nephilim's impenetrable force field or even better the monster itself!

Five seconds later, the paper girl received her answer when she heard a brief, but deafening explosion sounding off behind her. There wasn't a shock wave to be felt from the distance she was at (maybe the creature's magical barrier absorbed it?) but, she could tell that it was somewhat large and powerful. Cautiously standing up and turning around, she laid her eyes on the Nephilim and saw that her plan had been successful!

A joyful smile found its way onto her lips as she watched the Nephilim shudder from the blast and the barrier around it flickered erratically before disappearing completely. On its back, a plume of smoke rose, signalling where the bomb had gone off previously. Also, from the front, Teri could see that her surprise attack had halted the doom blast it was preparing earlier. Being weakened from the blast, Toxic Pill descended like a sinking ship until it hovered four feet from ground.

She cheered victoriously, jumping up in the air, and then rushing back to her notebook, papers, and pencil. The shield may be down, but the Nephilim hadn't vanished yet, meaning it had not received enough damage to effectively kill it. However, before she reached her supplies, she heard a couple of shouts coming from behind and turned to see that the boys had now taken the initiative.

In the front, Gumball and Rob saw Teri's surprise attack and after the shield was disabled, the two leapt out from their cover and charged the beast. With two magazines loaded, the cyclops unloaded the two clips of enchanted armor piercing bullets into the Nephilim's frontal section. The explosive rounds tore through the thick armor with ease, leaving behind ping-pong ball sized holes that severely weakened the armor.

Gumball followed up by charging up the scythe again for another amplified swing. Allowing its energy to ring throughout his body, the crescent blade erupted in grey flames once more and Gumball swung down vertically as soon as he reached Toxic Pill. The attack itself lacked the same amount of power it had when he first used it, but managed to cut through the weakened armor with a horrific screech of metal on metal and left a six foot gash that exposed the hollow interior of the malicious entity.

Rob finished it off by firing a HE, self-propelled round into the gash Gumball created, forcing the blue cat to leap away as the round exploded. The entire front section was violently ripped open by the blast and the Nephilim crashed to the ground, flinging dirt upwards in all directions. Upon its death, the Nephilim lay still, blackened, and burst into brilliant purple flames. As usual, nothing was left behind. The three stood around the area where the Nephilim once rested and took a moment to catch their breath.

This made Rob wonder if the Nephilim actually die upon being defeated or if they just go somewhere else. He wondered if they'll be seeing monsters like these in the nearby future. Perhaps, he oughta investigate the void after he dropped the students off to school and see if there were any disturbances in that dimension.

He noticed something approaching them at high speed and was about to warn Gumball when the object accelerated and was upon them in mere seconds. To his relief, it was only Teri mounted on an origami hawk as she quickly made her way towards the two. She landed in front of them and Gumball rushed over and gave her a high five,

"That was awesome, Teri!" he exclaimed, pumping his fists in the air,

"I thought me and Rob we're gonna get cooked back there! That was some real good timing and thinking!" he praised excitedly.

Rob joined in on the celebrating by walking over to the two with his arms crossed and an appreciative smile on his face,

"That was really clever. Thanks to your keen observation and great performance, you helped me and Gumball take down the Nephilim." he applauded her actions.

Teri smiled and blushed a little more at the thanks she was receiving,

"Thanks. I'm glad I was able to be more effective in getting rid of it." she said with pride.

Rob broke the warm mood by waving them in the direction of the car,

"Come on you two, we have to get going now if you want to get back before the assembly ends." he ushered them forward with his free hand and the two began speed walking towards the car.

The trio walked in silence for a moment before Teri decided to ask Gumball something that has been picking at her,

"Hey Gumball." she started, causing the Watterson child to glance back at her,

"What was that move you used? The one where you deflected the Nephilim's doom blast with what appeared to be grey fire." she asked, raising an eyebrow expectantly. Even Rob was sneaking glances towards the cat of the same age, although he simultaneously pretended not to care.

Staring down at the ancient magical weapon responsible for the power she described, Gumball gave it a quizzical look then shifted his gaze to her,

"I have no idea. When Toxic Pill-!"

"Toxic Pill? Really!?" Rob interrupted, rolling his one large eye.

Teri turned towards the lanky pre-teen and explained Gumball's naming habits,

"He usually likes to give them catchy names that stick so that it's easier to remember which Nephilim spirit we're talking about." she folded her arms, while Rob just blew some non-existent hair out of his face,

"Pfft! Lame!" he teased, shifting his gaze to a now offended Gumball.

The tiny mammal folded his scythe until it was in its compact, portable form, and then shot a venomous glare at his nemesis,

"At least I know what I'm going to name my car, when I get one!" he shot back in a snide tone. Rob narrowed his eye, squared up his shoulders, and opened his mouth to respond to his nemesis' sass.

Sensing a heated argument forming between the two, Teri immediately broke it up,

"GUMBALL!" she shouted angrily, immediately grabbing her friend's attention whilst halting any snappy comebacks from Rob,

"You were saying something about toxic pill and what its doom blast had to do with your new power." she reminded, still glaring at the cat.

Nervously scratching the back of his head, Gumball jogged his memory until he caught back onto the train of thought that had been derailed by Rob's interruption. He explained that he felt a strange force within the scythe as the Nephilim spirit began charging up its common, yet most devastating attack. The ancient weapon gave him the strength to stand up to its gravity press and the speed to counteract the lightning fast beam that it fired. He also explained that every time he used it, he felt kind of drained, like as if he had finished doing fifteen push-ups in gym class.

This was obviously news for the two listeners, as it meant runes can also be used as a means to enhance a person's physical strength and attacks. If they could discover more relics that relate to the Nephilim, maybe they can form a spell book of sorts that could help turn the tide of battle against the rampaging spirits. This was more interesting to Rob than it was to the other two kids accompanying him and it was due to the fact that he had a few ideas where such powers could be located and what he could use them for.

This brought his attention back to the void, to the place he spent some time in along with someone else he knew and where he was nearly forgotten. If the runes that were in Ms. Jotenheim's spell books were lost to time than perhaps he could find them in the void itself, where all forgotten items found themselves. There were also plenty of other individuals and places that held mysterious artifacts and were also known to dabble in the mystic arts that he could exploit.

Concluding his thoughts on the matter, Rob began to walk faster to the car that was parked a few minutes away. He now had something to fill his calendar with and wanted to get to it right away. From what he had seen, Gumball's scythe offered a small teaspoon of power compared to all the divine might that was locked away or scattered about the world.

And now he wanted it all for himself,

"Thank you for helping us, Rob!"

The evil inventor turned around to Teri, who had spoken to him and gave her a surprised facial expression,

"Huh, uh, Oh! Yeah, no problem. You guys did a great job today as well." he nervously babbled, completely caught off guard by Teri's sudden expression of gratitude. The two actually smiled at him and continued walking.

"I'm going to, um, be busy doing some research on the Nephilim, especially the ones around the world, so you guys might not see me around that often." he quickly explained. He was lying to cover the fact that he wanted to locate some more ancient symbols for his own purposes.

They seemed to buy into it as Teri gave a simple, responsive nod and Gumball just stared straight ahead,

"Are you going to be watching Elmore when we go on the field trip next month?" the upright feline asked the distorted cyclops.

Rob looked Gumball in the eyes with an affirmative gaze and answered,

"Definitely. I wouldn't want to be gone for one day only to come back to a desolate town. I have way too many valuable assets here, plus a certain someone that resides within my apartment would probably kill me if I stayed away for too long." he chuckled a little.

The two chuckled along with him before catching onto the last part. What did he mean by a certain someone? This raised a few questions amongst the two,

"Were you talking about your mom?" Teri was the first to ask.

Rob glanced at her once before angrily responding with,

"I don't have a mom."

Teri felt her lips purse as she felt some shame overcoming her for possibly treading on a touchy subject and decided to remain silent on the matter. Gumball, on the other hand, already knew this and continued to guess what he was referring to. He began listing off some possible ideas as he continued to walk behind the polygonal cyclops,

"Your girlfriend? A clingy roommate? Your aunt? Your lazy college roommate? Your dog?" he was aware that he was nagging, but he wanted answers and he was going to get them darn it!

Instead, Rob just stopped in his tracks and turned around with a stern look written all over his misshapen face, his single eye glaring into Gumball's own two,

"Does my personal life interest you that much?" he asked in a raised tone.

Gumball was taken aback by his stern appearance alongside his deflecting question and found himself unable to continue with his nagging,

"Uh no, not really…" he stammered out before looking away.

Rob snorted like an angry bull before spinning around once more and continued making his way towards his car,

"Then don't ask." he replied simply without looking at him nor Teri as his answer also applied to her as well.

Gumball felt his face grow sour and a dark shadow covered his eyes,

"Cheeky little son of a biscuit." he grumbled under his breath, not understanding why the crazy inventor was being so difficult after they just finished a somewhat difficult match with Toxic Pill.

Teri could only watch Gumball's grumpy reaction with amusement and giggled to herself in response. She had a feeling that things were kind of like this between the two before the whole incident with Penny. It seemed like this was going to be an interesting alliance with many bizarre days that lay ahead and while Teri was glad for their newest member, she found herself not really liking the whole shadiness of his overall character. He just seemed like someone who could be just as troubling to them as the Nephilim and could possibly their worst enemy to deal with. They were all going to be very cautious of one another.

The red dust that expanded beyond where the eye could see was lit up bright under the burning central star. There probably weren't very many people out in this heat, so getting back to school on time should be a cinche. There weren't any birds or insects making any noises, only the sound of feet crunching on sand and ragged breaths from parched throats. It was more than well established that the three triumphant fighters would appreciate this day more if they were back indoors with AC and drinking fountains.

The thought of water made Gumball die a little on the inside as he knew there wasn't going to be any water for a while. He spoke to Rob as they walked,

"Hey Rob, can we stop for water on the way to school?" he gasped.

"Only if we have time. I have to put fuel in the tank and I think there's a gas station three miles back." he said sternly.

Teri and Gumball groaned with happiness and began to run to the car.

 **(A/N): Okay, and that is it for chapter three! Had a lot of fun writing this one, even though there was so much I needed to edit and do research (and by research I mean re-watching several Gumball episodes.) on just to make sure that this chapter worked.**

 **One of the things I was definitely looking forward to while writing this chapter was introducing Teri's parents, giving her a last name, and giving Teri magic in order to better engage the Nephilim in battle. I also enjoyed just writing a chapter where Gumball and Teri could just hang out together and find something simple that they can enjoy with each other. These two are just so adorable together and I can't wait to write more chapters with them doing more stuff like this.**

 **And then there is Rob. I wanted to add in a third party member for a while now and decided that Rob would be the perfect candidate because he's an interesting character all around and i can see him most likely teaming up with his arch nemesis if the world is at stake. We'll also be seeing what kind of things he goes through and what his motivations are for gaining what he wants in the upcoming chapters, so stay tuned. Also we'll be finding out who this "certain someone" Rob was referring to in later chapters as well.**

 **Oh yeah, one last thing I wanted to point out in case if you guys were confused by this, the bullets Rob used were tipped with explosive runes like the one Teri used for the first time. The reason why they didn't explode after coming in contact with Toxic Pill's barrier was because the nature of its shield was to negate any magical forces that may be a threat to it along with physical ones. Also the effectiveness of a rune can be based on its size, Teri's rune had a larger area of effect because she drew a large one on a sheet of paper and Rob had to paint really tiny ones on all his ammunition. Also, fun fact: what happens if you try using non-magical weapons against the Nephilim? Whether it be a bullet or a knife, it will just disintegrate against the Nephilim's skin.**

 **And the last thing I wanted to bring up is Gumball's new power. Like Teri's it is rune-based and gives him quite an edge when fighting the Nephilim. However, as amazing as that power is, it has many setbacks and Gumball will have to spend a very long time learning how to fully utilize it while minimizing its negative effects. Which is alright because Gumball still has his wits and Teri fighting by his side, so he won't have to depend on his power too much.**

 **This week was really fun because in my part of the country, there were some heavy snowstorms that kept many businesses and schools closed for the whole week! So i got to stay home and just relax for a while in my PJ's for a bit, sometimes watch vids on my laptop and workout for a little bit. I was kind of bummed about the weather though because I do enjoy going outside and just being able to enjoy nature as it is, plus my friends couldn't hang out because the roads were absolute garbage!**

 **Regardless, I had fun writing this chapter and I look forward to posting chapter four: Bridging the gap next week.**

 **You guys have an awesome day, leave a review and a like down below and enjoy what life brings!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Bridging the gap**

Teri x Gumball

 **(A/N): What is up TAWOG fans? We're back with chapter four of the romantic/fantasy story, Teri x Gumball: in between worlds, and there are quite a few things that will go down in this segment of the story. The story will pick up the day after the battle with Toxic Pill and focuses somewhat on Teri's newly acquired assets along with Gumball's new power. Rob will not be making any appearances in this chapter, but do not worry because he does play an important role in the story and I will be sure to include him in later chapters.**

 **Like the previous chapters, there will be another Nephilim appearing and we're now starting to settle into the life of Gumball and Teri as they face the constant threat of the evil spirits attacking their town.**

 **Please enjoy reading and leave a review down below!**

 **(I do not own The Amazing World of Gumball. All rights belong to Ben Bocquelet, the staff, Cartoon Network, and other respective owners.)**

 _-September 17th, 2013, 7:57 A.M. school hallway-_

Gumball shoved his backpack into his locker and slammed the door shut. The loud, metallic sound rang through the hallway briefly before fading amongst the sound of many other students walking and talking as they congregated in their various groups. With his textbooks and notes tucked under an arm, he turned towards the pale, paper girl who was standing next to him with her own school supplies in her hands. They met up again on the bus and discussed the events of yesterday throughout the whole ride to school. The main topic of discussion was Teri's runes that had been generously given to her by Rob, Gumball's former nemesis now turned ally for the duration of the human-Nephilim war, as a means to help her fight against the vile spirits.

Of course, Teri receiving magical items warranted a few teases from Gumball, like the one he was going to give her now,

"Wanna sit next to me in class, Teri the spell caster?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows in a mocking fashion.

His flat classmate regarded his little quip with the usual roll of her eyes and a glare that could strike even the fiercest cobras dead,

"I'm not some kind of D&D warlock or whatever it's called." she growled before cooling down a bit,

"And yes, I wouldn't mind sitting next to you seeing as we both have Math for first hour and you're actually pretty good at taking notes in that class." she answered, giving the blue cat some praise.

It wasn't that she was bad at math, she just had a hard time understanding some of Ms. Simian's lectures and somehow Gumball was able to take notes that get the gist of what she was saying, although his handwriting was a little sloppy.

They started walking to class, they had about seven minutes until class officially started and weren't particularly worried about being late, as long as they stayed clear of Tina's morning war path then they should be okay.

Gumball shrugged and kept a lookout for certain people,

"Eh, I find it easier to take notes when the world's dullest subject is the first hour." he said, already feeling a yawn coming on at the mere thought of sitting through that 1 hour bore fest. His improved academic behavior was actually thanks to his efforts to rid Penny from his mind via distractions, and while he was improving in school, his efforts usually landed him in the B- or C+ range at best. He was getting an A- Biology 2 now, so that was good.

He still missed Penny though, so even his best didn't give him much satisfaction.

They walked in silence for a few moments, watching as several students made their way to their respective classrooms or huddled together in small groups, conversing about things that concerned their little social circles. Teri spotted Carmen and Alan walking together and waved as they walked by. They stopped when Carmen reminded her of the cheerleading meet they were having after school and Teri promised their squad captain that she'll be there before the cactus and balloon wandered off: Alan's string tied around her branch as the couple made their way to class. She set her sights on Gumball because she had a question to ask him,

"Um, Gumball?" she started, looking down at her shorter classmate.

Gumball's ear twitched and he pivoted his head until he was looking at the paper cutout girl's face,

"Something up?" he asked, surveying her facial features and noticing that she looked rather serious.

Teri looked around for a brief moment in order to assure no one could possibly be listening in on their conversation, before she leaned over to whisper in Gumball's ear,

"What do you normally do in order to train?" she quietly asked.

Perplexed Gumball looked at her for a brief moment before answering as best as he could,

"Well, normally, I do my workouts in Phys. Ed and seeing as I usually have lots of time after school, I would spend about an hour or two training with my scythe when no one is around and if anyone _is_ around, I'd go to my private place in order to do so." he explained, glancing at her once he had finished,

"Why do you ask?" he asked her.

Teri looked rather down, as she was staring at the floor, not really looking at Gumball and kept a sour expression on her face as though something was bothering her. She let out a long, angry sigh before turning to the blue cat,

"I don't actually know how to apply my abilities in a situation regarding the Nephilim." she muttered irritantly,

"The battle with Toxic Pill was just pure luck and instinct on my part and unfortunately, the evil doctor didn't label all the runes, except for the explosion one, so I have no clue what I'm working with. I was wondering if I can train with you sometime after school in order to develop a better strategy in defeating the Nephilim."

Gumball took this all into consideration, he definitely knew where she was coming from and also knew that they needed to spend more time together as a team in order to be effective against the invading spirits. During the battle in the desert, when he saw her use her analytical abilities and overall versatility in order to help them take down the well defended Nephilim monster, he thought that she was just a natural at it. Now he understood that she had to come up with stuff on the fly with the supplies limited only to her and actually had no practical experience in handling the items she had: plus, with the other four runes in her arsenal being a complete mystery in function to both him and the paper girl, they had to be extra careful when dealing with this kind of stuff. Also, there were his own mysterious powers that he had to deal with as well.

It wasn't a bad idea to start training with Teri seeing as they had a large gap to fill between them and the oncoming Nephilim, seeing as every single one they've encountered thus far has gotten considerably more challenging to deal with.

"Sure. I'll stay after school to work on homework and once you're done with cheerleading practice we can head on over to the woods in order to practice fighting." he said, giving her an earnest look and a smile.

She looked back at him and smiled gratefully. The two continued to make their way towards Miss Simian's room.

They reached their class with three minutes to spare, although there was a bit of a rush since Banana Joe accidentally tripped in the hall while holding a cup of water, splashing Bobert in the process, causing the robot to go berserk and start firing lasers every which way and that. You know, the usual antics. The two found a pair of unoccupied desks farthest from the window in the middle section of the class. Gumball was surprised to see Darwin right next to the two unoccupied seats, so he opted to sit in the middle in order to easily converse with his two friends.

"Hey Darwinner, how's it hanging, bro?" he greeted cheerfully, plopping down right beside him.

Laughing a little at the combination of his name with winner, Darwin gave Gumball a bright smile as he returned the greeting,

"Pretty good, so far, Gumball." he responded, sounding very enthusiastic and happy to see him. He actually was, seeing as his brother's mood was still showing signs of improvement and was just glad that he was doing okay and actually being interactive.

He then noticed Teri sitting on Gumball's right and he opted to greet her as well, seeing as Gumball had ridden with her on the bus this morning and were even walking in the hallway together as well,

"Hey Teri!" he said, waving a fin at her.

She placed her math book on her desk and turned to look at the little goldfish that was talking to her,

"Oh, hi Darwin! How are you this morning?" she asked politely.

Darwin shrugged and gave her a smile,

"Fantastic, I guess!" he exclaimed,

"I saw you and Gumball sitting together on the bus this morning, what were you two talking about?" he asked, glancing at Teri and then at his brother.

They both froze for a second, glanced at each other nervously before Gumball quickly turned back, armed with an answer this time,

"Oh, nothing much, just talked about the recent episode of _Under the stethoscope_ that aired last night." Gumball responded, not showing any hints of suspicious behavior seeing as he had gotten pretty good at lying after nearly two weeks of fighting the Nephilim.

"Yeah, it was really funny, but we couldn't see it together last night so we decided to discuss it on the bus." Teri chimed in, hoping to add some authenticity to the lie Gumball had just fabricated.

Turns out they had nothing to worry about because the whole time they spoke, Darwin just kept smiling and nodding,

"Hmm, okay. I'm glad you two are getting along and bonding over something that you share interest in." he commented before moving on to what he had been up to the day earlier,

"Yesterday, me and Carrie visited Jamie in the hospital to pay our respects, evidently she was tossed out the cafeteria window and right into a truck carrying large amounts of Nitroglycerin. She's doing all right, the doctors said she'll be up and tearing everyone's arms off in no time. After that, me and Carrie decided to check out some CD's in the music store, you know, the one next to the mall, and then for the rest of the day we pretty much just chilled at her place for a bit." he said, remembering yesterday with fondness.

Gumball thought back to yesterday, after the integration of Rob in their fighting group and the battle that ensued afterwards. Not much had happened after that whole debacle that he could place in his memory. Rob dropped them off a few minutes after the assembly had ended and the two managed to get to class before anyone suspected that they were missing. Luckily, everyone was too busy talking about Jamie's "accident" that they didn't really notice that Gumball and Teri were covered in sweat and dust from the desert they visited not too long ago. After school had ended, Gumball remembered going home, working on homework with Anais, waiting for Darwin to get back, playing video games with his little bro when he did get back, eating dinner, and going to sleep shortly after.

He was very glad that he and Teri could keep pulling off these getaways, but was worried that someone was going to catch on soon. They needed some far more elaborate way to escape or perhaps some clever disguises to help them exit the school body when they needed to because they couldn't just keep tossing Jamie out the window. Regardless, whether it was fun and entertaining to think about.

Gumball nodded in acknowledgement and leaned back in his seat, staring up at the ceiling,

"That's pretty cool! Glad to hear you two had a good time." he remarked, placing a pencil on his nose and allowing it to balance on the soft, orange sensory organ on his face.

Teri looked over at him and scoffed at his behavior,

"Could you not do that!" she angrily exclaimed,

"You don't know where that pencil has been and balancing the eraser on your nose is just asking for an infection, also you could poke your eye out if it falls in the wrong direction." she explained, glaring at the goofy, reckless child.

Gumball sighed in frustration, pulled the pencil off his nose and set it down on the desk, right next to his books. He then proceeded to mock the germaphobe by repeating every word she said in a nasally, irritating voice. This warranted a retaliation from Teri, who pulled everything off his desk, sprayed and wiped the surface before placing everything back on to it. Gumball not liking his stuff being touched, grumbled a few curses and reminded himself to bring some dirt in tomorrow and hand it to her when she wasn't looking. For now though, he was just going to mock her some more.

Darwin watched the two go back and forth with their childishness and found himself laughing inwardly. Yesterday, after lunch had ended and everyone was outside in the schoolyard (anyone who wasn't too worried about Jamie that is.) he couldn't find Gumball anywhere and decided to hang out with Leslie, Bobert, Masami, Sarah, Carrie, and Sussie. While engaging in a friendly conversation with the bunch, Leslie, being the school gossiper added a comment about Gumball and Teri disappearing about a week ago during Phys. Ed and that the two were secretly an item. He obviously didn't believe it and just believed that the two probably had something they were doing that was very important.

However, seeing the two getting along very well with each other and even starting these silly fights made Darwin believe that those two might end up as a couple.

Suddenly a light went off in his head and he remembered that he wanted to ask Gumball about something really important. He was about interrupt the two, who were now really getting on each other's nerves with Gumball constantly writing stuff on her desk while Teri desperately attempted to wipe away the mini vandalism, when the whole room was silenced by a shout coming from the front,

"QUIET DOWN!"

Miss Simian stood in the front of the classroom, her hairy arms folded across her chest as she sneered at the rambunctious students. The whole class went dead silent and all eyes were on the ancient primate as she began marching towards her desk. She pulled out a folder, grabbed a pen and began taking attendance. After marking off every student that was present, she put the attendance sheet away and proceeded to the front of the class again,

"It disgusts me to see you all in such a happy mood today seeing as Monday was just yesterday. As such, I will make sure this lecture is particularly long so that you little children can start off your day with the proper amount of discouragement. Please turn to page 32 in your textbooks, we're starting lesson 1.3 today." she wasn't in a good mood today, although if she ever was in one than nobody in class remembered it.

 _Later_

The lecture dragged on for what seemed like ages. Gumball scribbled down in his notebook different formulas while his mind drifted off in some distant place: it was like he was on autopilot. While daydreaming about fighting off the forces of evil and mentally asking himself questions that would otherwise make most normal folk consider locking him up in the looney bin, he heard the sound of paper crinkling and something moving on the desk. At first he thought Teri was doing something, so he looked up from his notebook and saw that it wasn't Teri as he initially suspected, but rather Darwin passing him a note.

Curious, he picked up the note and read through his brother's sloppy handwriting that was eligible only to him,

 _Could you help me out on something? Remember last Friday when Tobias got into a fight with Tina after he made a comment about her breath and got me, him, and Tina in trouble? Well, it turns out that it hurt his pride a little and now he's planning on pranking her at lunch in order to get back at her. I've tried talking him out of it, but he won't listen to me! Could you please help me stop him before he makes a tremendous mistake?_

Gumball remembered hearing about that during the weekend and now that he mentioned it, he did notice that Tobias was giving Tina the stink eye yesterday whenever she wasn't looking. However, this wasn't much of a concern to him because for one, his pride shouldn't have been hurt because everyone knows Tina is a complete tank when it comes to fighting and that most of the student body knows not to mess with her. Also, he didn't want to get involved because he didn't want to have to face Tina's wrath himself either. Sure, he's fought creatures twelve times scarier than the prehistoric reptile that was his classmate, but that was because he had Teri assisting him and on another note, Tina was his classmate and he'd never want to harm her, even if she was a jerk.

He wrote down how he felt about the situation and his reluctance to get involved before passing the slip of paper back to Darwin. Darwin read the note over and frowned at the response he was given. He hastily scribbled down another message, waited for the teacher's back to be turned and passed it back to Gumball.

Gumball read the note several times over and let out a quiet groan. The note read:

 _Dude! How could you be so heartless! You know that Tina is very sensitive and if Tobias hurts her feelings even more, she'll eat him alive! Literally! Also, if this goes on, it's just going to spiral out of control and soon enough, everyone is going to get sucked up in all of it, including you and Teri!_

That's just like Darwin all right, using guilt tripping as a means to persuade him to help fight the good fight. unfortunately, it was working too. As much as he wanted to just let Tobias get flattened by his own insecurities… and Tina, he knew he should step in and stop this before it became too chaotic. Also, why did he include Teri in the message?

He begrudgingly wrote a response stating that he'll gladly help him stop Tobias from causing himself and everyone else harm and passed the piece of paper back to Darwin. His little brother eagerly read the response and beamed back at his older brother causing the blue cat in question to blush a little at his little brother's cute, smiling face. He hoped that it would all be worth it in the end because if Tina caught wind of this and he finds himself trying to fend off a vicious Tyrannosaur attack, he was going to have a serious talk with Darwin and a rougher talk with Tobias.

He knew that Darwin was probably going to gather some sympathetic friends to help convince Tobias that what he was doing is a bad idea and wondered if he should ask Teri to help out with their plan. He didn't know what she could do, but he would be glad for the extra support. He realized that asking her now might not be a good time, seeing as Ms. Simian had invited Mr. Brown to help teach the lesson (actually, he just kind of popped in to talk to the teacher about something, but the hairy ape wound up inviting the even hairier slug-man to join in on the lesson for a little bit.) which meant an extra pair of eyes were now watching the class. When he looked over in her direction, he also noticed that she was concentrating really hard on the lesson being taught. He decided to wait after first period in order to ask her for her help.

After what felt like an eternity, Math class was done and everyone got up to go to their lockers as soon as the bell rang. Quickly going over his notes, Gumball packed his things and raced off after Teri, who was almost out the door with the other students. He rushed up to her and noticed right away something was wrong with her, she had a hand placed on her forehead and her face was contorted into one that expressed deep pain.

Concerned for his friend's well-being, he tapped her shoulder and the paper girl glanced over to see who it was. Seeing as it was her friend, she gave him a wobbly smile before grimacing once again,

"Need something, Gumball?" she asked, her voice sounding less sweet and more agitated.

Gumball placed his books under the crook of his arm and placed his free hand into his pockets, he still looked concerned for her,

"Actually, I was wondering what's wrong? You look like you just listened to one of Mr. Brown's long winded spiels of his childhood and then tried to burn out the memory by slamming your head repeatedly with the locker door." he asked, adding in his creative zingers in order to help lighten whatever negativity was affecting her.

The bear-like paper cut out just shook her head in frustration and answered with a pained look,

"I don't know exactly. I just received this headache during class and I'm thinking it could be a sign of a migraine or something worse. I'm heading down to the nurses office to see if it can be treated." she sighed, heading in the direction of the infirmary.

Gumball didn't exactly know how to react to this because on the one hand, this could be nothing and Teri's just blowing it out of proportion as an excuse to go see the nurse, but on the other hand, it could be something seeing as she actually looked uncomfortable. He decided that this problem was between her and Ms. Markham and proceeded to move onto the actual reason he wanted to see her.

Keeping his sarcasm in check, Gumball cleared his throat and proceeded to speak to her,

"Yeah, you do that. I was wondering if you wanted to help me with something, actually me Darwin, and some other kids to be exact?" he asked, peeking over to see if Teri was staring at him.

This came as news to her, mainly due to the fact that Gumball just mentioned that he and several others were involved in this event he went through the trouble of talking to her about. She lowered her hand from her aching forehead in order to get a full view of Gumball's face,

"What's going on?" she asked, now intrigued.

Gumball placed his hands together and took a deep breath, even explaining the situation seemed ridiculous to him because it was, in fact, ridiculous,

"Tobias is planning on pranking Tina during lunch in order to get back at her for beating him up last Friday in front of everyone. Me and the others are trying to stop him before he gets us all in trouble and I was wondering if you could help us in stopping him." he explained, albeit rather quickly.

It took her a moment to register everything the fast talking cat had just said and then she raised an eyebrow. It made sense why Tobias was doing it, the joke of a jock had a macho image he wanted to keep and being beaten up will definitely bring him down a peg. What she didn't get was why he was choosing to mess with Tina? Everyone knew Tina was stronger than most of the students here (Hector was definitely stronger and Bobert was debatable.) so her beating up Tobias should've surprised no one. She didn't know why he felt the need to prove himself worthy of challenging her, but then again it _was_ Tobias they were talking about.

As much as she would have liked to help, something had come up yesterday that she couldn't pass up on,

"Sorry Gumball, I wish I could help, but I gotta help Idaho with his Biology project at lunch and I promised him, so I wish you and Darwin the best of luck." she said, looking very apologetic.

Gumball didn't really see it as a big deal and just shrugged it off,

"Pfft! It's alright, I'm pretty sure Darwin will have better luck finding people to help him, heck he could probably convince Tobias all on his own if he wanted to!" he exclaimed, sounding relatively confident.

"I will see you after you get kick- I mean when you get out of the infirmary. Hope you feel better." and with that he zipped off to his locker, leaving a confused and slightly agitated Teri in the hallway by her lonesome.

Disregarding what he was about to say, Teri continued on her way to her destination and hoped that the nurse would take her seriously this time. Her head was really hurting and she really wanted to make sure nothing was wrong. Also, thinking about Gumball helping a friend in need sounded really nice to her and made her heart flutter a little. Now she was sure something was wrong with her.

Back in class, English Language Arts or ELA was starting and Gumball was already starting to feel the lull of the day dragging at him. This day was just so long and boring and he wished that he could be over it and what made it worse was the fact that he knew it was just starting. There was the confrontation that was coming up in lunch that seemed rather exciting to him, but it was still two hours away!

He noticed that Teri hadn't come back from the nurse's office yet and was somewhat curious about her whereabouts. It had been about five minutes since class had started and he figured she must be on her way back right now or is actually coming down with something. He knew that there was no way she would stay for long if it was nothing, seeing as the hypochondriac tends to irritate Ms. Markham with her various ailments or as Teri believes them to be. Maybe if they hung out longer, then she may eventually start becoming less paranoid and just choose to enjoy herself. Only time will tell and speaking of time, Gumball wished the clock would move faster.

With a packet on his desk, he opened to the front page and began filling out the vocab section. He filled it out really fast, seeing as he had highlighted all the words listed on the page that were in the book they were assigned. Seeing as the first section of the assignment was done and they had about seven minutes left until they moved onto the next section, Gumball decided he could take a short nap while he waited.

He soon felt his gargantuan head slump onto his desk and settle where it was. Using his book as a pillow, he got real comfortable, his pointed ears were sticking straight up in order to detect certain noises, he soon felt sleep overcome him and his world was engulfed in darkness as his eyes fell shut. Next came the nightmares he wished would never come today.

In his dream, he saw the incomplete highway bridge that ran out of Elmore standing vacantly in the morning sun as it always did. In the sky, a black, jagged crack appeared and something fell out of it and onto the bridge below. His dream self recognized that it was a Nephilim portal and that the city was in grave danger. Whatever fell out of the portal had taken up a form created from the concrete it landed on. It had a humanoid shape, resembling something like an upright sarcophagus used by the Egyptian pharaohs, although the face was a lacking in any features except for two black eye holes. The next image showed what appeared to be a massive cannon formed from asphalt that appeared behind the Nephilim. It began firing pieces of rock that it raked up with the cannon's claw-like protrusions towards Elmore.

Then the dream ended and Gumball found his head shooting straight up out of fright.

His heart racing, he looked around and saw that the classroom was still here and that everyone is safe. For the time being at least. Turning towards the window, he could see the sun already showing in the morning sky. They didn't have much time until that Nephilim appears and starts bombarding the city with chunks of concrete.

All around him, the kids were already gathered in groups for reading discussions. No one must've noticed him sleeping and when Gumball looked up at the clock, he could see that he had slept for eighteen minutes. Gumball wondered why no one attempted to wake him when the vocab session was done, but that's none of his concern. He had to find Teri before the attacks began and judging by past experiences was about twenty minutes from now.

Speaking of Teri, when he looked around he saw that she still wasn't absent. This came as quite concerning to Gumball because if she had been sent home then there's no way he'll reach the Nephilim in time before it started shelling the city. He needed to find her and he needed to do so, NOW!

Looking over to Ms. Simian's desk, he saw the haggard primate sitting down, head resting on her hand, and doing some paperwork while the students all around her continued to work and chat. This explains why no one bothered to wake him and Gumball immediately began thinking of excuses he could give the teacher so that he could leave class. If nothing worked then he could at least make a scene in order to distract everyone so he could make a clean getaway.

Luckily for Gumball, he didn't need to think of anything because a distraction made itself known the moment he started planning. In the back of the class, shouting could be heard between two people. Turning his head, Gumball could see Ocho and Bobert standing up and facing each other with angry expressions on their faces.

Gumball didn't know what was happening so he cupped a hand around his ear and began listening in on the conversation,

"You know darn well I'm faster than you, scrap heap!" Ocho shouted.

Bobert had his arms crossed and was glaring at the 8-bit spider, he looked unimpressed,

"By my calculations, I find that highly unlikely." he responded in a monotone voice.

Ocho seemed to flare up in a rage at the robot's comeback as his face began burning red,

"Well, yeah, you're calculations are wrong you walking ti-82, plus you haven't even raced me before." he seethed.

Bobert shook his large, oval head and continued glaring at the overly aggressive kid with his one eye,

"I don't have to. I've seen you in a race before and you can't even do that without a cheat code. As a matter of fact, I've recorded you using cheat codes 17 times in the past week, including the time you filled out your vocab sheet this morning. Result: you have no real talent and no way of beating me in any speed related activity." Bobert stated in a metallic voice.

Ms. Simian overheard the conversation, shot straight up from her desk, and began crawling over to where most of the students had gathered. She immediately broke into the circle and began berating Ocho for cheating on the assignment. This caused Ocho to flip out even more and began shouting at the teacher. Soon everyone had completely gathered around to watch the fight, including the winged eyeball, William, who usually served as Simian's snitch.

Realizing his chance to get moving, Gumball quickly and quietly made a break for the exit and began racing down the halls. He wondered if he should stop by his locker first and grab his scythe, but realized that if Teri was heading back now then he should probably grab her and inform her of what's happening. With his mind made up, he picked up his pace and accelerated towards the school infirmary.

 _-the school infirmary-_

"The only one who's getting a headache around here is me! Now take these pain relief pills and get out of my office!"

And with that Teri was roughly shoved out of Ms. Markham's office and into the hall with a few red pills in her hand. She heard the door slam shut behind her, the force of which caused her frail body to blow forward a bit before she was able to stop herself by grabbing onto the door knob. The hallway was completely empty and silent, leaving Teri with a feeling of isolation and loneliness.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, Teri stomped her foot on the ground which didn't have the effect she desired because her foot was too light to produce any noise except for a slight cracking sound, and angrily began making her way back to her class. Many negative thoughts began swirling through her head: anger, frustration, and humiliation among many of them. She spent nearly half an hour arguing her case and the band-aid nurse just kept brushing it off as something trivial without even giving her a check up or even calling her parents.

The nurse eventually lost her temper and decided that giving her some medications would be enough to shut her up before sending her out the door. Teri couldn't tell which was worse: the fact that she ignored a student's health or the fact that she just prescribed to her a medication that she didn't know what kind of effect it would have on her. She seriously wanted to investigate the nurse's diploma and academic background sometime in the nearby future. Maybe she could get one of her parents to come over and see for themselves if she was a legit professional.

She shook her head in frustration, she was sick of it all,

"Seriously, why doesn't anyone ever take me seriously? I know when _I'm_ sick, why do I need to confirm it with some wack job crook who never takes her job seriously?" she muttered bitterly to herself.

She continued to wander the hall by herself, muttering to no one in particular as she vented her anger, and wondered what she was going to do when she got back to class. She missed a significant portion of it being in the sick room and was probably behind the others in terms of the lesson being taught. She figured Gumball must've been taking notes and decided that she could study with him after school had ended.

The more she thought about it, the more she realized that Gumball was actually pretty helpful when it came to people who were in need of it. It made her appreciate the cat's company a little more and actually wondered if she should do something nice for him in exchange for his kindness. She already invited him over to her house once and he seemed to enjoy that quite a bit. Maybe instead of going over to his house this afternoon, she should bring him over to her place. There were a few places she could think of that would serve as good training grounds and she could even think of a few activities that they could do together in order to pass the time.

She was so lost in her thoughts that she failed to notice a particular boy in a brown sweater and grey trousers rushing towards her. When she finally lifted her head, her eyes widened in surprise as Gumball rushed right at her with a somewhat determined look on his face. He reached out with an arm, caught Teri by the waist, tearing her off her feet, and continued on with his rush towards the lockers.

Teri almost had the wind knocked out of her on impact as she let out a gasp and then a slight shriek as the world soon began to move backwards. She had absolutely no idea what was happening or what had gotten into Gumball, but just by his actions alone, she could kind of tell that this was probably important. Still she felt uncomfortable, his shoulder was digging into her stomach like a fist from a heavyweight champion and her entire upper half was blowing in the wind like some living, terrified flag. Also, it was slightly embarrassing, both with him carrying her through the hallways like a princess and the fact that she was so easily swept off her feet and carried off.

She steadied herself by placing both hands on his back and lifting her head until she could see him clearly,

"Mind telling me what you're doing?" she asked, her voice filled with venom.

Gumball kept pumping his tiny legs and zoomed through the hallways with his irritated, yet confused passenger,

"Not much time! There's a Nephilim that's going to appear soon! Gotta get to our lockers!" he shouted, not caring if anyone heard because he was in a bit of a panic at the moment.

Teri tensed up, despite how natural this had all become to her in the past week or two, she still froze up when she heard that name,

"WHAT?! Where is it going to appear? Also, could you please put me down?" she asked, her voice lowering to a growl at the last question.

"It's going to appear at the bridge that hasn't been completed yet, you know, the highway one. Also we're at your locker." he said, screeching to a halt and setting the paper girl down.

Dusting herself off, she quickly opened her locker and began grabbing her supplies while shoving them in her backpack. While she did this, she shot Gumball a nasty glare that made the short, blue cat boy tense up until he was plank-like. He had no idea what he did, but he could guarantee that glare meant that he was in deep trouble. She slammed her locker shut after pulling her backpack out, slinging it over her shoulder, and storming past the terrified feline,

"Thanks for coming to get me and for the record, next time you decide to pick me up like that make sure your hand is a little higher." she angrily remarked, causing Gumball to first turn beet red and then white upon realizing what he had just done.

"Sorry, I thought that was your waist." he squeaked, his ears drooping in shame as he covered his face with his paws.

Teri just snorted in disapproval and picked up her pace seeing as Gumball's locker was down the hall and around the corner. While they quickly made their way to Gumball's storage unit, an explosion could be heard ringing through the hallway. Realizing the blast came from behind, Teri turned around and scanned the empty hallway for any signs of trouble,

"What was that?" she gasped, anxiety already starting to grip her.

She really hoped that this wasn't a Nephilim or else the whole school would be in danger. Luckily Gumball knew what it was and grabbed Teri by the hand, prompting her to follow along. Curious, she turned, ignoring the fact that he was holding her hand, and stared at the cat with a baffled expression on her drawn-on face,

"Not to worry, it's probably just Bobert and Ocho." Gumball stated, his eyes widening as soon as he realized what that meant,

"On second thought, we better get going!" he said, practically dragging Teri as he ran towards his locker.

Teri found herself once again being carried away by her friend and was starting to feel as though this was going to be a normal occurrence,

"Could you please explain to me what's been going on while I was gone? Also, quit grabbing me!" she shouted.

Gumball promised to do so after they reached their destination and the two continued to make haste because as the old saying goes: time is of the essence.

 _-12 minutes later, above the canyon in the outskirts of Elmore-_

Soaring through the open air on an F-117 nighthawk crafted from folded, black paper definitely won Gumball over as being better than school, but he didn't have the luxury of enjoying the ride due to the fact that Elmore was about to receive a late morning shower of high velocity, concrete artillery shells in the next few minutes. They were already nearing the bridge, with Teri piloting the craft along the highway that was lined with natural red, sandstone cliffs, it was relatively easy to get to, and Gumball was prepared to strike as he already had his Nephilim-slaying weapon extended in his hand. The sky was bright and cloudless, making for a pleasant day today. The two students hoped that everyone will still be around to enjoy it.

Swerving around another cliff face, Teri continued to follow the highway that had long since been barred off by the government due to construction or lack thereof. She knew they were getting closer to target area and had already prepared a few explosive runes on their way here so that when they spotted the spiritual entity they could immediately begin an attack. They both had little idea as to what the Nephilim was capable of and didn't believe that it wasn't prepared for a confrontation with two hostiles.

Unfortunately, the only thing they had to go off of was what Gumball saw in his vision, but that's how they usually started off their battles anyway.

Feeling the wind tug at her body as she clung on to the triangular aircraft's nose, she called back to Gumball who was behind her and gripping on to some of the paper plane's folds with one hand as he kept a lookout for any sign of trouble,

"So you said that it had the ability to manipulate concrete?" she asked, banking the aircraft around another red mountain face.

Gumball merely nodded as he held on tightly in order to avoid sailing off into a mountain side,

"Yes, it even had a layer of concrete protecting its body. We're probably going to need to use your explosives in order to damage it." he suggested, feeling like that was the smartest idea.

Teri nodded, confirming that she understood what her furry companion had said. If his description of the Nephilim was anything to go off of, then their best plan of attack would be to have Gumball protect her from any of the beast's long-range attacks until they got close enough for her to use a few bomb runes in order to destroy the beast. They could also attack it from the air, but Teri was worried that it would spot them before they had a chance to attack.

While Teri thought this over, Gumball watched as the bridge slowly came into view after they made another turn along the highway. He didn't exactly have fond memories of the place, as he and his family had often gone over it and it almost always ended with them sailing over the edge and into the gorge below. He honestly wondered why the city abandoned construction on this place when it was so close to being completed. However, it was one of those things he always pondered, but was unmotivated into looking into it himself.

To make matters worse for both him and Teri, the moment the bridge came into view, they could see the Nephilim already waiting for them. It's body was already complete, but the massive cannon that was materializing out of liquid concrete that the creature was pulling from the road via some telekinetic force, was still in the process of being built. Gumball didn't exactly have anything to use as a form of measurement, but if what he saw during his nap in class was accurate, then the finished version of the cannon should be at least 200 feet long, if he were to guess. Right now, only the claw-like base had been constructed along with the aft end of the cannon's barrel. The Nephilim could be seen kind of gliding around the base of the cannon, as if on patrol and if it had spotted or sensed them approaching, then it wasn't doing anything about it because both Gumball and Teri couldn't see any other kind of activity from the creature that indicated hostility.

However, if this thing could build a powerful cannon that can fire concrete artillery shells from several miles away, then Teri didn't even want to know what it could create for close range targets.

Thinking fast, Teri slowed the craft down and began a decent towards the road below and behind a section of the mountain that stuck out in order to conceal themselves from the beast. Gumball noticed their speed decrease and that the craft was starting to lose altitude quickly. He looked up at Teri and wondered what she was doing,

"Teri, is something wrong?" he asked, scooting closer to the pilot in order to get a better look at her.

Not even glancing back at her passenger, Teri set the craft down on the paved surface below and hopped off, followed by Gumball,

"We can't just go flying in there without a plan!" she stated, willing the paper jet to unfold back into its basic form and then into a medium dog-sized, black paper ant before hopping back on it,

"It's sitting out there in the open, but that doesn't mean it's not well defended. I say we should make our way under the bridge, sneak up behind it, destroy the cannon and then the Nephilim itself." she said, having thought up the plan herself.

Gumball was actually impressed with her observation and her planning, he gave her a supportive glance and a thumbs up,

"Actually, that's a really practical and genius plan, Teri! I say we go for it and if we're somehow spotted, I'll be sure to defend us both." he said reassuringly, he held up his scythe to emphasize his point.

Giving him a shaky smile, Teri nodded at the Watterson child and felt herself warming up with pride. She wasn't the one who usually made these kind of plans because Gumball and, just recently, Rob were usually the strategists and the frontline fighters when it came to the war against the evil spirits. She normally remained as support and would only commence with sneak attacks while the enemy's attention was elsewhere or she would help guide Gumball around the battlefield in order for the scythe wielder to keep up with their adversaries.

Now was her time to shine as a planner and she was more than proud of the support Gumball was giving her.

"Hop on my ant!" she commanded.

Gumball did as he was told and mounted the paper insect on the seat behind her,

"Did you bring your uncle as well?" he responded jokingly.

Without really thinking, Teri found herself facepalming almost right away after hearing another one of Gumball's dreaded puns,

"Ugh! Really, Gumball?!" Teri groaned causing the not-so-serious blue cat to grin widely behind her.

To Gumball anytime was a good time for puns, even though most of his humor was just used to help him cope with his fear and his sadness at times.

With Teri on the offensive and Gumball on the defensive, they set their sights on the bridge and began scurrying up the mountainside. When they reached the top, they made their way across the mountain top and then down the other side, towards the bridge. The reason they took this little detour was because Teri didn't want to risk being spotted by going up the main road. Eventually, they reached the bridge and Teri mentally commanded the paper insect to crawl underneath the structure. So far, the monster hadn't done anything, so she assumed that they were successful in sneaking over here.

Being upside down now, Gumball had to wrap his legs around the ant's tiny mid-section in order to keep himself from careening into the empty space below. It was a mildly uncomfortable position to be in as well as disorienting and Gumball also found himself praying that Teri did a good job in folding the ant so that it was structurally sound enough to support his weight. Good news was, Teri definitely knew what she was doing when it came to origami and it made Gumball come to appreciate her crafting skills. She actually was very intelligent and that was something he'd never actually noticed about her because he never really had any meaningful interactions with her until this past month.

Gumball felt the bridge rumble a bit the moment they clambered underneath it and an ominous feeling made itself present in the back of his mind: something didn't seem right.

Maneuvering around several support pillars and climbing over concrete structures, the paper bear and the blue cat made their way across the underside of the incomplete highway bridge in very little time. Soon they were practically thirty feet from the end of the artificial overpass and if Gumball were to guess, they were right underneath the Nephilim. Coincidentally another rumble could be felt throughout the structure, giving both Gumball and Teri a chill that ran down their backs.

"Please tell me you felt that?" Gumball whispered, looking around nervously as they continued to move.

Teri was also nervous, but kept the ant moving as to assure nothing would happen to them if they stopped,

"Yeah, I did. Do you think it's already firing the cannon?" she hissed back at him, being the utmost cautious that she could be.

Gumball shook his head and continued to keep his voice low while he spoke,

"I don't think so. In my dream the cannon made a large boom when it fired, plus it was far from being completed when we arrived." he explained.

They were about twenty three feet from the gap that bisected the concrete passing they were currently clinging to. Teri was about to suggest that the Nephilim could possibly be ripping up concrete to use as ammunition, but she was cut off when something shot out from her right towards her face! Gumball saw the incoming object and without thinking, quickly swung his scythe at it.

The bladed weapon cut through the attacking object, effectively cleaving it in two. The object fell down the gorge below (although technically to Gumball and Teri, it was above them.) and when Gumball got a better look at the thing he had just cut down, he saw that it was a grey, human arm and hand with claws at the fingertips. It took him a moment to realize that the arm was made of concrete!

With fear and adrenaline rushing through him, Gumball looked around and saw three more materializing all around them from the ceiling that their ant ride was clinging onto. Teri, who had recovered from her initial shock, also took note of the various ghastly, concrete limbs taking form and began searching for a way out of this predicament. There was one in front of them, blocking their path forward and two more behind them, keeping them from moving back either. They appeared to be trapped by the Nephilim they aimed to destroy!

Gumball noticed the hand in front of them wiggling its clawed fingers and took it as a sign that it was about to strike. He raised his scythe until it was in the optimal swinging position, keeping his eye on the one in front, as he shouted at Teri,

"GET DOWN!"

Knowing what he was about to do, the paper girl quickly ducked her head down right as Gumball swung the curved blade from behind. The reaping weapon tore right through the wrist of the menacing limb with a _sluck!_ causing the hand to to drop into the pit below. The handless appendage melted into liquid concrete and dripped down from the bridge as though it were dead.

The strike was actually rather difficult for Gumball to pull off because of the fact that he was hanging upside down while his legs were wrapped tightly around a stocky, paper ant. With gravity pulling on his body, his moves felt sluggish and he also felt himself tightening his leg's grasp on the ant because he feared any wrong move would send him falling to his doom. Lastly, being on the downside meant that the blood was starting to rush to his head, making his noggin feel hot and heavy accompanied with slight dizziness that distorted his vision.

Even though he was able to fight, he was stuck in a position where he was limited and running out of stamina to carry on.

Simultaneously, the two hands behind them lunged forward, talons raised with the intention of shredding Gumball's vulnerable backside. What the Nephilim didn't take into account though was that Gumball had already figured this was going to happen and allowed his momentum to carry on over from the first strike until he had twisted his entire upper body backwards. Sliced up, the two attacking appendages joined their brothers in arms at the bottom of the cliff.

Seeing an ample opportunity to move forward, Teri forced the ant to race towards the bridge's edge in order to escape the various attackers that were starting to form out of the surrounding area after Gumball had finished off it's four buds from earlier. While Gumball desperately hacked away at every claw that attempted to slash them to bits (all the while trying to stay conscious!), Teri figured that this was the Nephilim's doing, but was confused as to how it had managed to find them. They were under the bridge the whole time, so how did it know they were there?

From the sides and from behind, Teri could hear and see the Nephilim's traps springing up, wriggling and writhing along with Gumball grunting as he continued to defend them from the onslaught of disembodied, palpable, human arms,

"Jeez, there's a lot of these things! It's like being at the kindergarten again!" Gumball shouted in frustration as he slammed the butt end of his scythe into the palm of a hand reaching for his face, effectively knocking it away.

The incomplete section of the bridge was about ten feet away from the two of them now. Teri wished that she could go faster, but she folded the ant in such a way that it became rather stocky in order to support Gumball's weight while hanging upside down. The downside to this was that the legs were made shorter which greatly reduced their speed. There were only so many ways a piece of paper could be folded and sometimes size could factor in as well, depending on what you were making.

They were nearly killed when a claw formed in front of her, attempting to knock the ant and it's passengers off the bridge. Thinking quickly, Teri swerved around the outstretched limb and dug a sticky note with an explosive rune written onto it from her backpack and placed it onto the vile thing. The rune flashed orange a couple of times and exploded with a loud, sharp bang, causing the concrete menace to explode into small chunks. The explosion's size varied depending on the size of the surface it was drawn on or the overall size the symbol, so it wasn't dangerous for the two spirit fighters as long as they were the correct distance away from the dangerous symbol.

Within a few moments, they finally reached the otherside of the bridge's first half and made their way back to the top, where the cannon was. The moment they were on level ground again, Gumball felt himself slide off the ant and onto the stone-like surface with a heavy _thud!_ His head was swimming along with his vision due to being upside down for a while. Also being reoriented rather quickly caused the blood that was rushing to his head to drain back down to his feet. He figured they should have just _flown_ under the bridge instead of clinging to the bottom of it like an… well, an ant!

Unfortunately, he didn't get much time to rest and regain his bearings as Teri began shouting at him to get off the ground. Sensing the distress in her voice, Gumball sat up and glanced first in her direction (his vision was tilting so it looked as though she were sitting at a slanted angle along with the paper insect she was on.) and then in the direction opposite of the gap next to him and saw that the Nephilim, no more than twenty feet away, was facing them. It's dull, grey sarcophagus-like body was melded into the asphalt, manipulating it like a liquid and allowing it's otherwise immobile form to move about the area freely.

Being rather close to it now, Gumball could see that it's "body" was covered in intricate carvings that swirled and flowed like ripples in a pond, giving the bland colored entity a stunningly beautiful appearance. The only thing that didn't move or change much was it's face: a blank circle as big as a dinner plate with two small, black holes for eyes giving it the appearance of some kind of mask. The being itself was at least ten feet tall, a bit on the short side for a Nephilim when compared to the others, but it did have complete control over concrete which gave it a bit of an edge.

Kind of like Silver Twelve, it was pleasant to look at, but still managed to radiate danger just by looking at it.

The limbless monstrosity did not approach the two, instead opting to stay in front of it's cannon, which was nearly complete at this point. Another thing Gumball had noticed was that the area around the monster and it's weapon of mass destruction was caving in like a crater, with the cannon's crater getting bigger and deeper as it continued to form. It took no brain surgeon to understand that it's only resource to use was concrete and so the more it consumed, the less there will be around it.

That's when it struck him.

Slowly getting back to his feet, Gumball stood beside Teri and began formulating a plan of attack. He saw the concrete around the massive weapon being drawn into the cannon itself and this gave him an idea. Keeping an eye on the Nephilim, which surprisingly hasn't attacked them yet, Gumball leaned in and began whispering to Teri,

"How many bomb runes do you have left?" he asked.

Teri didn't take long to ponder this question. She used up one bomb during the ambush under the bridge, she created ten runes on sticky notes and five on regular sheets of paper. In terms of preparedness, Teri would say that she could level the Nephilim with the amount of fire power she was packing.

She watched said monster continue to stand guard and observe the both of them while she leaned in and whispered to Gumball,

"Fourteen, why? What's your plan?" she asked, still not sure how they were going to approach this monster. For all they knew, the thing could be forming a legion of concrete soldiers behind them right now in order to keep them busy.

Gumball rested his weapon on his shoulder and pointed towards the gradually deepening pit around the cannon,

"Basically, the objective is to get you as close to the cannon as possible. I will distract Concretin over there while you fly over using your origami abilities and plant some explosive runes near the cannon. In theory, you shouldn't even have to reach the cannon, just plant a couple of bombs near the pit where the materials are being pulled in and they should be pulled towards the cannon." he explained confidently, although his brow was covered in sweat due to how nervous he was. He didn't like the fact that the Nephilim seemed to be waiting for them to make the first move,

"Once that's done, feel free to drop in and help me finish it off."

And with that Gumball place the grey scythe in both paws and dashed off towards the concrete giant. Teri was dumbstruck by his headstrong approach to the Nephilim in front of him. Sure, he'd become a bit more capable of taking on the ancient giants with everything he had been putting himself through during his private time, but there was still no way he could beat them on his own. Teri also knew she wasn't much better, she had no way of becoming physically stronger to take on the Nephilim through regular physical training, she was very frail: both physically and mentally.

She admired the boldness that Gumball had gained throughout the past few weeks.

She watched for a moment as Gumball raced towards the monster that seemed so terrifying. The Nephilim stopped moving back and forth when it saw the furry little fighter making his way towards it and locked it's gaze onto him as it prepared to defend itself. It's markings flashed red and faded quickly. In front of it, three tendrils of asphalt armed with curved talons rose up like the world's dullest and ugliest snakes and prepared to strike the approaching cat boy. Gumball noted the creature's defenses and pressed on, only this time with his scythe raised horizontally in front of him as he prepared to defend himself from an oncoming strike.

The Nephilim's "body" flashed red again and the concrete talons shot forward like vipers, extending until they reached the charging blue cat, claws aiming for his heart. Gumball saw how fast they were moving and panicked a little, he wasn't expecting them to be so fast! With very little time to react, Gumball dived to the right and executed a roll being careful to keep the scythe's blade as far from his body as possible. He heard a slight _FWWWSSHH!_ as they shot by his rolling body: one of the nails even managed to slightly graze his back while he continued to tumble head-over-heels.

Stopping the moment he heard the attacking appendages strike the pavement behind him, he quickly snapped to his feet and swung his scythe as he spun around. Good news, he hit it! Bad news, he was too far away and his attack was too shallow and only managed to to graze the arm closest to him. Upon closer inspection, Gumball could see that the limbs were as thick as a Python's body and the blade only cut through two inches of the soft, liquid-like material. He also noticed that the hands and claws were made of hardened concrete, obviously in order to tear into its target. Either way, it was one point for Gumball and one for the Concretin.

The monster resumed its attack by sprouting another arm from each arm that was currently embedded into the concrete in order to continue attacking Gumball without wasting time. Gumball screamed a little, wrenching his scythe and himself away from the attacking limbs, hacking and slashing as they tried to claw or grab him. Soon, the Nephilim summoned an additional four limbs in order to impede the cat's attack further.

All the while, a certain paper girl watched in amazement as Gumball continued to hold his own against the deadly barrage the Nephilim was sending. _"He's clearly scared and knows he's outmatched, but he's not giving up."_ she thought to herself in amazement, _"I wish I could be that courageous. I always attack them when they're distracted or when I have cover because I simply can't face these things head on."_ this revelation filled her with some self-loathing. She had a plan to ensure the two of them a swift victory and yet, one oversight lead to the both of them getting caught anyway. She wanted to prove to Gumball and herself that she was capable of coming up with a plan and defeating the enemy with her magic.

She was worried about being seen as a liability and didn't want to be stuck on the sidelines as backup or just to be a small part in a bigger scheme when she knew she could do more.

She unfolded her origami ant and reformed it into an origami hummingbird with a simplistic design. Gumball had a plan and was risking his own safety in order for her to fulfill her end of it. She couldn't let self-doubt stop her from making sure he and the various citizens of Elmore don't die. If this mission failed because of her hesitation then she would only be proving herself right, that she was a burden to others.

Regardless of the role she played in this fight, she had a job to do. She would have to worry about bridging the gap between her and Gumball later. Hopping on the small bird, Teri could feel the narrow wings begin beating rapidly, until it and the lightweight female student were hovering several dozen feet from the ground and began heading towards the nearly complete weapon forming on the bridge.

Down below, Gumball was continuously fending off anything that appeared snake-like and that was darting towards him at near lightning speed. It wasn't looking good for him, he had already sustained a few injuries because of the overwhelming attacks that just kept racking up as the Nephilim increased the amount of tendrils to attack him with. He was also slowly being pushed towards the edge that he and Teri just came from and was afraid that if this kept up, he'd either get skewered by several sharp claws attacking all at once or he would be sent tumbling off the bridge after a strong attack.

With sweat pouring down his brow, his breathing heavy with exhaustion, and his cuts stinging as perspiration began running down and into the exposed wounds, Gumball swung as hard as he could and cut down three concrete tendrils that were attacking from the front. Unfortunately, that only meant a new appendage was going to sprout from the severed stumps, plus he was still dealing with seven other disembodied claws that continued to attack relentlessly from all other sides. Within the corner of his vision, Gumball saw something heading towards him and quickly side-stepped, allowing the claws that were reaching for his throat to slam into the ground a few inches from his right foot and quickly removed the hand from the rest of its arm with the interior, serrated edge of curved blade.

As luck would have it, this was all a clever trick so that Gumball would turn his back on a pair of attacking, Nephilim puppeted hands and Gumball felt a pair of claws rake his backside, tearing through his sweater, fur, and flesh causing a fiery pain to burn through Gumball's body. Gumball screamed, both in agony and in fright as he whipped around and quickly sliced the two arms in half. He could already feel blood start dripping from the ten marks that crossed the back of his upper torso and the pain was causing him to slow down a little. He knew he wasn't going to be able to take much more of this.

While preparing for the next wave of attacks, he noticed that it became unnaturally dark rather quickly despite the fact that it was morning and there were no clouds in the sky. He turned around and saw, to his horror, what was blocking out the sun. It was a giant fist attached to an arm as long and as thick as a school bus that stuck out of the ground where the shoulder began. Once fully extended, it was already curled back and ready to smash the blue cat into a bloody paste on the road. Being completely surrounded on all sides with the Nephilim ready to deal a crushing blow, Gumball realized that he had been forced into a trap!

Suddenly, a series of explosions filled the air with thunderous bangs and Gumball felt a shock wave pass through the area, causing him to nearly faceplant. Seconds later he heard the sound of cracking and something large breaking apart and crumbling to pieces. Looking over his shoulder, the kitten could see that the massive cannon the Nephilim was building had been reduced to a pile of smoking rubble, with smaller chunks being flung outwards in several directions.

Looks like Teri had done her job!

He felt a smile creep onto his face despite the amount of pain he was currently in along with the knowledge that he was surrounded and that he was about to be crushed to death. He was just happy that they managed to prevent the Concretin from causing any major harm to Elmore. Looking over to where the beast was, Gumball could see that Teri's surprise attack had completely caught it off guard and was now just staring blankly at where it's magnificent weapon had once stood.

Before it had any chance to return it's attention to Gumball, the blue cat was snatched up by Teri, who had dropped a few explosive runes in the cannon pit and waited for the weapon to be destroyed before heading back to rescue Gumball. She was glad that the encased Nephilim was too busy focusing on the destruction she caused and not on the flying Pepakuma child. She was also thankful that Gumball was alive, as the entire time she was waiting for the runes to activate, she'd been watching him getting torn up by the relentless attacks from the amorphous substance the monster controlled. Once again, she felt bad for not being able to do anything to assist him during that fight.

She chose to retreat to the other side of the bridge with hopes that the ancient giant wouldn't be able to reach them there. With Gumball sitting behind her, she listened as he tried to catch his breath. The blue cat was starting to feel that they needed a different strategy in defeating the concrete controlling monster because trying to defeat it in close quarters was just not working. They may have destroyed the bridge cannon, but the cocooned entity hadn't been killed yet.

He felt the hummingbird come to a stop in mid-air, it's tiny, narrow wings blurring as they flapped at incredible speeds causing the paper animal to vibrate ever so slightly. They had crossed the massive gap between the bridge and now the Nephilim was standing behind them on it's end. Turning around, Gumball and Teri could see that the monster was regarding them with it's black, hollow eyes as it remained in the same spot they had left it in: evidently it couldn't get across the bridge and wasn't attempting pursuit.

The two children felt baffled now, they had no idea how to defeat this thing.

"Any plans Teri? Cause that thing is not going to let us get close if we try." he asked, feeling unsure of his own abilities.

Leaving the planning once again to her was definitely a shock to Teri. After her first plan had failed, she thought that Gumball was going to take over in the strategizing department. She thought that he would at least already have an idea ready to execute the moment she completed her objective. Then she thought to herself that he probably did have one, but was airing on the side of caution due to his previous encounter and wanted to hear some suggestions from another source. He was trusting her judgement and wanted to see if she could come up with something better than what he had.

Now full of confidence and courage, Teri set her sights first on the Nephilim. One thing she had learned was that the sarcophagus-like creature manipulated concrete by liquifying it and hardening it at will in order to create overwhelming and devastating attacks. When they tried to sneak under the bridge it attacked them the moment they were underneath it and the cannon, suggesting it can sense them in a limited area. However, it can be easily distracted by one opponent as was demonstrated when it fought Gumball and failed to take notice of her when she flew over its head to destroy it's primary weapon.

She thought about doing another sneak attack using Gumball as a distraction, but that plan didn't seem like it would work because they already tried sneaking up on it before and also, Gumball was injured now and she would feel bad if she sent him in to do the same thing he did last time. She then noticed that the Nephilim didn't actually leave the concrete as it was melded to it by its "feet?" and found herself wondering if that's how it was controlling the mixture of rock, sand, and cement. Maybe if they could somehow separate its "body" from the road it will be rendered powerless?

With all that in mind, she began to survey the area for anything that could help the two of them. The monster still wasn't doing anything to attack them, but she could see that it was starting to form something behind it. Another cannon perhaps? Was it really that persistent? Teri thought this over, but pushed it out of her mind in order to keep her focus. She first looked on the road and saw nothing but craters and a few burnt spots from where her explosion was set off. Seeing nothing useful, she continued to look around and soon found herself looking at the support cables that ran along the bridge and then at the massive pillars that held the overpass above the canyon.

That's when she finally formulated a strategy that seemed guaranteed to win.

After forty seven seconds of waiting and watching Teri ponder an idea, Gumball was surprised when he saw the pale girl's flat, bear-like head twist around to face him. He saw a brilliant gleam in her eyes and knew that she was up to something. The confidence she was displaying filled him with the same fire that erupted in her eyes, he was anticipating what she had to say,

"What's the plan, Teri?" he asked, resting the scythe on his shoulder and leaning in with the intent of hearing what she had to say.

Clearing her throat, she hiked a thumb in the direction of the Concretin and spoke quickly and clearly,

"I may have found its weakness, unfortunately there's something I need you to do first and you may not like it?" she suggested, heavily hinting at another one-on-one fight between the little cat and the terrifying cement monster.

Of course, this was the last thing Gumball wanted to do, but seeing as Elmore was in serious trouble, he didn't see any other way out of it. Gumball's face went from hopeful to straight and then to a reluctant understanding of it before nodding and gesturing with his hand for her to continue. Teri then pointed at the support cables that she had been eyeing earlier and then back at the Nephilim,

"I need you to hold it off for a few moments while I set up a trap. Here's what you need to do in the meantime…" she explained.

She continued to go through with her plan, with Gumball patiently listening and doing his best to understand. Meanwhile, the Nephilim continued on with it's plans to exterminate the residents of Elmore city. The powerful being from the world beyond regarded the two fighters as annoying vermin, but kept its guard up, just in case. They were a tricky and resilient bunch as it had learned previously…

 _After a minute or two..._

Leaping off from the black hummingbird, Gumball landed on the pavement with one knee on the ground and one hand holding onto his folded scythe. Thanks to Teri, his back was patched up with some cloth bandages she brought along with her and was no longer bleeding, which was a good thing. However, he was still in tremendous pain and landing on his knee may have looked cool, but it actually hurt really bad, so bad that it made him tear up a little and hold in a scream as he stood back up.

Across from him, about twenty feet away, the Nephilim had sensed his approached and was now focusing its empty eyes on the eldest Watterson child. Gumball could see that it was in fact, building another cannon as the base of the awesome weapon had already been created. Looks like his operation with Teri didn't really change much. They also needed to end this quickly because Gumball suspected that the fight with Bobert and Ocho was probably simmering down at this point.

He had two objectives given to him by Teri: the first was to somehow get the Concretin over to the edge, as close as possible she said. Next he had to use some of her explosive runes to remove the monster from the ground it was attached to when she gave him a signal to do so. Gumball had some doubts about this aspect of the plan, mainly due to the fact that when he first fought it, he was nearly taken out!

But orders were orders, he was just going to have to make do. It was do or die time and he was going to have to bring his A game into the mix. They had a limited time to do this and Teri was counting on him.

His scythe was folded up because he didn't want to bring it out yet and impede his progress. His objective was to get to the concrete cocoon that was containing the vile spirit as quick as possible and deal some damage to it. If he did so, he may entice it to back up towards the edge, plus it may underestimate him if it doesn't see his weapon drawn.

The morning air was really cool, the canyon walls were really great at directing wind currents along this section of the highway. Everything seemed to slow down for Gumball as he crouched down and got ready to sprint: his goal, to get around the Nephilim. The Nephilim kept watch over him, it's wavy markings flashing red once, and five tendrils, devoid of any pleasant colors began to rise out of the ground in front of it. The limb's tips began reshaping themselves until they resembled missiles, with sleek, pointed heads and four small, aerodynamic fins to better help guide their path as they cut through the air. Gumball guessed that this monster wasn't fooling around this time, _"So it's bringing the thunder too, eh? Fine with me."_ he smirked deviously at the thought, his adrenaline causing him to feel aggressive and headstrong.

The missile tendrils arched back as they prepared to strike, Gumball took a deep breath and let it out as smoothly as possible, the fresh air felt great in his lungs. Without another moment's hesitation, he bolted forward! With the sudden action the armed cat displayed, the missile tentacles shot forward, the craters formed at their bases growing larger as they consumed more concrete in order to increase their overall length. Like the talons, they moved incredibly fast, forcing Gumball to react.

When the first one reached him, Gumball stopped dead in his tracks and took a step back. The grey missile slammed into the ground in front of him and shattered into hundreds of small chunks as the Nephilim was unable to predict his unusual movements. The other four made their way towards him, three from behind and one coming directly at him from above.

Quickly predicting the trajectory of the one coming from above, Gumball grabbed a large piece of discarded concrete from the first missile (when they break they resume their solid forms.) and lobbed it at the incoming attached projectile. The two collided causing both to shatter on impact and more pieces to fall to the ground. The arch from the tendril remained where it was like the world's most boring rainbow.

As for the remaining three closing in on him from behind, Gumball, with only seconds to act, turned around and began sprinting towards the three incoming projectiles. Moments before colliding, Gumball dove forward and underneath the three spindly limbs of asphalt as they collided with each other and broke into little bits. And just like that, there was only Gumball and the concrete sarcophagus.

Getting up to his feet once more, Gumball finally extended the scythe's blade and continued to circle around the Nephilim cannon maker/operator. Within a few powerful strides, Gumball was near the cannon and almost in front of the monster. With its first wave decimated, the Nephilim proceeded to launch a stronger attack on it's only opponent. Moments later, Gumball felt a strong force press down on him, restraining the poor boy and halting his advance all together. In front of the Concretin, a red orb began to form and the temperature rose significantly: it was a doom blast!

Realizing how much trouble he was in, Gumball knew that this attack was capable of vaporizing almost any material it came in contact with. What's worse was this time he didn't have Teri as back up because she was too busy weaving together her master plan. Desperate to escape, Gumball struggled against the invisible hand that was trying to compress him. He was still standing, surprisingly, and he began wriggling his arms in an attempt to break free of whatever curse had him bound. Several feet away, the red orb's glow intensified, casting the world in a bloody, red glow. A hum began to make itself present within Gumball's ears, indicating he had very little time until he was atomized.

" _Come on, come on! I can't die here! I can't let Teri down or everyone in Elmore!"_ he desperately thought as he let out an agonized groan while he continued to force his arms up against the pressing force,

" _I. GOTTA. MOVE. DARNIT!"_

And then, a familiar feeling began to resurface within Gumball's very being. A power that resonated from his weapon and into his little body. The gravity well that was trying to crush him to the ground seemed to dissipate and he was free to move his limbs and body again. Slightly surprised, but more relieved than anything, Gumball quickly snapped the scythe up in front of him and prepared to take the blast head on. It was too late to get out of the doom blast's range, so Gumball decided to deflect it away. To his surprise the entire blade was producing grey flames that lapped the air with its silver tongues. He remembered seeing this when Toxic Pill attacked.

And at that moment, the Concretin's doom blast reached its critical peak and was released in the form of a raging red torrent of energy directed at the scythe wielding middle schooler. The blast tore its way through the open air, easily closing the distance between it and its intended target, before engulfing the child in crimson. To the Nephilim discharging the weapon, the little boy should have been erased the moment the beam came in contact with his frail little body.

After a moment or two had passed, the beam died down and the world was back to its normal colors again. There was still an abundance of heat that had yet to vanish and the stench of burnt asphalt lingered in the air. The blast zone where the demonic spirits energy-based attack encompassed was filled with smoke that rose and drifted along with the canyon breeze. All the Nephilim needed was to see was whether or not the vermin had been reduced to atoms in it's last attack.

Before the smoke dissipated, a grey glow could be seen emanating from within the black column. To the Nephilim's confusion, the boy had survived!

Before it had a chance to react, Gumball came leaping out of the smoke column, scythe raised for a vertical slice as he glared menacingly at the monstrous spirit. After the doom blast was deflected by his magical weapon's amplified energy, Gumball could feel more energy bursting from within. He felt great! Incredible even! It was like it was his birthday and he had eaten tons of cake and was playing all his favorite games. The rush this power was giving him made him feel transcendent, invincible, unstoppable! Even his pain had faded the moment Carrie's gift had started feeding him power.

Now flying with the help of his amplified energy, Gumball quickly sealed the distance between him and his intended target. The startled Nephilim tried to back away from the flying mammal, but was unable to stop the two foot, curved, flaming blade from slicing into its masked face. When Gumball swung the scythe into the monster's face, he was expecting some resistance since the monster's shell was made of concrete, but instead the blade cut through it as though he were swinging it through the air.

The blade didn't cut very deep however, only leaving a shallow gash running vertically across the Concretin's blank face. The Concretin, not entirely dead yet, retaliated quickly by forming an arm with heavily reinforced knuckles and swung its fist at the furry blue kid standing on its upper torso. Having been too focused on landing his own strike on the stone-like monster, Gumball didn't see the fist shooting towards him and was clocked square in the middle of his face with enough force to send him crashing into the cannon.

Feeling his head spinning, Gumball got up on wobbly legs, surprisingly neither his face nor his back hurt, which could be due to shock, adrenaline, or the mysterious powers from the scythe in his hands. Either way, getting decked in the face by fist harder than stone and as fast as a speeding truck definitely threw his whole world in a spin. Despite the massive power-up given to him, he was still susceptible to being attacked and knocked around. He felt something warm and wet on his face and when he brought his hand up to it, he pulled his fingers away only to see them covered in blood, _his_ blood.

Checking back on the Nephilim, he saw something that filled him with dread the moment it presented itself. The gash he had left on Concretin's face was closing up as it began pulling more concrete from the ground to repair the damage. Soon the vertical scratch had completely disappeared and the monster was now looming over him again. This was going to be a difficult fight as long as he was in contact with the ground.

There was some good news though, Gumball had successfully forced the beast to back up in the direction of the ledge that marked the end of the road. The best part was, he still felt empowered and far from being depleted! Standing tall, Gumball regarded the vile creature with his determined and menacing black eyes, showing no signs of cowardice,

"One for one." he chuckled, wiping away the blood dripping from his nose with the sleeve of his sweater,

"I guess things are really starting to heat up!" he said, his scythe's flames burning with greater intensity.

The Nephilim regarded his remark by forming ten Roman scissors all around it, having them rotate like sharks around a wounded animal. It was going on the defensive, this was both good and bad news for the spirit fighter,

" _Forward! Not one step back! Teri's counting on me!"_ he thought once more to himself.

With amazing speed, the blue feline rushed into the frey.

Down underneath the bridge, Teri continued to tape and stick multiple pages with the rune of her choice inscribed on them to the support pillar she was hovering by. She was working as fast as she could, but the task was slightly tedious because she needed to make sure the explosion runes covered every square inch of concrete on the pillar while also making sure the blanket of pages covered a wide area. It was a dangerous plan that could cause massive amounts of damage to the bridge itself, but there weren't really a whole lot of alternatives at the moment.

She heard the fight above and was wondering if it was getting intense. She heard what sounded like five explosions, a doom blast followed by a series loud clashes between concrete and metal. She hoped that Gumball was okay and that he was holding off the Concretin as best as he could. He told her that he was going to put his everything into driving the Nephilim back to the edge and by the sounds of his screaming and cursing, he really was.

This plan of hers had a lot of factors that could go wrong and each one that presented itself filled the young girl with uncertainty and anxiety as she carried on with her task. Regardless of her worries, she pressed onwards with the knowledge that if this fails, she, Gumball, and the citizens of the faraway town will face a terrible fate. Despite all the complications that came along with this crazy idea, there were only two simple outcomes: they either annihilate the Nephilim or the city gets annihilated itself.

Whether it would work or not, it was do or die time and Teri was ready to go through with it.

Finally spreading enough hexagonal bomb runes, Teri pulled away from the pillar, which looked like some bizarre act of vandalism had been carried out upon it, and headed up to where she tied the steel cable she had retrieved from the bottom of the cliff. When she saw the cables running alongside the bridge in her earlier analysis, she remembered seeing a few get blown off from her bombing of the concrete cannon and decided to make use of them by tying it several feet above the bomb runes. Grabbing the free end of the disconnected support wire, she began leading it up to the top of the bridge.

According to her estimation, the cable should be long enough to run from the gap to the support pillar down below. It was time to see whether or not she was correct in her assumptions. She had some difficulty hauling it though due to the sheer weight the wire had and was causing her hummingbird to slow down while she made her way towards her intended destination.

As she got closer, she could hear the sounds of Gumball's struggle with the Nephilim getting louder. It seemed that he was successful in getting the beast to back up, but judging by the excessive amount of clashes heard between Gumball's scythe and the Concretin's numerous, flexible weapons, the battle was becoming more fierce as time wore on. She was really curious as to how Gumball was doing, seeing as he was struggling just minutes ago with the monster and wouldn't be making all those noises if he was in trouble.

After a few more minutes of dragging the monstrous cable to the top of the overpass, Teri's head finally peeked over the edge and she received her first glimpse of the battle. It was quite interesting, as that was the only word Teri could use to describe the situation. At first all she she could see was the marked back of the concrete controlling Nephilim and noticed that it was significantly closer to the edge than before, five feet or less perhaps. What she saw next was Gumball furiously attacking the monster's summoned limbs and weapons with a scythe completely engulfed in flames that matched the monster's color, albeit was a little brighter. He was steadily cutting through the various constructs with ease and even seemed to be a bit faster and stronger than he was before as he would even knock aside some of the monster's attacking limbs with a swipe of his hands.

She saw this before when Gumball had faced off against Toxic Pill in the desert, but was several hundred feet in the air atop an origami helicopter, and didn't exactly get a good look at it. Seeing it up close now was quite the sight for her, she'd never seen Gumball this capable before during any of his fights. Even as he took a beating or two from the Nephilim's various attacks, he still kept up with the attacks and pressed onwards, barely even noticing the pain. To Teri, it seemed that whatever power the scythe was giving him not only increased his speed and strength, but also changed his mentality from cautious and somewhat timid (in a fight at least.) to confident and even reckless.

Such a strange weapon. She wondered what else it was capable of, but more importantly where it came from. She remembered briefly that Rob told Gumball that the scythe was also capable of magic like Teri's runes and also, when she first came to Gumball's house and saw the weapon the first time, Gumball said Carrie had given it to him as a gift.

It made her wonder where Carrie got it from?

These questions were pushed off to the back of her mind when far more pressing matters were at hand. For one, even though Gumball was going toe-to-toe with the beast of concrete, he was still suffered from limitations. Even though his strength and speed had increased, Teri could clearly see that he was being worn out as his response time was a little sluggish and he was struggling to stay focused. Also, he wasn't invincible and combined with his now cocky attitude, he was obtaining some damage from his relentless foe. If he kept this up, his body will give out and he may be rendered unconscious.

And then there was the cannon that was still being built. Even though the Nephilim was concentrated on fighting Gumball, it was still using its power to construct the devastating tool and from what could be seen, it was close to being finished. It also came to Teri's attention that the reason the Concretin didn't use more concrete to finish Gumball off was perhaps because it was diverting more of its resources to finishing its primary objective. Was it really that determined to start firing upon the city?

Gumball made another dash for the Nephilim's body, his face twisted into a scowl and determination burning in his eyes as he cleared through the storm of attacking concrete assets. A flurry of swings directed at the monster's base forced the Nephilim back a few feet, giving Teri the chance she needed. Moving quickly, Teri forced the origami to rise up and circle the surprised entity while allowing the cord she carried to wrap around its upper torso. After a few laps, Teri had the monster entangled within her steel trap and she quickly tied it into a knot on the monster's back.

Pulling her attention to Gumball, she gave him the all-clear to move onto the next phase,

"Gumball, the explosive!" she shouted.

Gumball complied with a simple nod of his head, and dug into his pocket: pulling out a single sticky note with a rune drawn on it. Seeing him do this made Teri very glad that he didn't lose his sense of reasoning when he gained his power-up. Note in hand, Gumball dove forward, with one hand outstretched, and planted the deadly ancient symbol on where the monster's feet were.

The next thing Gumball did was scramble to his feet and made a run for it as soon as the hexagonal symbol written on the small piece of paper began flashing warningly. While he did his this his scythe's flames went out and left the blade cold and inactive. A few seconds later an explosion blossomed from the Nephilim's bottom section, causing a shock wave that could be felt several feet away. The fiery orb went out as fast as it appeared and left a plume of smoke in its wake. Simultaneously, a sharp cracking sound could be heard and through the smoke, Gumball and Teri could see that the tied up Nephilim had broken in several fragments at the lower sections. With gravity taking hold and a small tug from Teri's cable, the now-less-than-ten-foot-tall monster was sent careening off the bridge and into the ravine below.

Instead of sailing straight down to the road below, the cable wrapped around the Nephilim's torso tightened as it reached the end of the rope and swung hard… right into the pillar plastered with the very same symbols used to damage it.

Noting the danger that was evident, Teri swooped down and grabbed Gumball from the ground and pulled him into the air. Right as she did so, a sound so loud, like a thousand jet engines running at once, but more thunderous and violent, burst from underneath the bridge followed by a massive cloud of bright, orange flames and debris comprised of concrete chunks and a shower of dust. The combined explosive power of dozens of magic bombs was so tremendous that not only did it completely wipe out the Nephilim and the column holding the bridge, but also an entire section of the incomplete overpass. The pieces blown apart by the destructive magic first heaved into the air before falling down, down, down to the chasm below, causing thunderous roars to echo across the canyon.

That had to be at least thousands of dollars worth of damage right there, but then again, at least the Nephilim was destroyed, as was evident by the cannon it was building, melting into a puddle of grey stone mix.

Both the cat and the bear stared at the horrifying spectacle with awe and terror, Teri didn't actually mean to cause so much damage! She just wanted to make sure that the Nephilim was helpless when it struck and didn't try anything when it came in contact with the concrete support structure. Deciding that she didn't want to stick around when someone figured out what happened, Teri turned the small paper bird around and zipped out of the canyon and away from the highway, preferring to avoid any chance of being spotted by any people all together.

"Yeesh, not a pretty win, but at least Elmore is safe!" Gumball shouted, trying to stay conscious as he found that a lot of energy had been sapped from him and the pain from all the scratches and bruises was starting to return.

Not having a reason to disagree with her friend, Teri nodded and continued to survey the landscape for a spot to set down at,

"Yeah, maybe I should invest in finding out what the other runes do and hope we can avoid any collateral damage in the future." she said nervously.

She eventually found a grassy field just on the outskirts of Elmore where there were no people around to spot them and decided to take them down there. Her reason for this being that Gumball was injured and she wanted to get his wounds looked at and treated, since she _always_ packed emergency first aid supplies before going anywhere. Ever since they left the broken highway overpass, Gumball's silver flames had gone out and his scythe resumed its normal state. As for her big headed friend, he was looking rather tired and was slouching in his position behind Teri while struggling to keep his eyes open.

Slowing down, Teri's origami bird came to a soft landing on the grass and the paper girl hopped off, extending her hand to a confused/exhausted looking Gumball,

"Why did you take us here?" he asked, giving the field a skeptical glance,

"We gotta get back to the school before Bobert and Ocho's fight ends. However, we don't exactly need to go back to class if they're still hamming it up." he remarked, taking Teri's hand and sliding off the black hummingbird.

Guiding him over to a spot on the grass, she sat him down, dropped her book bag on the ground, and began unzipping it,

"You were banged up pretty badly during the fight, I need to treat you before any of your cuts get infected." she said calmly in her soft voice while continuing to rummage through her bag.

Gumball had heard enough at this point. He got back up, much to Teri's surprise, and began marching over to the hummingbird that lay dormant. He didn't care about treating his injuries when the risk of getting caught and giving an embarrassing explanation to his teachers, parents, siblings and possibly friends was his biggest concern. He shook his head in disapproval and began muttering,

"We can't worry about that right now! We need to get back before they-!"

"Gumball, please!" Teri pleaded, raising voice to a serious and commanding tone.

Surprised at her sudden outburst, Gumball turned his head towards her with the intention to protest. He was going to, but then he looked into her eyes and found himself faltering. Her eyes, while stern, were full of worry and were begging him to just accept her treatment. He could already feel his will to resist melting the moment he looked into her deep, black eyes. With his words caught in his throat and the weight of shame for ignoring her concern bearing down on him, Gumball let out a tired sigh and made his way over to the spot he was just sitting at.

"Okay, but just so we're clear, I'm only doing this because I'm tired and I don't feel like arguing." he grumbled, obviously lying through his teeth.

He sat down in front of her with a grumpy expression on his face, criss-crossed his legs, and angrily placed his head on his hand. Teri, feeling glad for his cooperation, smiled gratefully at him and went back to gathering her medical supplies. After she found what she was looking for, she asked him to remove his shirt in order to apply her salves and bandages while also keeping the area from getting infected by bacteria that may be clinging onto the shirt. He did as he was told and Teri gave his body a close-up inspection.

Going through a bit of a rough time, Gumball's bandages were nearly reduced to shredded to rags and had nearly fallen off at this point. She was surprised to see that Gumball was actually getting leaner, despite going through only a weeks worth of physical training. In the past, during the rare occasions when the anthropomorphic feline misplaced his shirt (along with his other clothes in some instances.) he always had a bit of a gut hanging out, but now she could see that his belly was slimmer now. The sight momentarily caught her off guard and made her blush a little before she retained her focus.

All over his arms, shoulders, face, and back were cuts that spread out like a bizarre, painful, red spider web. She also saw that his little orange nose was broken and covered in dry blood and one of his whiskers had been burnt off. She quickly began cleaning the lacerations with a clean cloth and a water bottle before applying some disinfectant. All the while, Gumball winced and muttered some angered protests every time she came in contact with the exposed wounds. She apologized every time he did so and Gumball would just grunt in response, but he seemed to be alright. He did look like he was about to fall asleep though, prompting her to hurry up with the medical care.

While applying Band-aids and new bandages, Teri felt a tremendous sense of gratitude within her and felt like expressing it her current patient,

"Thank you." she said softly, placing a Band-aid on a cut that ran along Gumball's cheek.

Gumball yawned in exhaustion and raised an eyebrow when he heard her,

"For what?" he asked, wondering what she was getting at.

"For a lot of things actually." she started, pressing down on the sterilized bandage in order to make sure it stuck,

"For one, fighting the Concretin (seriously, where do you come up with these names?) both during your plan and mine, for defending me under the bridge, for listening and going along with my plans, and, well, for being a supportive and reliable friend. I really appreciate everything you've done." she said fondly.

Gumball heard her heartfelt thanks and felt his heart start racing while his face started burning, although he was unsure if this was due to the cuts on his face or the sudden rush of blood to his cheeks. She appreciated his company and thought that he was reliable! He couldn't believe he was hearing those words and most importantly she meant them too! All this time, he believed he was the world's biggest screw up with all that has happened to him and all the things he wished he could've done better.

Words could not express the happiness and joy he felt at hearing what she had to say about him. He knew he had to return it with a comeback just as good as the one she gave him. He wanted to lift her spirits and make her happy!

Clearing his throat, Gumball chuckled nervously and began scratching the back of his head,

"Well, thanks… that was really nice, um… I also wanted to thank you for everything you've done for me too." he stated skittishly, finding real hard to maintain eye contact for some reason.

Now it was Teri's turn to be confused, she had no idea why he would be thanking her. Looking at him oddly, Teri took a step back in surprise,

"What do you mean?" she asked, looking downtrodden,

"I can't really do much because I'm nothing like you and Rob. I'm so frail, I can't even withstand a small breeze, let alone the attacks from the Nephilim. You and Rob are so bold and can challenge those monsters while I have to rely on you to distract them so I can hurt them. I haven't done much at all and I feel like nothing but a burden to you." she was starting to sob, she didn't feel that important at all and didn't deserve much praise.

Gumball was taken aback by this, _"Has she always felt like this?"_ Gumball wondered. He couldn't believe that such a smart and talented girl like Teri would feel like nothing but excess baggage to the team. For all that he assumed, he always thought that he was the joke of the team with how careless he could be and even looking down at his battered form kind of proved it.

He shook his head, there was no reason she should feel this way, not when she was so incredible,

"Teri." he started, taking a step closer to her, now maintaining eye contact, although the paper girl was having a hard time doing the same,

"I don't think you're useless or cowardly, if that's what you're thinking." he said earnestly.

Teri sniffled and shook her head in disbelief, she didn't believe him or herself,

"It's not that!" she exclaimed, trying to hide her face now because she was ashamed and didn't want him to see her like this even though it was pointless,

"I know what I can do, but I wish I could do more! I try to make sure you don't get hurt, but you always do and sometimes I do too. I always have to stand back and watch you fight and it upsets me that I can't stand by your side and help fight them off. Every time there's a fight I always wish I could do so much more!" she was now overwhelmed by her sadness and self pity and broke down sobbing again.

Watching his friend and fighting partner being reduced to a crying mess, really brought Gumball down on an emotional level that he could only understand as empathetic sadness. It was very clear to him now how she felt inside. She felt as though there was not much she could do when it came to fighting the Nephilim and protecting someone she cared about.

Even if you could fight and bring down an opponent that seemed so terrifying, what was worse was watching someone close to you getting hurt and not being able to do anything about it. Gumball could relate to that feeling of uselessness: it has happened before so many times to him when he'd find himself up against bullies or people who wished to do him/them harm and while he could have done something to protect those around him, he'd panic and stay away or he'd try to fight and just end up getting beaten in the process.

Still, Teri was wrong about herself.

He walked over to his crying classmate, if she noticed him approaching her then she didn't show it because she still kept crying into her hands. When he reached her, he placed a scratched up paw on her shoulder, grasping it gently. Startled, she jerked her head up and pulled her hands away from her face, she didn't have any visible tears because she needed to draw them on in order to express sadness, and met Gumball's eyes with her own.

A comfortable smile was forming on his face as he stared at her affectionately,

"Of course you've done a lot, Teri! You've done so much for me in the past month: you've managed to pull me out of a depression that has been plaguing me for three months (although I still have some issues to settle.), you've helped me fight the Nephilim by making sure that I can keep up with them, I have been saved by you on many different occasions, you took down Toxic Pill's shield all on your own, your second plan succeeded in defeating Concretin, and you're really smart and observant. You're awesome Teri and if it weren't for you, I probably wouldn't be here to say these things." he said, giving her the warmest, most genuine smile he could give.

If her heart could soar, it would have entered orbit by now. There was truth in his words and his look assured her of that, causing his speech to strike home with her. She had been so wrapped up in what she couldn't do that she had forgotten about the many things she had contributed to their battles with the Nephilim. Gumball was right, she was more helpful than she realized.

Feeling warm inside, her sad face was slowly replaced with one that expressed thankfulness towards Gumball causing the blue cat in question to mirror her expression. They both had weaknesses that made it difficult for them to fight the invisible monsters, but their individual strengths gave them the chance to rely on each other and pull through each obstacle they run into. Without much care for the world around them or the time restraint that had been a pressing concern for two students (mainly Gumball.), they both stood there in the grassy field for a minute or two, just enjoying the comfort they brought one another.

However, the reality of the situation eventually wrestled its way back into the young boy's mind and Gumball panned his gaze over to the hummingbird and then back to Teri, shattering the serene moment,

"Uh, sorry for being the guy who has to end this little moment, but we should really get heading back to school." he said nervously, hiking a thumb towards the folded bird construct.

Teri blinked a few times in surprise and shook her head, clearing it of the foggy, peaceful thoughts that occupied her conscious and looked to where he was pointing. Noting that they've been out for a while, Teri kicked it into overdrive and quickly began gathering her things, shoving them in her book bag, and tossing Gumball his torn-up sweater,

"Put that on, we need to hurry!" she quickly stated, sounding rather frantic.

Gumball obliged and quickly covered his bare upper body with his daily attire before grabbing his bag holding his precious weapon and making his way towards the silent, unmoving bird. He thought about the journey back to school and realized that they would have to take a detour in order to avoid being seen coming from this general direction, however, the primary issue was that any detour would take more time. Staring at the origami they used as a means of transportation, Gumball had an idea and turned to the cute paper girl brushing past him,

"Hey, Teri." he said, causing her to turn around upon hearing her name being called,

"I have an idea of getting us back really quickly and without anyone noticing, but it depends entirely on you and your crafty paper skills. Can I count on you?" he asked, smiling and raising an eyebrow.

Knowing what he was getting on about, Teri returned the mischievous cat's smile and nodded.

 _-Elmore Junior High, seven minutes later-_

With the amount of time it took them to get from the school to the bridge combined with the time it took them to fight the Nephilim, treat Gumball's injuries, and get back to school, they were gone for a total of forty six minutes. They may not have been the greatest team of fighters the world has ever seen, but they did know how to end a fight quickly. Most their time gone was taken up by travel and the two seriously hoped their absence hasn't gained anyone's attention.

Heading towards an open window on the third floor, a sleek looking paper aircraft with a flat, wide, spade-shaped fuselage, two cylindrical engines mounted on the sides towards the rear with two small wings attached along with two fins slanted at an angle, known as an SR-71 blackbird shot through the opening and into the empty classroom. Unlike most of Teri's aircraft which were just origami versions of the actual thing, this one was an actual paper craft with several large sheets of paper folded together, giving the aircraft a sealed cockpit for her and Gumball to sit in. She also showcased another ability that relates to her paper powers and that was when she drew some windows on the blackbird, they became like actual windows. She said that it was related to how she was able to draw things on her face like eyes, a nose, and a mouth that function as actual facial features. With an enclosed cockpit, they were able to climb higher and move faster through the air without too many risks taken for themselves.

The problem with the paper blackbird though, was that while Teri was easily able to fit into it thanks to the flexible nature of her body, it was slightly cramped for Gumball. Another issue that made itself present was when they crash landed in the vacated classroom belonging to the eighth graders, Gumball was flung through the paper thin cockpit, out the classroom door, and into one of the lockers across from the room they landed in. The lack of a safety harness was an issue that he and Teri overlooked and now the cat was feeling the repercussions for his negligence in the form of a sore back.

Getting up to his feet again, Gumball cracked his back and waited for the world to stop spinning,

"That's the last time I ever fly economy class." he groaned.

He watched as the pilot of the speedy aircraft climbed out of the control cabin and unfurled herself until she was at full form. Being made of paper definitely had its advantages as the only Pepakuma child didn't suffer from anything except for a little dizziness. She looked at Gumball with an apology already written on her face,

"Sorry, I was trying to pull up, but I forgot to factor in your, um, weight and it threw off the plane's center of gravity a little." she explained with a bashful smile.

Gumball accepted her apology and dusted himself off. It didn't really matter to him because he was just happy to be back, safe and sound with Teri. he was about to thank her for flying them back, when he heard a voice call out to him from the end of the hallway,

"THERE YOU ARE!"

Spinning on his heels, Gumball turned to face the newcomer who was shouting at him and spotted a familiar, transparent figure floating towards him with another floating figure following closely behind. It was Carrie and Masami! Completely caught off guard, Gumball quickly stood up with his back straight as a plank and tried to act casual even though he was already sweating bullets,

"CARRIE! MASAMI! VERY NICE TO SEE YOU TWO!" he shouted very loudly, while quickly, yet subtly glancing over at Teri then at the crumpled SR-71 that stood out in the empty class like a sore thumb.

Teri caught on to what he was covertly telling her: Masami and Carrie were coming and she needed to get rid of the plane, pronto! She quickly rushed over to the aircraft and placed her hand on its surface. Upon contact, the aircraft immediately began unfolding, piece by piece, before it was eventually reduced to five large sheets of black paper the size of blankets.

Meanwhile, Gumball continued to watch as the ghost and the sentient cloud continued to drift towards him with Masami wearing a tired and irritant expression on her face and Carrie with a blank expression on the part that was visible from her bangs. Judging by how they were rushing towards them with not-so-pleased expressions, the twelve year old could definitely guess that they had been looking for him. He hoped that they hadn't been looking for too long.

Carrie was the first to speak to him,

"Where were you?" she asked, her voice full of both worry and frustration.

"Miss Simian sent us to look for you ten minutes ago, what have you been up to?" Masami asked, following Carrie's question.

Having already thought up an excuse on the way to school and discussing it with Teri, Gumball opened his mouth to say something. Unfortunately, before he could so much as utter a peep, Teri stepped out of the classroom after putting away her paper supplies. She casually glanced at Gumball, giving him a small smile and then turned to face Carrie and Masami, who were both slowly dropping their jaws in shock,

"Hi Carrie! Hi Masami! Have Ocho and Bobert calm down yet?" the paper girl asked innocently.

There was definitely a lot confusion between the two pale, floating girls as they tried to process what it was they were seeing here. They found Gumball, who had been missing ever since the fight broke out between the spider and the robot, in an empty eighth grade classroom, covered in bandages, and was with Teri: _Alone!_ Masami, being one for drama, already drew her own conclusions, while Carrie on the other hand, while the prospect of Gumball being alone in an empty place like this with the girl he had been hanging out with for roughly a week and a half was completely baffling and somewhat intriguing, she was more curious as to why Gumball was injured.

Regardless, the two girls immediately felt awkward, turned about and proceeded to make their leave,

"You know what? We'll tell you guys later, you two kids have fun!" Carrie said quickly, not even facing the two as she waved back at them.

Masami just remained silent and moved along with her ghostly friend. Gumball, panicking, immediately stepped up to say something about the situation they were clearly reading into wrong. Sweating bullets, Gumball frantically waved his arms as though to gain their attention and shouted,

"I THINK A LITTLE CONTEXT IS NEEDED HERE!" his voice was sharp and cracked a little, hinting at the large amount of stress he was feeling.

Halting in their tracks, the two girls whirled around with an eyebrow raised (although for Carrie, she could have had both raised and no one would notice.), and regarded the boy with a listening ear, albeit with a little suspicion added in. Feeling relieved that the two girls didn't rush off to go tell everyone else something that could have resulted in a lot of trouble for both him and his paper friend, Gumball felt his body relax along with his mind. Clearing his throat, he straightened himself out and looked the two girls in the eye,

"You see when that little scuffle broke out in the classroom, I panicked and ran away." he said, feigning fright by using his voice and acting out his emotions with his arms,

"And then I heard the explosion and decided that I should probably get as far away from here as possible and so I left the school."

The three girls listened to the story the blue feline was compiling. Both Masami and Carrie seemed to be buying into it as it was something that Gumball would do or at least it wasn't completely out of character for him to dash off when things threatened to spill out of control. Teri, on the other hand, having been with him for over half an hour just kept silent along with a straight face while he spun his lie. She was actually quite impressed with how well he was holding it together, although the speed of which he was speaking seemed a little too fast and his acting seemed a little forced, mostly his expressions. However, looking at the two floating classmates she often conversed with when she wasn't with Gumball or when she was just hanging out, she could see that they were starting to believe in his story, which was good enough for her to accept.

Gumball continued with his incredibly simplistic, yet believable lie,

"I ran down the road a ways and wouldn't you know it, some guy is walking his dogs while eating a meatball sub and I accidentally bumped into him and he spills it on me. Then his dogs attacked me and that's why I'm all shredded up like this." he finished, crossing his arms and giving that same wide eyed expression he always wore when he was fibbing.

The two girls briefly looked at each other, wondering if they should give his story any credit. Once again, everything he said was plausible and didn't seem to out of the ordinary for the trouble attracting boy. Carrie realized something that he forgot to mention and turned back to Gumball, armed with a question,

"Um, okay, but why were you up here with Teri by yourselves?" she crossed her arms and glared at the cat.

Gumball paused to think about it, come to think of it, there wasn't really a good excuse he could come with that would bring the two of them out of this sticky situation. He felt himself start to panic again, he didn't want anyone to think he and Teri were an item, okay well, he liked Teri and wasn't embarrassed to be seen with her, he just didn't want anyone spreading rumors that were not true. When the silence began to stretch out for too long, Gumball began fidgeting with his fingers and wondered if he should just make a run for it or try to change the subject,

"When he came back, I saw that he was hurt and decided to help him with his injuries."

Gumball felt his worry stricken thoughts come to a halt as he stared at the normally quiet, female student he had recently gotten to know. The other two who were waiting for Gumball to respond, now had their attention on the girl who matched them in color. Teri continued on with her explanation, looking completely calm and competent, as though she were just carrying out a normal conversation with two best friends,

"I was worried that the fight would spill out from the classroom and into the infirmary, where I was treating him and so I moved him somewhere quiet and out of the way. Ms. Markham wasn't there because she had to go get check on anyone who could've been injured in that scuffle between the two boys and so I was the only one who could help him and besides, I wouldn't let a best friend go about his day while injured." she said, turning to Gumball and giving him a subtle wink.

Once again, Gumball found himself feeling appreciative of Teri and her various skills. Not only was she an excellent planner, medic, and friend, she also knew how to pull them out of a tough spot with other people. She could lie and look so casual about, which made him wonder if he should amazed or worried about this trait.

Hearing this from Teri made a lot of sense for the two girls, who looked at one another and shrugged simultaneously before turning back to the two with apologetic looks,

"Oh! Well that was awfully nice and thoughtful of you, Teri." Masami admitted rather sheepishly, feeling kind of down that there wasn't anything juicy to spill about the two. She also felt a little guilty for prematurely jumping to conclusions, but was over that guilt in a heartbeat.

Carrie seemed cool with the situation and gave a more relaxed response,

"Well, I'm glad you guys are alright. Bobert and Ocho completely trashed the classroom and the seventh grade hallway, but everyone else got out unscathed." she said in a monotone voice.

Feeling his anxiety leave him like an evil demon during an exorcism, Gumball was now pressed down with relief. He was so glad things worked out for everyone and nothing embarrassing happened. Then he heard Teri let out a giggle that sounded so charming and innocent that he couldn't help, but look over to see what she was going on about,

"Yeah, I'm glad we all got out okay. Gumball was REALLY good company." she remarked slyly, glancing over at her furry blue friend with a wily grin.

Never mind what he thought earlier, Teri was now trying to mess with him and the worst part was, it was working,

"You're not helping!" he snarled, baring his fangs and extending his claws menacingly.

Teri just gave him an innocent smile that hid her evil intent and caused him to get angrier. The little cloud and the big-headed ghost just stared at the two blankly as they started to go at each other with curses and insults. After wasting enough time listening to their banter, Masami left, telling the three that she was heading down to the gym where third hour was starting while Carrie remembered something else and broke the two from their cursing match before the language became more profane,

"Oh, Gumball." she said, breaking into the conversation.

Gumball immediately stopped with his slew of slander as if he were paused and turned to the emo with a curious expression,

"What's up, Carrie?" he asked, quickly shooting a nasty glare in Teri's direction, the latter sticking her tongue out at him before quickly retracting it when Gumball tried to poke it with his index finger.

Carrie brushed her bangs out her face before letting them fall back down, indicating that what she was about to tell him was serious,

"Darwin also sent me to find you as well. During the fight, Ocho mentioned something about Tobias planning to prank Tina and the T-rex chased the jock wannabe out of the classroom. Darwin went after them, along with some friends, and told me to go find you." she explained, her usually apathetic voice now carrying a hint of worry, not for Tobias, but for Darwin.

Gumball felt his eyes widen until they were like saucers! This was not good, definitely not good. Tobias had been planning on carrying out his spiteful act during lunch and when he left to go fight the Nephilim, he'd planned on coming back as soon as possible. He never expected it to wind up like this! If Carrie had been looking for them for over ten minutes now, then it may already be too late.

Flinging his arms in the air in an overly dramatic fashion that surprised both Teri and Carrie, Gumball could already feel his panic taking hold as he tried to think of something to do while assessing the situation at hand,

"WHAT THE WHAT!? Do you know where they are now? Are they hurt? Are they in detention? The infirmary? The emergency room?" he shouted, allowing his guilt of not being here to help his brother wash over him.

Raising her hands (stump? Finger hand? Tendril? She didn't really have hands or fingers, kind like Darwin.) in a comforting gesture, she spoke to him a low and assuring voice,

"Calm down. When I ran into Masami on my way here, she told me that she saw Tobias making a dash for the swimming pool room with Tina in hot pursuit. If my guess is correct, he's probably holed himself up in the boys locker room." she explained, giving the anxious brother of her boyfriend some reassurance.

Teri also looked completely surprised despite having absolutely nothing to do with the conflict between the school bully and the school sports fanatic. She more or less felt bad for Gumball because she hated seeing him look so upset and frightened. She had no siblings to protect and fawn over, but she knew for a fact that Darwin meant so much to Gumball and knowing the fact that he could possibly be in danger with trying to stop a clearly enraged Tina was probably driving him to a near mental breakdown. It was such sad sight that Teri wanted to help him with his struggle.

Gathering whatever courage she could, Teri turned to Gumball and called his name, forcing the clearly spazzy kitty to turn to her. Seeing his clearly desperate and terrified eyes gazing into her struck Teri in her mental soft spot and caused her to take a deep breath before speaking,

"Gumball, I know I said that I wasn't going to get involved, but we need to go, now!" she stated simply.

For a moment, Gumball pushed his fear aside and looked at her perplexedly,

"Wait, I thought you said you couldn't help because you had to help Idaho?" he remarked, not quite understanding where she was coming from.

"Oh yeah, there was that, but I was more or less scared of confronting Tina and to be honest, I'm still scared of her. I will stand beside you and be your support, just as long as you have an actual plan and a plan to get us out if things go wrong. Plus, it's not lunch time yet, so I'm available to help out." she admitted. There was also a hidden desire to make sure that Gumball didn't get hurt any more than he already was.

Understanding her now, Gumball gave her a quick nod and grabbed her by the hand,

"Thank you and don't worry, I'll think of something, hopefully not too reckless." he said with a knowing grin.

This worried Teri a little, but wasn't able to say anything because in another instant, she was quickly yanked off her feet and carried off once again to another fight by Gumball. The blue cat shouted a _thank you_ back to the Krueger child before disappearing around the corner with a flimsy, paper girl flapping behind him like a screaming banner. They were well on their way for the final confrontation of the day and the two hoped they weren't too late to change anything.

While they ran, Carrie watched them leave while wondering why she could sense Gumball's scythe on his person and why she could sense strange magic coming from Teri.

 _-pool room, two minutes later-_

Bursting through the double doors, Gumball skidded to a halt and allowed Teri to float back down to her feet. Glancing around the massive room the pair were treated with the familiar sight of the enormous swimming pool that centered the room, the various benches that lined the painted walls, the high board that towered over the body of water which lead to many uncomfortable situations for many students and was not the place for those who were wary of heights. The whole room smelled of chlorine, stinging both their nostrils as they breathed in huge quantities of air after running/being dragged down several flights of stairs, through many hallways, and even across half a wing of the building. It seemed rather peaceful in this place, that was, until they got a good look at the crowd gathered around the locker rooms.

The sounds of excited chatter and shouts filled the air as two dozen students (some of whom, Teri and Gumball could recognize on sight) gathered around Tina, the terrifying tyrannosaur, while she stood outside the changing room designated for males only. Of course, she didn't look very happy, as the duo knew exactly why and she had a good reason to, and looked as though she were about to break down the door any minute now. Gumball guessed the only thing stopping the big bully was the fact that she wasn't allowed to or the fact that most of the students gathered around her were stopping the bipedal lizard from doing so.

Blocking her path was a familiar goldfish and a goofy-looking banana with googly eyes: Darwin and Banana Joe! Gumball felt his heart leap out of his chest the moment he saw his little brother unharmed. Watching and listening very closely, Gumball could see Darwin waving his fins franticall, a look of desperation planted on his otherwise calm and collected face as he tried to calm the T-rex down,

"Tina, you don't have to do this! Tobias is scared and he's not going to mess with you anymore, you don't have to beat him into-!" he cried out, but was rudely cut off by Tina's roar,

"Out of my way, fish face! He'd better get out here now or I will go in there myself and rip him to shreds!" she growled in her deep gruff voice.

"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE YOU UGLY SACK OF REPTILE FILTH!" came Tobias' high pitched shriek from the otherside of the locker room door.

Tina let out another growl and glared first at the door and then at Darwin and Banana Joe, the latter of which looked like he was ready to split,

"You have one minute to step aside or else I'll squish you two pipsqueaks, before I stomp that stupid, loud mouthed, pansy boy into the ground." she snarled, her yellow, reptilian eyes burning into both Darwin and Banana Joe's.

Seeing that the situation was escalating, Gumball knew he was going to have to act quickly because Tina wasn't exactly one to hold back on her threats as he remembered the many different times he found himself on the underside of her foot. There was just one problem though: Tina was like a huge monster, but unlike the ones he and Teri fought daily, Tina was a classmate and fellow student. He couldn't use his scythe on her because that would be wrong and facing her without any easy way out was literally scaring him now.

"Please tell me you're scared too." a voice whispered beside him.

He turned and saw that Teri was standing right by his side and was completely frozen in terror. He let out a half hearted and completely anxious filled chuckle as he turned to look at the lizard that has brought him so much pain in the past,

"You kidding me? Any more scared and the pool room isn't going to be the only thing that's soggy and smelly." he admitted with a squeak. He couldn't believe he was thinking this, but he'd honestly rather take on any of the Nephilim in the past than deal with this threat.

However, he knew that his little brother was right there, risking his own safety for the sake of someone else who, honestly didn't deserve it, at least in his opinion. He always thought that the narcissistic jerk was going to get what was coming to him one day in the form of a few broken bones after running his mouth to the wrong person. Yet, Darwin was right, despite how mean he was, he really didn't deserve to _actually_ get hurt for his stupidity and if Darwin was willing to do whatever he could for someone he considered a friend, then he might as well stand beside his brother, although protecting Tobias was just a side benefit in his mind.

He didn't have any wacky escape plans or schemes to confront the bully and knock her down a peg. None of those things would have actually solved anything and would instead serve to fuel Tina's anger. He was going to have to use diplomacy, seeing as there weren't any other safe options.

Shaking somewhat, Gumball gulped audibly, and took a nervous step forward, the room seemingly growing larger and more menacing than it originally appeared. Teri rook notice of his actions along with his clearly visible discomfort and grabbed his wrist. Gumball felt the flimsy paper fingers wrap around his right forearm and jumped a little, turning only to see that it was only Teri,

"Are you alright?" she asked, looking down at him with a nervousness that he noticed when he went to go fight the Concretin on his own.

Wiping the perspiration that was gathering on his brow, Gumball felt a shaky sigh escape his lips and he closed his eyes only for the briefest of moments before gathering his thoughts and reopening them to see the paper girl he found so reliable,

"The truth is, I don't have a crazy plan that can get them and us out of this. I'm just going to have to talk to her." he said, looking back over to where the crowd was and saw the towering, prehistoric, killing machine glaring dangerously at Darwin while her tail was wagging in anticipation.

Teri wasn't surprised that Gumball didn't have this convoluted scheme that involved cheap tricks, smuggling, improvised tools, or deception. This was definitely a complicated issue that had to be resolved by talking to someone in order to reach an understanding without escalating the issue even further. It was just terrifying because tensions were at an all time high now and one wrong move or word could land them in hot water (or pool water.) and she could tell that Gumball feared the potential negative outcome to all of this because from past experiences, Tina has shown to be rather… tough to get through to.

With time running out, Teri tugged on Gumball's arm, prompting him to look at her once more,

"Let's go then." she ordered, although her voice was a little shaky,

"I'll be by your side, just to let you know!" she whispered reassuringly, giving his arm a gentle squeeze.

Seeing her act courageously in the face of a dangerous situation (a situation that they couldn't fight their way out of at least.) caused the fearful blue cat to temporarily lose sight of his fear. It was still there as far as he could tell, but her confident words despite the uncertainty in her eyes, voice, and body posture made him understand that it was okay to be afraid, but could still do something right if he pushed forward. This was the same kind of courage she was referring to back on the grassy fields and now he found himself in her shoes, metaphorically speaking.

Finding the right push to get his brain going, Gumball's face formed a shaky smile reminiscent of the person holding him currently and nodded,

"Okay. I know what we should do!" he stated, although his voice cracked a little causing Gumball to immediately cringe at the wimpy way he sounded and he cleared his throat as a response as he prepared to discuss his idea,

"I'm gonna go over and try to talk to Tina, but I may have to talk to Tobias too. I feel as though an apology is needed here." he stated, his voice a bit clearer than before.

They both looked over to the locker room again and saw that Tina was getting impatient. She angrily stopped her foot causing the whole room to shake a result. Several ripples spread across the pool and the lights hanging overhead swayed a little, causing the shadows in the room to dance like ghostly figures. Regardless of the intimidating gesture, Darwin and B. Joe continued to stand their ground although they were now both hugging each other and shaking nervously as Tina lowered her ginormous head until her snout was a foot away from them,

"Thirty seconds left. Get out of the way or I'll swallow you along with that colorful coward." she growled, her breath blasting the two of them, who looked reviled at the repugnant smell.

Gumball knew he needed to act now, he quickly turned to Teri and revealed the final part of his plan,

"Okay here's what I need you to do: go get a teacher that isn't Ms. Simian or Mr. Small and tell them what's happening. That way if negotiations break down, at least the ambulance or a funeral hearse can come and collect the remains." he said, still feeling doubtful of his plan.

Teri seemed rather offended by his request and shook her head objectively, seeing the last part as ludicrous,

"I said I was going to stay by your side and I'm going to do that!" she whispered defiantly, clutching his wrist even tighter.

Gumball could already feel his hairs splitting at the stubborn girl's reluctance and began to feel his fingers reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose in agitation. When he thought that she was going to be supportive, he figured she'd at least have the decency to go get help when he asked her to. No point in protesting if there was no one left after the oppressor had finished them all in one swift strike, which was quite possible in Tina's case.

Glaring at her, the eldest Watterson child stood tall and began to protest,

"What the what! Teri, this is serious, you need to go get help before things could possibly get ugly, also I don't want to see you get-!"

He heard a growl and two kids screaming, Gumball whipped around and saw that Tina had evidently lost enough patience to continue with the countdown and was already raising her foot to crush the banana and the goldfish into a colorful paste mixture. Realizing whether or not Teri was on her way to get help now was completely irrelevant at this point, Gumball immediately sprung into action. Cupping a hand around his mouth, he gathered as much air in his lungs and shouted as loud as he could,

"HEY! T-REX!"

His shout echoed off the cavernous room's walls, briefly filling the entire space with the sound of his simple jibe before fading away entirely, and promptly halted the overgrown, female lizard from plowing the two helpless students into the ground like rooted vegetables. The small crowd of students turned in the direction of the shout and soon all eyes were upon him and his paper partner. The moment Darwin set his eyes on him, there was a brief look of surprise and genuine relief written on his face before it was quickly replaced with horror and confusion when he saw the number of bandages covering his brother's face and hands along with the tattered state of his sweater. Tina, meanwhile was just eyeing the either very brave or very stupid cat with something akin to surprise, suspicion, discontempt, and malice.

She moved the foot that was hovering a mere four feet above Banana Joe and Darwin's heads away and back on the ground. She then turned to now face the two intruders that dare to stop her from carrying out her justice against someone who clearly did her wrong the first time around and had the audacity to plot her humiliation afterwards. The air seemed to grow still when Tina simply stared at Gumball's now clearly shaking form without showing any notable signs of interest, although it was kind of hard to tell how she was feeling because her face offered very little in forms of expression,

"What happened to you? Did someone run you through a roadblock or something?" she joked rather harshly, pointing out the disheveled state the twelve year old kitten was in.

No one laughed or made a single sound, causing Gumball to sweat some more as he nervously pulled at his sweater collar,

"Heh heh, Y-yeah, well, you sh-sh-should see the other monster! The experience, um, kind of left him, um, in pieces." he countered, his voice clearly lower due to everything seeming to happen all at once. He really wished that this wasn't happening now and that they were just going to their third hour classes like usual. Why did Ocho have to open his big mouth and let Tina know what Tobias was planning.

Tina seemed to find this funny or just plain absurd as she began chuckling at his little comeback,

"Heh, sure. Let me guess, you're defending the coward too? Should I squish you and your cowardly girlfriend as well? I'll admit, I wouldn't mind crushing a few more dweebs so I can figure out how I'm going to painfully beat that little twerp into a new graffiti paint." she said threateningly.

She took a step forward and then another, soon the crowd of onlookers made a path for her to make her way towards the blue cat and the paper girl. Thanks to her enormous size, she was able to reach the boy and girl within a few large strides and was soon towering over the both of them. Her threatening presence forced Gumball and Teri to unconsciously take a step back out of fear. Up close, they can both see the individual scales that covered her brown, mottled body and the massive muscles that rippled beneath. There was no doubt that she could wipe them out with a simple attack from her legs, her tail, or her jaws if she wanted to.

She leered down at them, letting out a snort that nearly blew Teri away had she not been holding onto Gumball's wrist nervously the entire time, and growled at the trembling kitten,

"If you wish to run, now's your chance. Do so and I will leave you both alone." she suggested, her voice deep and menacing despite her fair warning. She didn't need to utter the final part in order to make them wonder what would happen if they continued to defy her.

Still, Gumball and Teri remained where they stood, trembling yes, but remained firmly in their spot. Despite the overwhelming fear they were both feeling and the knowledge that whatever Gumball says could result in a painful outcome, they still felt the need to do what they came here for. Looking at Tina's eyes, Gumball swallowed his fear and with a shaky voice, he spoke to her,

"T-Tina, me and Teri don't want to fight you-?" he looked back at the aforementioned girl and saw that she was standing behind him, partially folded in order to conceal herself from Tina's view, and was shaking uncontrollably,

"What happened to standing by my side!" he hissed, his fright vanishing only to be replaced by anger.

The cowering member of the cheerleading squad briefly glanced up at him before averting her gaze at her feet,

"Sorry, It's just something I do whenever she's angry." she whimpered, sounding genuinely sorry and ashamed of herself.

Feeling his initial anger towards her fade, Gumball sighed. He didn't blame her, he too would often resort to cowardly defending himself if Tina was on a rampage. Heck, even Jamie getting fussy was sometimes enough to kick in his fight-or-flight instincts and send him in a frenzied dash towards whatever exit was nearby.

He did notice that she was still holding onto his wrist, meaning that she was unwilling to leave him, or it could just be a matter of security, either way, she was still here and that was enough for him. Letting the matter drop, Gumball turned his attention to Tina once more. The school bully was still as intimidating as the last time he looked at her and he could feel a cold shiver work its way up his spine,

"Sorry about that." he apologized, hoping that his little moment with Teri didn't tick the overpowered schoolgirl off,

"Anyway, what I was trying to say was… I'm sorry... for Tobias' earlier actions." he said, pausing every now and then to find the right words.

His words caused a bit of a reaction within the throng of students within the swimming pool room. A lot of the students within Gumball's class felt their eyes widen and their jaws collectively drop upon hearing the normally self centered preteen utter an apology for someone else's sake. Even Darwin was looking on in awe when he heard Gumball, _his_ brother, the one he's known for years, say something like that. Behind Gumball, Teri stopped cowering and looked up in surprise, she could have sworn she heard Gumball apologize for Tobias which seemed horrendously unlikely.

Tina on the other hand, did not appear to be moved by Gumball's attempt at persuasion. Her eyes still held distrust and anger that burned within. Snorting irritably, Tina lowered her head until it was leveled with Gumball's face, forcing the blue cat and paper bear to backup quickly and hold their breaths as Tina's sour breath blasted them at full force,

"I don't care about your apology." she said, sounding rather frustrated and disappointed,

"The only one who should actually be standing here, trembling, and apologizing is that little worm that you think you're so righteous in defending." she stated, letting another growl escape from her throat as she tossed another glance in the direction of the boys locker room.

It was here when it finally clicked within Gumball's head that he knew what he had to do. It may be not what she wanted initially, but maybe he could help Tina and Tobias smooth over their relationship. Casting aside his fear, Gumball stood tall and looked at Tina with a calm and confident expression plastered on his face,

"Is that what you want? For Tobias to apologize and for you guys to make amends over what had happened." he asked, feeling pretty sure that he nailed it on the spot.

Tina shot another glare directed at the little boy in front of her and raised her voice to a frightening level,

"I want him to pay for saying such mean things behind my back and then planning on humiliating me just after I get back at him for making a mockery of my dental hygiene! Do you even know how hard it is to make your breath smell good when you live in a landfill and the only thing you can eat for breakfast and dinner is whatever happens to be crawling around!" she shouted, her voice causing the whole room to rumble as all the kids there felt her frustration being sounded through her angry retort.

Now that Gumball thought about it, he never realized just how bad Tina had it. He had been to her home on multiple occasions in the past and understood that it wasn't the best living condition to be found in. if it was hard for her to just find food in that place, then he'd have to imagine that getting her claws on toothpaste and such must have been extremely difficult. There was also the fact that she had tiny arms and probably couldn't reach her teeth if she tried, but that was not her fault either.

Realizing the delicateness of this situation, Gumball pondered his next answer very carefully. He could try sympathizing with her, but it was Tobias she was angry at, not him, He couldn't use Tobias' ignorance as an excuse either because whether he knew or not, didn't make what he did any better. After a moment, he finally boiled down to a solution he decided was the best, but to be honest, he didn't know whether or not it really was.

Inhaling and exhaling deeply, Gumball kept his posture straight and his eyes on Tina, his expression calm and sympathetic,

"Look, I can't take back anything Tobias had said or done or planned to do that made you hurt, but right now, I can guarantee you that he probably feels sorry for what he did based on how you reacted-!" he was cut off by an angry Rex child stomping her foot in agitation,

"That little punk is only in there because he's hiding from his crimes and he's too afraid to face me, because HE'S A GUTLESS COWARD!" she shouted, directing the last four words in the direction of the closed off boys bathroom.

Guess that wasn't the right choice of words. Gumball could still see that Tina hadn't really calmed down yet and was now severely worried that she was about to go on another rampage, this time knocking him and Teri aside and flattening everyone else before attacking the fluffy jock. Before Gumball could go into panic mode, he saw someone take a step beside him and looked to see it was Teri now taking the stage,

"Tina!" she shouted, her fear seemingly gone, although Gumball could still see traces of it in her posture and her eyes.

The T-rex angrily swung her head in the frail girl's direction, creating a slight breeze that pushed her back a few feet,

"What do you want, lightweight?" she snapped, adding the nickname she and Jamie would often use to mock her in the halls.

Taking a moment to gather herself, Teri let go of Gumball's wrist, who had actually become accustomed to it and now was vividly aware of its absence, and took a few steps forward. All the kids in the crowd had their eyes on her and while this would normally intimidate regular folk, it didn't bother Teri too much because she was used to performing and being in front of large crowds of people. She was very well aware of her fear towards Tina, but felt as though she may have a solution for her, plus seeing Gumball compose himself and talk it through in a logical more sympathetic fashion earlier gave her the confidence to speak up just now,

"If it's Tobias you want to see, then why don't you let Gumball talk to him instead and have him come out to apologize himself." she said, trying to maintain her cool in the prehistoric beast's presence.

Tina immediately regarded the paper girls suggestion with scrutiny and distrust,

"And what if the two just try coming up with some kind of escape plan while their in there?" she said skeptically, not exactly trusting Teri's plan or moreover not trusting Gumball seeing as she knew he was sneaky and didn't exactly like her either.

Teri thought about this, but came up with an answer within a short period of time,

"There aren't a whole lot of ways to escape from that locker room, especially not in the short amount of time it'll take you to notice. Plus, where will they go? They still have to go to school and they can't exactly leave Elmore, either. What it boils down to basically, is that escape is not necessarily a good idea, even me and Gumball had this discussion when we first came here." she replied honestly.

Tina opened her mouth to let loose another rebuttal, but no words were ever able to force themselves out of her throat. She realized that the paper girl had a point: there was no way the two could easily escape the school without her knowing. She could beat them to the entrance if they tried sneaking through the vents and if they tried going out a classroom window, she could just circle around the school and spot them when they tried. Plus, she did have their scent down and could track them if they tried running away.

Either way, she had the upper hand no matter what, so she wasn't too upset over this plan,

"Okay." she said, finally agreeing to a peaceful solution.

She turned to Gumball and glared at him, forcing him to start shivering like a mountain climber in his underwear,

"I will allow you to enter the locker room and try to convince that slimey wad of an ego trip to apologize and if you fail or try to escape… well, you already know the gist, although I may also include a weekend with Jamie so that you guys can reconnect after that… window incident." she sneered at him and Gumball swore he could see a slight smile forming on her long, narrow face. A smile that showed a vicious tormentor that lurked beneath, waiting for something to go wrong and was eager to be set free. Gumball seriously hoped that this went well because he seriously didn't want to see the _darker_ side of the unbelievably strong classmate of his.

He nodded weakly and proceeded on his way to where Tobias was holed up, his palms were already sweaty and clammy feeling after just finishing up the conversation with the oversized reptile. He took a quick glance over his shoulder and saw Teri smiling at him and while also giving him a thumbs up. Once again, she was being supportive, even when there was little she could do to help Gumball, she still showed that she was reliable and willing to lift his spirits even during times of uncertainty. It was a trait of hers that Gumball was growing to love and respect and made him want to do more for her in the future.

He made his way through the crowd of students that still hadn't left the swimming room and were spreading chit-chat amongst each other like a frenzied swarm of bees. Gumball stared at all the people as he passed through the narrow space they provided for him, _"Sheesh! Why are all these people still here? Don't they have something better to do than watch a negotiation potentially fail between an insecure and insensitive rich kid and a T-rex with breathtaking anger management issues… actually wait, on second thought, if I were one of the onlookers, I probably would've stayed too because this sure would've beat Phys. Ed."_ he thought sarcastically to himself.

He didn't like feeling like some kind of spectacle at a zoo because that's what these kids made him feel like. He also didn't particularly like what they were whispering about, questions like: _where did he get those scratches from? Did he get in a fight with someone? Is he seriously planning on trying to escape? Doesn't he know we have a dress code? Is he dating Teri? And Why's his head so big?_ Were common ones that floated around him. It was all really annoying and made him also very anxious for some reason.

He finally reached the door and saw Darwin and Banana Joe standing there, waiting for him. Darwin seemed ecstatic to see him, as was evident by the joyous expression that decorated his facial features and by the way he was excitedly flapping his fins. Banana Joe didn't do much, he just smiled and stood there. Darwin rushed up to his big brother and wrapped his arms around his waist, pulling him in for a tight embrace, and burying his face into his sweater. Gumball was momentarily stunned by the overly affectionate move made by his aquatic, adopted sibling, but quickly returned the embrace as he was glad to see him. All around them, people began commenting on their interaction, especially the students that didn't know them that well, but they were mostly ignored by the Watterson children.

Darwin looked up at him with bright eyes and a smile that could melt anyone's heart,

"You came to help, dude! Thank you so much!" he cried, hugging him even tighter.

Gumball returned the smile and gave a little chuckle,

"No problem, man. Sorry for bailing on you guys in the classroom. I, uh,... got really scared." he said, glancing off to the side because he was uncomfortable with fibbing to family members.

Darwin gave Gumball one last squeeze and pulled away, taking a few steps back to examine Gumball's body. He seemed troubled by the sight of multiple bandages covering him and he looked back up to Gumball with a quizzical expression,

"Um, what happened to you by the way? You look as though you dragged through a field of broken glass." he asked.

Once again, Gumball didn't like lying to anyone, especially Darwin of all people. To be honest, when this whole Nephilim war began, he often wondered if he should bring it up to the walking goldfish, but felt like if he did so, the poor guy would panic and be constantly on edge whenever Gumball went by himself or whenever he went to sleep. Darwin has been known to go to extremes to keep the mischief maker safe and he especially didn't want to know what he'd do if he found he was fighting against terrifying beasts that were invisible and had powers that were otherworldly.

He decided to dodge answering his question and tell him the lie he and Teri came up with if he decides to ask about it later. Plus, he didn't want to test Tina's patience and wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible,

"It doesn't matter at the moment." he said, waving his arms in front of him as a signal that he was shutting down this topic,

"Right now, I need you to help me with Tobias. You're also pretty good at convincing people, heck, better than me anyway, and right now we gotta get Tobias and Tina to make up." he stated.

Darwin just stared at him with a puzzled expression for a moment, wondering if he should press the matter of his injuries further. It seemed rather odd that he was being rather evasive with his questions and his uncomfortable body posture indicated that he may have been hiding something. However, he brushed it off as Gumball taking the priority of helping Tina over his own issues and went along with it.

"Okay!" he said, with an excited nod and began heading towards the boys locker room.

Gumball felt a sigh of relief leave him as he watched Darwin practically bounce over to the yellow door that blocked the world from the male changing room. For a moment there he was worried that Darwin was going to keep questioning him and even saw a little suspicion in his brother's eyes. He was going to have to get better at making up stories around him as it was easier to lie to people who didn't really know him than it was with people who were close to him. Clearing his mind, Gumball followed his practical best friend into the boys locker room, shutting the door behind him.

Teri watched the two boys head on in where Tobias was hiding and found herself smiling a bit. Once again, she found herself witnessing some of Gumball's selfless acts and it made her feel good that she was working with someone who can put the needs of others ahead of themselves. She knew he could just as well be the opposite, having seen that aspect of him many times in the past and sometimes whenever they were together, but the more she got to know him, the more she understood that he was just a goofy, helpful person who could get hung up on himself time after time. Despite the short period of time she had spent with the blue dork, she found that she admired him for all the traits that made him who he was, even though she swore that she'll never admit that out loud.

Entering the changing room where the male students would change into their swimwear, exchange a few words about whatever topic they had in mind, and would shower off after swim class was over, the two boys immediately noticed that nothing looked out of place. The room lined with tile had an odd odor that came off as a mixture of cleaning chemicals, male body odor, and male hygiene products: definitely not unusual by normal standards. They didn't see the colorful Wilson child on the benches that were bolted to the walls or nearby any of the lockers or anywhere in sight really. Something was off.

Gumball scanned the room before turning to Darwin,

"I don't see him anywhere, dude. Do you think he may have fled?" he asked, sounding rather worried.

Darwin raised his gaze towards the vent grate on the ceiling and saw that it was bolted shut. He couldn't have escaped that way, it was also at least twelve feet from the ground and there was no way that the scrawny fluffball could have gotten up there without something to haul over and boost him up. Unfortunately, that was the only way out, seeing as there were no windows in this room, for obvious reasons, and the only doorway leading out was the one they came in from and there was absolutely no way he could've snuck past him, Darwin, Banana Joe, an entire crowd of kids, and the ever watchful Tina. he turned to his brother and shook his head, indicating that him escaping was unlikely,

"I don't think so, man. I think he may be in the showering section, further in the room." he said, pointing a fin to where the shower stalls were located.

Gumball stared down to the end of the small room and let out an agitated sigh; he knew he was being lazy, but he really hated looking for people or having to proceed over to another area just to talk to someone. If a Nephilim appeared nearby or even rather far away, he'd be up in a heartbeat, but because this was just some talk session between an ego driven idiot and themselves, Gumball found himself becoming very irritated with any delays. He knew it wasn't very courteous or thoughtful of him to be thinking this way, but sometimes old habits die hard.

He began striding towards the cleaning area, grabbing Darwin's fin as he walked by and began dragging him with him,

"Ugh, come on let's go get him." he moaned,

"Stupid Tobias, making me walk all the way back there when he could've been up front." he muttered lightly.

Darwin picked up on what Gumball had said and read his angry facial features to conclude that Gumball was very irritated with the kid they came to help,

"Um, dude, no offense, but he's probably very scared right now and is just hiding because of Tina. There's no need to get irritated with him." he said, not trying to sound accusing, but was trying to help him understand.

Snorting to himself, Gumball just stared straight on ahead while continuously walking with Darwin in hand. He knew Darwin was right and felt ashamed of his actions, but wouldn't show it on his face. Instead he just kept his mind on the task, but he did answer to Darwin because he didn't want there to be an uncomfortable silence,

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I just hate walking, you know, and also if he's taking a shower while all this is happening, I'm going to be really peeved." he grumbled as a response.

Not finding his excuse tolerable, Darwin just facepalmed and continued to berate his older brother for his absurd logic,

"FYI, It's not a very long walk and there's no water running, how could he be showering? Also, why would he be showering?" he asked, exposing the holes in Gumball's reasoning for his anger.

The blue cat said nothing as he was too stubborn to admit he was wrong and proceeded to walk faster to the shower room. His silence was all Darwin needed to know that he was right and wasn't really all that surprised. One thing he was glad for though, was that Gumball really was back to being himself.

Marching into the shower-filled section of the changing room, they found that was Darwin was right in his suspicions, and saw Tobias in the room, curled up in a corner, knees hiding his face as though he were hiding from the world. He looked absolutely miserable, there was no other word to describe the state he was in. At first, neither Gumball nor Darwin said anything, allowing a heavy silence to hang in the air for an unspecified period of time. They've seen him break down a couple times when something bad happened to him or fly into a rage when someone said something hurtful, but this was something they'd never actually seen the three fingered kid do. There was nothing they could say at the exact moment as they didn't know how to process the exact misery that Tobias was conveying to them.

Then after what like an entire ten years had passed, Tobias peeked out from between his raised knees, his eyes red from crying, most likely, and glared directly at the two,

"What do you guys want?" he croaked, his voice sounding horrible. He _must_ have been crying.

Gumball, not quite knowing how to address the situation to what was clearly a broken and upset person, nudged Darwin forward with a simple shove, silently suggesting for him to speak up. The bipedal fish shot the nervous cat a glare before quickly glancing back at Tobias. The orange/blue cloud person just continued to stare at them as he patiently awaited an answer.

Feeling rather uncomfortable, Darwin folded his fins in front of him and looked in his general direction,

"We, er, Gumball had a talk with Tina." he started.

Tobias immediately lowered his gaze, dread filling his mind the moment the lizard's name was brought up,

"I'm guessing she wants me to go out there so she can kill me?" he assumed, his tone dark and heavy with despair.

Shaking his head, Darwin quickly responded with a hopeful and cheery tone,

"No not at all! When Gumball came to the pool room, he talked to Tina for a bit and she agreed to let you go if you apologize-!"

"I'M NOT SORRY FOR WHAT I SAID OR WHAT I PLANNED ON DOING! SHE HAD THAT COMING FOR A REALLY LONG TIME NOW!" he suddenly shrieked, cutting off Darwin before he could finish what he was going to say.

Coming from outside, Gumball and Darwin could hear a deafening roar that could only belong to a certain T-rex girl that they all knew very well and all three came to the conclusion that Tina was eavesdropping on their conversation; evidently she didn't like his little outburst. Hearing the dinosaur's bellowing cry of rage, Tobias whimpered and seemed to be trying to disappear entirely as he curled himself up into a tighter ball. Darwin cried out in terror before quickly grasping onto Gumball for comfort while Gumball quickly called out to the school bully before his fear consumed him entirely,

"Hold your horses Tina, we're still talking to him!" he shouted at the top of his lungs.

After he finished shouting at her, the entire room went silent, without a single person moving a muscle or making a sound. They stayed like this for twenty odd seconds, silently praying that Tina wouldn't come bursting in for Tobias' little quip. Luckily, Tina never came in and the room remained silent, although now they could hear Tina's heavy breathing blowing underneath the door from over twenty feet away. Regardless, they had to be careful with what they say, Tina may be listening in on them in case they might be planning something and saying the wrong words may wind up triggering her.

After calming down, Gumball and Darwin turned back to Tobias, who was still cowering away in his designated spot. On further inspection, they could see that prideful student's green and white headband was now drenched in sweat, indicating that Tina's sudden interruption must have scared him even more than he was earlier. Nobody was going to blame him though, Tina roaring was enough to put everyone on edge.

Darwin continued on with his persuasion, talking smoothly to him,

"Look, Tobias, no one's disagreeing with you on Tina's "stress relief techniques", but you gotta remember that she's a very sensitive person. She wants everyone to treat her like a normal student and not as some monster to be feared." he explained, measuring his words very carefully.

Tobias said nothing and continued remain in the fetal position on the tile floor of the shower room. Whether he was listening or acknowledging the consequences of his actions or just shutting them out was up for grabs because neither of the boys could tell. Gumball decided to take another approach seeing as he probably wasn't interested in Tina's problems,

"Dude, if you're upset that Tina beat you up in front of everybody, then you should know that that is a complete waste of energy and brainpower. Anyone who's ever been bullied by her usually gets their butts whooped, me and Darwin, especially-!"

"Actually, it's mostly Gumball." Darwin quickly intervened earning him yet another glare by Gumball.

Gumball continued,

"Anyway, no one was expecting you to win that fight and getting back at her with a petty prank is not going to win you any popularity points with anyone." Gumball said simply, folding his arms in satisfaction with his statement.

Tobias' head snapped up from behind his legs and now had rage-filled expression planted on his face. If looks could kill, Gumball and Darwin would be ghosts right now and that would only make one of them happy. With his eyes filled with white hot anger, he allowed his legs to slide down, revealing the rest of his torso, and he pulled himself off the ground until he was standing upright,

"You think I was planning on pranking her to be cool?! I know that pranking her wouldn't get me any special attention, I was planning on doing so because I was tired of her picking on everyone and wanted to finally strike back! I wanted her to know how it feels to be picked on, defeated,... humiliated." he snarled, his voice faltering on the last word.

It all made sense to Gumball and Darwin now: he felt as though he was sticking up for the kids of Elmore Junior High by giving Tina a taste of her own medicine. It was definitely a bad idea because he's twisting a personal vendetta as a form of justice when it was actually just revenge, plain and simple. Gumball and Darwin despised Tina's antics and also wanted her stop bullying everyone along with Jamie as well, but they both knew that hurting the two girls was not the way to accomplish such a goal. They were both difficult people to deal with, but they were still people nonetheless.

Darwin stomped his foot, a clear sign of anger, although his face showed nothing but disappointment. This caused Tobias' face to relax a little and take Darwin a bit more seriously, although he was confused as to why Darwin appeared so upset. Even Gumball was surprised by Darwin's frustrated gesture that it forced him to pay attention as well,

"Do you really think that humiliating Tina is going to make her stop harassing you or anyone else? Did she go away when you called her breath smelly last week? Did she cower when she heard Ocho reveal your "grand plan" during the classroom fight? When has hurting anyone eased their suffering? Also, you're a complete hypocrite because you claim that you want to stop bullying when you've been bullying her yourself! You've been doing so behind her back the entire time and it's cowardly!" Darwin exclaimed bluntly, his tone sharp and accusing.

Both Tobias and Gumball were stunned into silence. The last time they had ever seen Darwin so visibly blunt and upfront towards someone who wasn't Gumball was about a year ago when he decided to speak his mind about all the little quirks that people did that annoyed him. He was without a doubt right about the entire "bullying" thing and had every right to be angry with Tobias and his backwards view on justice and helping others, but this was just so out of the blue for the normally cute and optimistic goldfish to be so visibly upset.

After he had finished his tangent, Darwin's angry faced reverted back into a more sympathetic one and he looked sorry for his outcry, as was evident by the way he stared down at his shoes while holding his own wrist,

"I'm sorry about that, I didn't mean to shout." he apologized before straightening out his pose once more and looking a surprised Tobias in the eye,

"What I'm trying to say is that Tina is willing to make amends and you should seize that opportunity to do so as well. If you make an effort to actually be friendly to her, maybe, just maybe, she'll be friendly too. She's mean, but the truth is she's like that because she has it rough and is lacking a lot of self-confidence. She protects herself by lashing out at others who tease her in order to avoid getting hurt. We came here to ask you to, just for once, swallow your pride and go apologize to her so that we won't have anymore situations like this." he said, sounding very genuine in his concern.

Tobias was at a loss for words, he knew that Tina didn't exactly have the best place in life and her appearance made it very hard to fit in. He was also very well aware that his self-centered point of view is what lead to his fellow classmates dismissing him and finding him distrustful. Even though he had everything at home, he felt as though that gave him some kind of place above his peers and that what applies to him at his house should apply to him here. He always got what he wanted back at his place, but here, his sense of entitlement was what caused him to angrily lash out at others whenever he didn't get what was in front of him. He picked on Tina because she was an easy target for him to place his pent-up frustrations on. She was poor and had an even poorer social life and was seen as the root of all evil by the students.

His own misery caused him to lash out at people and that made him just as bad, possibly worse than Tina. the girl had very little to go off of, what was his excuse?

Overcome with guilt and shame, Tobias felt his shoulders sag and his blue, puffy lips curl into a deep frown. Keeping his eyes lowered to the ground, Tobias could practically count every tile that layered the floor, his feelings making him hyper aware of every little detail that he could see. He really felt as though he messed up and it left him with a heavy, lead-like feeling in his gut that made him nauseous. He was racked with so much guilt that he just felt completely disgusting all over.

Slowly, very slowly, he raised his head until he was looking at Darwin directly, making the little goldfish student wonder what it was he was thinking now. Then with a nod so subtle, it was barely noticeable, he finally announced his decision,

"You're right. I had no right to do the things I did and claim to be the better man in the end. I will go out there and apologize to Tina for the things I said about her and for the awful deed I nearly conducted. Thank you for talking to me about this." he said, his voice low and, Gumball dare say it, humble.

Nothing better described the scene that Gumball just witnessed best as _unbelievable_. It truly was because the spoiled rich kid with an ego blown horrendously out of proportion was now admitting his own faults and taking responsibility for his actions. It was so bizarre for Gumball that all he could do was stare at Tobias in disbelief as he began walking towards the locker room door without any show of hesitation. Was this really Tobias they were just talking to and were now watching head on over to fix a problem he had started.

Only time would tell and the brothers were forced to follow the fluffy, walking rainbow swirl of a kid out into the pool room where everyone was waiting. Tobias, being the first to exit the room, received an audible gasp from the crowd of students along with many raised eyebrows that rested above wide eyes. He knew this was because everyone probably made the assumption that he would be too scared to face Tina alone and would come out cowering behind the Watterson brothers as a kind of human shield. Seeing him walk out alone and with a confident, yet friendly look on his face collectively blew their minds.

Everyone except Tina, that is, who was just standing above the huddle of people with her face a few feet from the door. She still looked very grumpy and seeing Tobias Wilson exit the locker room lit the fire within her eyes again and everyone could see she was rarin for a much anticipated fight, if it ever came to it that is. On her word to Gumball and Teri, she did not immediately attack Tobias, opting to listen first before judging whether or not he should be reduced to a colorful smear on the gym wall.

Among the crowd, Teri kept an eye out for Gumball and Darwin, her height and ability to slip through the throng of people made it very easy for her to get a better vantage point, although she feared that she may need a shower after this because she bumped into several people and she could've sworn she saw Sussie (who was caught up in the confusion while in the school hallways and went along without so much as a clue as to what was happening.) sneeze into her noodly, puppet arms and didn't even use a handkerchief. The nerve of some people! She was relieved when she saw a familiar blue cat in a ragged sweater and walking goldfish wearing nothing but green shoes follow Tobias out of the men's changing/shower room.

Everyone settled down the moment Darwin closed the door and within a moment's passing, the pool room was silent like a tomb. Everyone's eyes were now glued on Tobias and Tina, both facing each other with a different emotion masking their faces. It was now anyone's guess as to how this would play out between the two.

In a hilarious moment, Tobias began to speak up, but at the same time, Tina began speaking too causing the two to get mixed up in their own words,

"Oh, sorry, you go first!" Tobias said sheepishly, holding both his hands up as a peaceful gesture.

Tina at first looked agitated, but stopped when she noticed that Tobias actually seemed nicer. This was a bit of a shock for the tough junior high student as she expected the wannabe jock to be prideful and vindicating. She still kept a stoic and strong expression, but she was now less aggressive in her response,

"Um, okay, thanks." she said baffled, scratching her neck nervously with her foreclaws,

"So are you here to apologize for what you said and for planning to prank me, wimp?" she asked in a growly voice.

Everyone's eyes were now resting on the one Tina had spoken to, who just looked at her calmly and nodded slowly. A small frown formed on his face as he grabbed his sweaty headband and pulled off his head, allowing for his afro-like, mostly blue hair to fall out a little and increase in volume as it was no longer constricted by the tight band of cloth. He held the headband in front of him as his eyes lowered to the ground, shame written all over his face.

In a quiet squeak of a voice he answered,

"Yes." his eyes remained on the ground,

"I'm sorry for all those mean things I said about you, even the ones you never heard and I'm sorry for trying to get back at you after you had been hurt. You didn't deserve to hear all those things and I was stupid for not seeing your side of things. I discovered why you hurt and lash out at people and I also wanted to say that I'm sorry for what you have to go through." he allowed it all to pour out, his guilt and his foolishness.

Naturally, this heartfelt and honest response caused quite a ripple throughout the crowd: every student there now began questioning whether or not this was Tobias they were seeing and listening to. Even Teri, who initially disliked the multi-colored, sporty classmate, felt that his humble apology was rather touching and gave her a teensy bit more respect for the student. Most surprising was even Tina was downright shocked by his apology, her eyes were wide with surprise and her body became more relaxed. There was no begging for mercy, no spreading blame to her or anyone else, nor was there any attempt to defend himself: he flat out admitted that it was his fault and apologized to her for it.

While all the people gathered began discussing their confusion amongst their friends or just out loud to themselves, Tobias felt as though he'd done all he could and placed his headband back on his noggin and looked up at Tina once more,

"Anyway, thanks for listening to me, I meant everything I said." he said in earnest and began making his way towards the exit,

"I'm gonna go to class and think about my actions, so later, I guess." he waved them goodbye and continued walking.

That was until a massive, scaly foot planted itself in front of him, blocking his path entirely. Nervous, the sports kid looked up at the owner of the foot with wide eyes and his mouth slightly agape. He felt himself start to sweat bullets when he saw that Tina was glaring down at him and wondered if his apology had somehow upsetted her even further.

However, Tina dropped the angry expression, instead putting on one that appeared more… _friendly_?

Sliding her foot back, Tina stood at her full height and kept her gaze on Tobias, her yellow eyes showing more sympathy,

"Before you head out and to go sulk, I just wanted to say thank you and that I too, have an apology to make. I'm sorry for bullying you and your friends, I know that it was mean of me to pick on people much smaller and weaker than I am. Both me and Jamie hate being teased about our appearances, our flaws, and our lack of social skills and it causes both of us to attack those who are mean to us. I know she's not here right now, so that's why I'm speaking for her as well, but I want to let you know that we're not mean because we just want to be, we just… feel insecure about ourselves and having everyone draw upon that as amusement is what causes us to get angry." she uttered, her voice somber and her eyes full of hurt and sorrow,

"I want to start getting along with you and everyone else. Wanna be friends?" she asked, extending a three fingered claw towards the now completely blown away 7th grader that was just about to bear his shame on his own.

First he just looked at her hand, then back at Tina's face, looking conflicted as to what to do from there. He was still feeling guilty for what he had done and knew that his narcissistic tendencies weren't going to disappear anytime soon, just another obstacle he was going to have to learn to overcome. Then again, maybe being friends with Tina would help him get over his troubles and would hopefully help her along the way too. This could be the start of something wonderful, the more he thought about it.

He reached out with his own blue, three fingered hand and grasped onto one of her talons, feeling the smooth, strong material between his fingers. He smiled, nodded and backed up so she could see him properly, seeing as her arms were short and she already felt the handshake, so she knew what he had done. He kept a happy expression on his face and placed his hands at his sides and shrugged his shoulders up and down,

"Yeah, sure thing man! I will try my best to be respectful of your feelings and your appearance, but, uh, could you perhaps tone down the bullying a bit?" he asked, feeling as though he should still stand up for those who have been bullied by her.

The tyrannosaur did her best impression of a shrug and gave him the faintest of smiles,

"I'm not making any promises, but I will try to be easier on others, maybe let them off with a threat for minor felonies." she said somewhat jokingly, although this caused everyone there to tense up a little because if she follows through with it and Jamie gets out of the hospital, everyone suspected that Jamie's psychological torture was going to be put into great use.

Still Tobias seemed to buy into as he just shrugged once more and thanked her regardless,

"Well, it's a start, I guess." he quipped with a roll of his eyes,

"See you later then?" he waved at her and she waved back.

"Later, shrimp!" she returned with a chuckle.

They both smiled at one another for the briefest of moments before they both began heading towards the exit. The whole crowd of thirty or so students erupted into a roar of applause and cheers causing both the T-rex and the humanoid cloud kid to whip around in surprise at the over the top reaction from the group of people they honestly had forgotten was there. Everyone was clapping, shouting a few compliments directed towards the two of them, while people like Banana Joe and Darwin rushed over to both of them to congratulate them on their newfound friendship.

Standing amongst the gathering, a certain blue cat boy just watched as he relayed the entire scene over and over again in his mind. Tobias and Tina had made up and were now working to possibly be better people, he knew that were multiple ways this could end, but he remained hopeful. It was definitely going to be a long, bumpy ride with the two, but perhaps they will bridge the gap that was ever so present between them. Even though he kept a straight face, he was very touched at what he had just witnessed and felt as though his heart was coursing with joy.

He saw someone approach him from the side and he turned to see that it was a familiar paper girl who had stayed out with Tina while he and Darwin dealt with Tobias. He greeted Teri with a warm smile and a small wave with her mirroring the salutation moments later. She seemed genuinely happy to see him because her grin was stretching from ear to ear and her eyes sparkled with joy,

"Did you see that! That was wonderful! Thank you for talking to both Tina and Tobias! You have no idea how kind that was and how much you just helped the school!" she cheered, her form radiating happiness like the sun.

Gumball felt a blush creep onto his cheeks and he turned away bashfully, he could hear Teri giggling at the silly sight of the shy dork,

"Thanks Teri, but I didn't really do a whole lot in terms of convincing, that was mostly Darwin." he muttered once he was able to face Teri again.

Shaking her head in disagreement, Teri pointed at the two kids who were attracting a crowd,

"You shouldn't be so doubtful, you not only stopped Tina from hurting Tobias, but you also convinced her to allow you and Darwin to talk to him. Your actions kick-started a wonderful interaction between two people riddled with their own issues and come to an understanding in the end. You really are kind and brave and you should be proud of that." she exclaimed, suddenly pulling her arms behind her back and feeling a slight blush spread across her rosy cheeks,

"I'm very proud of you and thankful for what you've done." she said sheepishly, occasionally averting her gaze because of her display of affection towards the boy she considered wonderful.

Feeling moved by her compliments and the gratitude she showed him for the second time that day, Gumball felt his heart starting to race again and his face burning up with the overwhelming happiness that was spreading through him. Once again, self doubt kept him from believing that he could do anything right and from seeing what he was actually capable of. Ever since he and Penny broke up, he felt as though he were unworthy of praise or any positive attention because it felt as though everything good that kept coming into his life would eventually leave him and ultimately lead to him believing that if he ever got close to anyone they were just going to eventually leave him too.

Hearing her praising him for his good deeds just kept on pushing Gumball in all the right ways and he started to feel something he hadn't felt in such a long time. He was genuinely happy to have Teri as a friend and supporting partner throughout the entire ordeal that had been happening for a month and a half now. He had faced several scary things and she had been by his side through all those moments and he felt as though she were someone he could always rely on to help him through those scary times.

He needed to make sure she knew of his thoughts on her and how she was such a great person to him,

"Teri." he said gently, having his cute classmate look him in the eyes now with a curious expression,

"Thank you very much for being there for me. If you hadn't stayed by my side while I stood up to Tina, I probably would have fled the moment it started to look rough. When you spoke up to her and finished the sentence that I couldn't, I was completely blown away by your bravery and wanted to be as bold as you. You are a wonderful friend and I wouldn't trade you for anyone else, thank you so much for just being there and for giving me the means to go about the day." he finished with a wobbly smile because he felt as though his words were too cheesy and that he was starting to sound more like Alan.

However, Teri didn't see his statement in the same manner he did, she was deeply touched by his words. On their way back to the school, when she was patching him up from the fight with Concretin, he said something similar and called her awesome and a vital part of the team. Hearing it again in this context, gave it more meaning and made her feel like someone who was actually appreciated by another person just for being their friend.

In the cheerleading squad, all the girls were friends and could get along to perform some amazing tricks as well as get back up together when they were recovering from a bad practice or when something went horribly wrong. However, if she left the team, there was bound to be a little sadness at her absence, but were bound to find a replacement for her shortly after. They did so when Penny moved away and had now welcomed a mermaid girl from another seventh grade class named Sherry onto the team. The same outcome would no doubt occur if she were to suddenly leave the team.

Going along with what Gumball had said, her leaving him would have resulted in very different outcomes and could lead to disaster for both of them and for the city of Elmore. They were both thrown into this mess by fate and none of them could change that, but it never necessarily felt like they were just stuck together. They both just kind of accepted their new roles as the city's defenders against the forces of destruction and Gumball's words showed Teri just how much her presence meant to both him and Elmore. He accepted her for everything she was and she was glad for it.

From a distance, Darwin was done telling Tobias that he did the right thing and that he was a real man for displaying his emotions, admitting his faults, and humbly apologizing while also forgiving Tina at the same time and turned to see where his older brother was. He soon spotted his beloved sibling still in front of the locker room with Teri. they were only talking to one another, but from what he could see, they were talking about something deep and personal. Darwin could see from the affectionate way they were looking at each other while speaking that the two must have developed a strong bond and kind of figured that the two of them were becoming closer. He thought about going over to see what the deal was, but ultimately decided against doing so because he wanted the two to have some more alone time so that they could discuss whatever it was going on between them. With a knowing smirk, he turned and began making his way towards the exit, _"Nice going, Gumball! I'm so proud of you, dude!"_ he thought happily to himself.

While both Teri and Gumball and Teri enjoyed a moment of comfortable silence with either person, the PA system chimed with what sounded like a xylophone ringing in a happy tune before principal Brown's voice cut in,

" _Attention students, this is principal Brown speaking, I regret to inform you that due to the damage done to the seventh grade hall, school is cancelled for today until we can figure out how to deal with the damages. I suggest you all call your parents and have them come pick you up and if you are lacking in a cellular device or any means to contact them, please head on over to the principal's office immediately, we'll alert your parents and have them come at once to retrieve you. Thank you very much for your attention, stay safe and have a good day. Also next time, if anyone is having issues or is in conflict with other students, I'd_ _ **seriously**_ _advise you to resolve it in a peaceful manner and/or take it to our guidance counselor, Mr. Small. This goes especially to you, Bobert and Ocho. Anyway, enjoy your time off, I will be waiting for any students who need help."_ and with another bell chime, the PA system fell silent.

With the announcement being heard by every student in the school, the entire pool erupted in a collective cheer as they realized that they had just received a free a day off. Soon all the students bum rushed the swinging doors and left the entire pool room vacant. Soon silence fell upon the room again and the place had a more eerie feel to it, the gently lapping water from the pool as it struck the edges was soothingly spooky and the creak of the swaying ceiling lights added more to the unease.

This did not bother the two sole occupants of the massive room that much though. Gumball and Teri did not run along with the crowd because they were both rather perplexed by the situation that was just announced to the two of them. They never actually understood just how bad the damage was in the seventh grade hallway because they never actually got a chance to see it. They were still wearing their backpacks because they didn't even bother with putting them away in their mad rush to get here earlier.

Gumball glanced about the room that had never changed once, yet seemed so foreign to him due to the lack of activity or people within it. The sheer silence and emptiness of the room was nearly enough to send a chill running down his spine. Pushing his thoughts on the room's vacancy aside, Gumball redirected his attention the room's other occupant,

"Well, we better get going. I suspect that Darwin had already contacted my parents and I wouldn't want to keep them waiting when they arrive. Wanna walk with me to the front entrance?" he asked, still feeling rather appreciative about her compliments towards him.

Teri seemed to jump a little when Gumball spoke to her. Having been so lost in thought, she nearly blocked out what he had said. She was thinking about the exchange that happened between them and was legitimately happy for how things turned out today. However, her pleasant thoughts needed to be pushed aside because she completely forgot that Gumball was with her right now.

She looked at him and quickly came up with an answer,

"Oh, um, actually I was wondering, would you like to come over to my house and spend the night there, like we did two days ago? I doubt my parents would disagree on having you over and I also know of this great forest that's several blocks away from where I live that we can go to in order to train. That is, of course, if it's okay with you and your folks." she said, fidgeting nervously with her fingers as she awaited his response.

Gumball actually had no qualms with going to her place, heck, he was hoping he could over to Teri's place sometime this week and since she was offering, why should he refuse? He knew he'd have to contact his mom and let her know of his change in plans, but he doubted she would have any quarrels with this. He hoped that Darwin or Anais didn't have any plans that they wanted to include him in on today, there was always tomorrow though. As for his dad, he probably wouldn't mind that he was at someone else's house, but he would be upset that he'd have one less plate to steal from during dinner. Obviously, it wasn't that big of a deal.

Giving Teri a smile that glowed with enthusiasm, he nodded and accepted her request,

"Yes, I'd love to spend the night over at your house tonight, just as long as your parents are fine with it." he stated, his voice laced with eagerness that also infected the paper girl, who despite her germaphobia, actually didn't mind this joyous contagion.

She gave him a quick nod as she pulled a pencil out of her backpack, drew a pocket on her blazer, and pulled out her flip phone, which looked like a scrap of paper folded in half with a screen and buttons drawn in on the interior by a marker. She began tapping at the buttons as little words began to fill the screen and she began to walk towards the door leading into the school hallway. She continued to talk to Gumball, who was striding next to her, while she wrote out a digital message to her folks,

"Okay… and send." she said, hitting the send button and watching the message get delivered to her mother,

"Okay, now I'll just have to wait for the response." she said, looking back from her phone to Gumball, who had already whipped out his smartphone, shot a message to his mother, and put away all in under a minute.

He pondered some ideas as to what they could do, since they had a lot of time on their hands now, but decided that it was best left to Teri since it was her place they were going to. Despite all the circumstances surrounding today, Gumball was pretty glad that this school day wasn't too uneventful. Turning to her, he popped the feeble paper person a question regarding any activities she may have planned for today.

Scratching her chin and staring up at the ceiling, Teri thought about what order they should do the activities she had already listed in her head. She was having trouble fitting training and school work into the schedule, seeing as both would take up a lot of time, and thought about anything else that might cut into their time together. She ultimately decided that training first would be best because it was really important that they learned how to work together and come up with techniques that they could utilize in their fight against the Nephilim, plus she read somewhere that exercising was a great way to enhance the brain's performance when it came to homework.

They passed in between the doors and proceeded down the school hall to where the main entrance was. It was right then, where Teri gave him her answer,

"I think we should work on our fighting skills together first, then work on whatever homework we have, and then just relax and watch T.V. or something else if you're up for it." she responded.

"I like it, except for the homework part." he said, hoping he could persuade the paper bear to lay off the assignments for a little while seeing as he just wanted to have fun.

"Sorry, but you know the rules at my parent's place." she said, having to remind him that she doesn't make up the rules at her folk's place.

Gumball felt his ears droop and his expression go sour,

"Oh yeah… I should've seen that co-?" he felt his pocket vibrate and he quickly checked his phone.

His mom approved of him spending the night over at Teri's.

"Yesssss!" he shouted, pumping a fist in the air before panning over to Teri,

"Mom said I could stay over at your place!" he proclaimed with excitement.

Teri checked her phone and saw that she too had a message from her mother. She also gave her approval and told her to check with Gumball's parents. She quickly texted back that Nicole gave Gumball permission and joined Gumball in his celebration,

"My mom said you can stay at our place too!" she cheered.

Not wanting to waste more time, the two quickly dashed off and down the hallway, nearly knocking over a few surprised teachers in the process. After a few quick turns and rounding a few corners, Gumball realized that they weren't heading towards the main entrance, but rather towards the seventh grade hallway. He was following Teri the whole time, so he guessed that there was something she needed and decided to question her about it,

"You forget something?" he asked, raising an eyebrow while ducking under Carmen's prickly branches.

Teri weaved around a large, hefty looking student with purple skin and mint green hair while spoke to the blue cat behind her,

"Yeah, my hand sanitizer." she answered simply.

That wasn't too surprising and Gumball could already feel his eyes rolling, but decided to ask anyway,

"Why do you need it exactly?"

"Your wrist was really sweaty, do you know how many pathogenic organisms live in sweat alone? I don't wanna risk getting impetigo or MRSA! Also when we get done with training you're showering first."

Gumball groaned as a response, couldn't help but ruin a perfectly wonderful moment that promises a lot of fun with a lousy excuse to sterilize her body and his with bacteria killing chemicals. He was really going to have to talk to her about that germaphobia thing sometime in the future. However, it eventually just faded into a lesser evil that he felt he was going to have to go along with in order to appease Teri, that wasn't really going to affect them that much later today. Either way, today was very good and a lot had been accomplished that Gumball could feel good about.

He had an overwhelming feeling that things were going to get better for his classmates later on and his relationship with Teri was going to be spectacular. Call it optimism, call it a sense of fate Gumball was just happy with the promising future ahead of them. If every day was like this, then the Nephilim will eventually be defeated and Elmore will be a better place. There was joy to be found in that kind of hope.

 **(A/N): And a really long chapter finally draws to a close. Wow! This was quite the write for me, I mean, I never expected chapter 4 to be this long. I'm doing this on google docs and the page number this chapter ends at is 72. Yeesh! I'm gonna have so much fun going back and editing this one, but I feel great because I love writing this story.**

 **Okay for starters, I wrote several chapter outlines for this and the upcoming ones and that's why I originally thought this was going to be a short chapter. When this was mapped out, I had initially planned on focusing on two (technically three.) conflicts for this chapter with Gumball and Teri resolving all them all within a short time span. The first conflict that was made evident was with Teri's lack of self-esteem when it came to fighting alongside Gumball (and Rob, but mostly Gumball.) and where she sat on the team: was she just a little helpful or was she just a burden? The next conflict that was introduced was the grudge that Tobias had with Tina over the events that were briefly mentioned in the chapter prior. Then there was the Nephilim fight that drew in both Teri and Gumball and threatened the safety of Elmore.**

 **At first I already knew how I wanted this to all play out and started with the introduction of one issue, but pushing it aside when a larger more imminent danger presented itself. After I had finished up with the fight I was pretty much halfway done with the chapter and when I got back to the issues presented near the beginning of the story, it got stretched out even more because I realize that there was so much more to add in that would help define the characters. So yeah, that was what is was like writing this chapter: planning it out and adding or taking more to it in order to make it refined. Obviously, I haven't looked it over yet, so I'm not certain everything is ready just yet. I also apologize if some of the moments and quotes seemed a little cheesy.**

 **I had a lot of fun writing this and will get started on chapter five, which is called "looking glass" and will follow Gumball and Teri the next day as they decide to hang around Elmore while the school is being repaired. Rob will be appearing in that chapter, but not as a combatant. What he will be doing can be discovered if you read the next chapter. XD**

 **I'm really happy with how this story is going, I love how Gumball and Teri are very supportive of each other and try to make either person as happy as they can. I also loved the dynamic between Tobias and Tina in this chapter, they both have their own issues that cause them to have difficulties interacting with others and I felt like a confrontation like this was entirely possible. Their relationship is definitely a rocky one for sure and will definitely have its fair share of challenges. I hope I can focus on some of the characters of the show and flesh them out a little in this story because I love this show's characters for their diversity.**

 **Anyway, that is all I have to say for now. I hope to see you guys for Teri x Gumball: In between worlds chapter 5: looking glass. The next one will have action and more moments with Rob. thank you all so much for reading this, I hope you all have a wonderful day.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Looking glass**

Teri x Gumball

 **(A/N): What is hanging everybody! I hope you guys are enjoying yourselves and are eager to delve into the fifth chapter of the romantic/fantasy story of Teri x Gumball: In between worlds. In Chapter 5: Looking glass, we'll be following our intrepid duo of Nephilim fighters as they go about their day off in Elmore after the school had been damaged during yesterday's events. We'll also be taking a peek into Rob's life and what he has been up to.**

 **All in all, this chapter will be informative, but pretty docile as far as action goes. There will also be cute and fluffy scenes between Carrie and Darwin as the chapter will focus on them for a bit. There will also be more relationship building between Teri and Gumball, but so far the two are only close friends as of this moment.**

 **With that all in mind, I now leave you all to enjoy this story that I find joy in writing. Thank you all for reading this, I do hope you enjoy the latest chapter being presented to you. Leave a review down below and do have a good day!**

 **(I do not own The Amazing World of Gumball. All rights belong to Ben Bocquelet, the staff, Cartoon Network, and other respective owners.)**

 _-Teri's house, September 18th, 2013, 5:03 A.M.-_

One thing Gumball loved about Teri's place was that it was located farthest from the highway and workplace of Elmore, meaning that there were no cars or trucks that noisily passed by as people made their way to and fro throughout the city. It was absolutely quiet and tranquil and that was how Gumball liked his mornings. Both he and Teri were peacefully dozing away in their separate beds, while the sun was just starting to rise outside.

They didn't have any nightmares about the Nephilim, which was a given to the two young protectors of Elmore seeing as such an event would signal an imminent fight that would happen within twenty minutes of their waking time. They spent several hours yesterday in a clearing within the forest that was near Teri's house practicing with each other on how to utilize their abilities effectively. Teri was slowly getting better at using different origami interchangeably, although she began pondering as to whether or not she should start making up her own origami instead of just creating the one's she knew off the top of her head. Gumball meanwhile, definitely found that he needed to work on his stance more when using his scythe because there were several times Teri was able to knock him over with her larger constructions. He didn't have anyone to teach him how to actually wield a scythe in battle, so he tried studying from books and videos on the internet, and it was going well, sort of.

After they finished practicing, they went back to her home and spent some time doing school work. As usual, Gumball kept finding ways to get distracted and Teri kept getting annoyed with him, sometimes resulting in things getting thrown at the cat boy. Despite the trials of Teri's patience and tolerance they both managed to finish their work and spent some time surfing the internet together. All while this was happening, some of their friends began texting the two of them and when they found out what they were doing both the paper girl and the cat boy were bombarded with embarrassing messages from their friends telling them and each other that they were dating. They wound up spending less time on their phones after that.

Then came evening when Teri's mom arrived home from work and got started on dinner with her husband. The two kids were called down stairs and joined the adults at the dining table to enjoy some soba noodles prepared for everyone. The meal was pretty good and Gumball got along really well with Teri's parents, swapping stories with them about his family and friends while cracking a few jokes every now and then. Then, as if both Teri's mom and dad developed some form of omniscience, they too began teasing the two kids about being together causing the children to rapidly try shutting down every comment while their faces remained red like beets. In the end, they had a good time and Gumball was glad that Teri's family wasn't completely stony and cold as he had previously thought.

After dinner, they retired to Teri's room where they watched the newest episode of _Under the stethoscope_ and spent half an hour nearly crying with laughter. Before they went to bed, they stayed up and talked for a bit about certain things in their lives and about whatever topic they found amusing. At ten it was lights out and Gumball changed into his PJ's, pulled out the air mattress, and was soon soundly sleeping next to Teri's bed.

While snuggled up under the covers, Gumball's eyelids remained tightly closed while the eyes that remained shielded underneath darted back and forth while dreamt of something pleasant. Meanwhile, a sound, very faint, made its way through the empty halls of the house and to Gumball's ears which twitched in response to the noise. This slight disturbance caused the kitten to slowly wake up as a response to the noise.

He sat up slowly, allowing the clean, red covers to fall from his body as he stretched out his arms and let out a large yawn. Blinking a couple times to remove the excess moisture in his eyes, Gumball looked about the room. He first spotted Teri, who was still asleep as was evident by the blindfold covering her eyes and the fact that the only movement that she made were the slight twitches that resulted from her dreaming. He found it odd that he couldn't tell whether she was breathing or not because her chest didn't rise and fall like a person who was three dimensional would, but he found the sight of her all tucked up underneath the covers with a slight smile on her face to be quite adorable. He wondered what she was dreaming about that made her smile like that.

He glanced at her alarm clock and saw that it was five minutes past five and that it wouldn't be until 5:30 until it went off. The room was very dim with the only source of light being the small amount of sunlight peeking through the blindfolds from the rising sun. It was also very quiet too, except for a slight sound that was getting louder every passing second.

Confused, Gumball looked around to see what could be making the noise, but couldn't quite locate the source. He recognized it as the sound that woke him the first place, but couldn't quite put his finger on as to what it was. His attention was finally directed to the open door (Teri's dad made them keep it open whenever they were alone in the room together, which confused the two of them because they didn't do this when Gumball first slept over.) that lead to the stairwell that brought them down in the small hallway that lead either to the bathroom or the kitchen depending on which direction you took.

He was startled when the rectangular head of Mr. Pepakuma popped into the doorway.

"Morning you two!" he greeted in a friendly tone as he walked in.

He reached over and flicked the light switch, causing the whole room to explode in a glaring, yellow light that assaulted Gumball's eyes that were accustomed to the dark. He shut them tightly and groaned as he furiously rubbed at them in order to relieve them of the pain. He thought about how his mother would wake him up in the same fashion and wasn't really impressed by Fukijima's similar methods,

"Morning Mr. Pepakuma." he muttered as his eyes finally adjusted to the blinding light.

In her bed, Teri rustled a little, sat up, yawned and stretched, erased her blindfolds and added on her eyes and eyebrows in order to look at first at Gumball and then at her father,

"Morning dad." she said in a very happy tone.

Mr. Pepakuma returned her smile and quickly pulled out his phone and opened a window that lead to his messages. He cleared his throat and read the message out loud to the two kids,

"Just got a message from your principal, it reads: Due to the extensive damage done to the school during yesterday's events, all classes are cancelled until the damages can be dealt with. School will resume on Friday, but for now enjoy your two days off and please stay safe. Thank you very much for your patience and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause anyone. Signed principal Brown." he put his phone away and looked up at the two kids who were now practically swelling up with surprise,

"Looks like you two have the day off as well as tomorrow." he said.

The two let out a whoop of joy as they both jumped up out of bed and gave each other a high five. Teri's father smiled at the two while they celebrated, admiring their enthusiasm for these kinds of things before his serious face returned and he held a rectangular finger to his lips,

"Shhh!" he shushed them, the two immediately stopped and turned to look at the taller paper bear cutout,

"Yui is still sleeping downstairs." he whispered, looking at the two of them sternly through his glasses.

The two immediately sat down on Teri's bed with an embarrassed look written on their faces,

"Sorry." they replied in unison.

Nodding as an acknowledgment to their apology, Fukijima snuck a peek at the clock on Teri's dresser and turned with a less stern expression on his face,

"Alright, seeing as you two don't have school today, you're free to hang out. However, at 6:00 I want you two back home, unless Gumball has to leave, then he can, but I want you to get started on sweeping the basement after he leaves." he said, pointing at Teri.

Teri nodded once as a mere response to his orders and her father continued on with his explanation,

"I'm going to be gone for most of the day, there's a patient I'm going to be operating on and it's going to take a while to complete the surgery. Yui is downstairs in her room, sleeping, but don't wake her unless you really need something." he warned before turning to the door and walked through,

"You guys have fun and Watterson…" he turned his head in the direction of the now nervous blue cat,

"...please behave yourself and be responsible, that goes for you too, Teri." he said.

After receiving an affirmative answer from the two, he headed downstairs and soon disappeared from sight.

Gumball felt his shoulders slump and he turned to Teri with a confused look on his face,

"What did he say again? I didn't hear anything except for behave yourself." he admitted blandly.

Teri turned to him with a quizzical look on her face before facepalming herself,

"For crying out loud, Gumball you really need to work on your listening skills! I'm surprised you can take such good notes in class, yet completely zone out when someone is talking to you." she remarked in an exasperated tone.

Gumball blinked once and looked at her in utter confusion, as if he just missed something,

"Sorry what was that?" he responded, cocking an eyebrow.

Infuriated, Teri quickly reached over to throw a pillow at the boy who was driving her insane. Gumball anticipated this and quickly raised his hands in surrender just as the girl was raising the pillow over his head. She stopped when she saw his passive pose and wondered while he was chuckling,

"Stop, stop, stop! I was joking, I heard you and your dad the first time!" he continued to laugh at her aggressive reaction.

Feeling her eyes narrow, Teri just shook her head in disbelief at the little trickster sitting next to her. She knew it was like him to do this every now and then with her and it was all just to see how she would react so he could get a laugh in. Well, normally she would have just him off with a mild insult, but felt a nefarious idea come to her mind. With a quick motion of her hand, she slammed the pillow onto his face causing the laughing cat to gasp in surprise as he was knocked backwards.

While he was down, Teri saw that his white T-shirt had lifted a little and was exposing his flat stomach. Seizing the opportunity that had presented itself to her, Teri reached forward with her fingers and began poking rapidly at the exposed area. Feeling her flimsy fingers attacking his stomach, Gumball let out a sharp squeal and immediately began curling up and turning away in an attempt to get away from Teri. She continued to tickle the cat and soon the feline was drowning in laughter.

The tables were soon turned on Teri however, when Gumball remembered how light his friend was and proceeded to grab her by the shoulder and pushed her away from him. With his other hand, he started tickling her in retaliation causing the paper bear to make the same noises as him only louder this time. Realizing that she was outmatched, she quickly hopped up and off her bed, seeing as Gumball hadn't done anything to secure her, and quickly rushed out of her room. Gumball, not intending to let her off the hook so easily, sprung up and dashed out after her.

They spent a few minutes chasing each other around the house while trying to keep their voices low, so they don't disturb the sleeping Mrs. Pepakuma. After they had enough horseplay, Teri proceeded to go fix her room up like she did every morning while Gumball went to make them breakfast. At around six, they were both sitting around the kitchen table, eating the food Gumball had prepared them while enjoying a conversation.

Teri dug her fork into the quick bread and tore a piece off before lifting it towards her mouth,

"Where did you learn how to cook? If you don't mind me asking." she asked, placing the fork along with the piece of bread into her mouth before she started chewing.

Gumball poured a bit more syrup on his fluffy slice of tasty bread while he answered her question,

"I don't cook a whole lot, actually." he admitted,

"I just learned a couple recipes by myself or I'd experiment with certain ingredients whenever I'm bored. I also help mom make a few dishes every now and then, which was where I learned how to make quick bread. Other than that, I don't really cook a whole lot, so it's not exactly something I'd call a skill." he said, quickly tipping the syrup over once he had the right amount on his already sweetened sliced of bread.

Teri was slightly disturbed by the amount of syrup he used (also, who puts syrup on baked goods?), wanting to tell him that too much sugar could lead to many complications such as diabetes, but diagressed as she didn't see it as something worth getting upset over. Plus, he said he was working out, so maybe there wasn't too much to worry about. Other than that, she was actually quite impressed by the kitty's culinary skills as his dish was quite pleasing.

She swallowed her bite and began working on breaking off another piece, all the while she continued to speak,

"Well, I like it. I think you should cook more often." she complimented, actually meaning what she said.

Gumball was pleased with her comment and found himself smiling at her fondly,

"If you like this, then maybe I should bake you a cake next time." he offered.

Caught in surprise by his offer, Teri stopped eating and cast him a curious glance,

"That would be lovely actually, but could you use non-dairy products please. I think I may be lactose intolerant." she stated, once again fully aware that she was being paranoid, but wasn't sure if she wanted to risk finding out if her digestive tract didn't agree with.

Not finding that fact the least bit surprising, seeing as her kitchen lacked any dairy products except for soy, that is, Gumball merely nodded and mentally reminded himself to look up non-dairy cake recipes. Still, he was happy that she enjoyed his food and wanted to impress her some more with the other things he could make. Just seeing her happy in general made him feel the same and he wasn't quite sure where this strange feeling was coming from.

He tore a chunk of bread free and lifted towards his salivating mouth, the scent of baked loaf was seducing all on it's own,

"That won't be much of an issue." he proclaimed before taking a bite, feeling the heavenly taste flow through his mouth.

Teri was about to ask him what kind of cake he liked to bake when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. Quickly retrieving it, she flipped it open and saw that Alan had sent her a message. Curious, she wondered why Alan would be messaging her this early in the morning and especially when there was no school. It wasn't like he was just going to send her a positive quote or something because he already does that on Elmore Plus. Scrolling over to it, she opened it and read what the charismatic balloon boy had written for her,

" _Good morning everyone! I hope you're all enjoying your day off from school after that terrible accident that destroyed Miss Simian's room and the seventh grade hall. Luckily no one got hurt and everyone is doing okay. Seeing as everyone has the day off, Carmen and I decided to throw together a picnic at the Elmore park and you are all invited! The picnic starts at noon and we wouldn't mind if everyone brought something along with them for the rest of the class to enjoy. If you don't want to come or don't have time to make the trip, that's okay, we hope you enjoy your time today. We hope to see you guys there and are looking forward to a fun time together."_ the message ended with a picnic basket emoji followed up with a smiley face.

Thinking about it, Teri thought that getting together with friends was a nice way to spend the afternoon, especially when there was no school. Without having any other plans in mind, she turned to Gumball to share the message she had received, only to see that he too was checking his message. Turns out Alan had sent it out in a mass text to all his friends, meaning Carmen must've sent it out on Elmore Plus, at least that's what Teri assumed.

Having read through the message Gumball let out a little, _hmm?_ as he looked it over one more time and began checking everyone else's responses on the group chat,

"Seems like everyone is going, even Hector." he muttered, actually shocked that the introverted, hairy giant was showing up to the party.

Teri set her phone on the table and clasped her hands together as they rested on the flat wooden surface,

"Do you think we should go?" she asked, wanting to know his opinion.

Gumball scratched his chin a little before turning to her,

"I don't know. Are you interested in going?" he replied, adding a question as an answer.

"Yes, I mean, I think it wouldn't hurt us if we went over, plus it sounds like fun." Teri stated, sounding rather excited by the idea.

Gumball saw that she looked really eager for it and decided that he just couldn't say no to the face she was making,

"Okay, it's fine with me as long as you are fine with it." he shrugged, his answer causing Teri's face to light up.

Gumball quickly turned his face towards his phone to hide the slight blush that was forming on his cheeks. He checked the group chat once again and saw that everyone was describing what they were bringing to the party. People were mostly bringing food, some of it homemade and some bought straight from the store. There was a large variety and Gumball was quite intrigued by the list that was forming,

"Huh? Everyone's bringing a really cool dish to the party. Alan and Carmen are baking a pie, Idaho is bringing his mom's special chili soup, Masami is bringing dozens of exquisite chocolates handmade by her german chef, Molly is bringing coleslaw, Darwin is bringing several bags of potato chips and the list goes on." he said, scrolling through the texts with his thumb.

Teri thought all those dishes sounded really good and it kind of showed her a little bit more about them. Just hearing all the different kinds of food being brought to the picnic gathering made her want to bring her own to the party. She looked at Gumball and then at the loaf of quick bread sitting on a plate in the middle of the table, an idea popping into her head all at once.

With her eyes lit up again, she leapt from her seat , startling Gumball as she did and she leaned in close to him,

"Let's bake a cake!" she exclaimed with a gasp.

Gumball saw the twinkle in her eyes and a sweatdrop ran down the back of his gigantic head. He was more than capable of baking a cake, having perfected the art after trying to make one for Penny and her family nearly a year ago, but was confused as to why Teri wanted to bake a cake of all things. He originally planned on making something simple, like sandwiches, but was now curious about Teri's pastry idea.

Raising his hands as an indicator for her to settle down, he set his phone down and stood up right beside her,

"A cake sounds nice, but why a cake though?" he inquired the excited paper girl.

Teri took a step back, still keeping her brightened expression, as she began excitedly waving her arms, unable to contain her excitement,

"Because it'll be fun! Also, everyone loves cake. We can also do some really cute designs with the frosting and we can mix different flavors like strawberry or chocolate (non-dairy of course.) and-!"

"I think we're getting a little ahead of ourselves here." Gumball quickly cut in before she was completely lost in the fantasy of pastry baking,

"We can definitely do it, but right now we need to go get some ingredients because your kitchen is looking sparser than a survivor's basement." he quickly added.

Feeling herself calm down a little, she quickly nodded and sat back down in her chair,

"Okay, so what do we need?" she asked, noting that they had about six hours to get prepared.

Gumball sat down as well, he also knew about the large span of time they had to themselves and quickly tossed an answer along with a suggestion into the open,

"Don't worry about the ingredients, I'll list down what we have and don't have when I get to it. Why don't you go tell your mom that we'll be heading down to the store to get some ingredients, also we can stop along some other places if you're interested. We have plenty of time." he concluded, placing his chin on his clasped hands and stared at her patiently.

Being totally honest with herself, Teri just wanted to get straight to baking because she always wanted to do something like that with a friend or family member. Her mom always took over when it came to cooking, but would sometimes let her help when she asked, they also mostly made Japanese cuisine because of their Japanese background. Both her mother and father were born in Japan and while her dad transferred over to the United States while he was in college, her mom moved here when she was little. She was taught how to cook traditional recipes by her mother and continued the tradition, especially after she met Fukijima in college and getting married shortly after.

Either way, Teri knew how to make Japanese food, but she never really got to learn how to bake. She wanted this to be a fun experience for her and Gumball and speaking of whom, she wouldn't want to try it with any other person. She couldn't quite place her finger on it, but whenever she thought about Gumball in the kitchen wearing an apron while pulling some freshly baked goods out of the oven seemed both hilarious and adorable to her.

Whatever else happened today seemed rather trivial to her now as she was entirely dedicated to this project. She was so glad that they were given time off so that they could do stuff like this.

Shaking her head, she answered Gumball as honestly as she could,

"Nah, I'm fine with just going to the store and back if you don't mind." she claimed, giving a small shrug to indicate her feelings on the matter.

Gumball gave one simple nod and smiled politely at her, making her feel warm inside again,

"Suit yourself. Let me know if you change your mind while we're on our way there." and with that, he got up and marched right into the kitchen, leaving Teri by herself at the dining room table.

After taking one last moment to decide what she wanted (also, just to picture Gumball in an apron again.) she sprung into action, quickly leaping to her feet, racing through the kitchen, the living room, turning to where the doorway was placed and rounding the corner where her parent's bedroom sat, blocked off by the wooden door that served as the entry point. Stopping just before it, Teri took a moment to collect her thoughts before grabbing the brass knocker that was bolted to the door (this was actually a common device on all their doors because their hands were too light to produce much noise.) and rapped it against the door several times, producing a rapid and sharp knocking sound.

Not a moment later, she heard a rustling sound like bed covered being tossed aside and a soft voice sounding out from behind the thin wooden door,

"Who is it?"

Teri cleared her throat and stood straight as she quickly responded to her mother's quiry,

"Someone order a pizza with extra shrimp and less cheese?" she answered in a tone that sounded somewhat like Larry's. This was a common joke that went on between the two because her mother hated Pizza topped with shrimp due to an incident that happened at Elmore pizza three years ago. It was quite hilarious, but ever since then, her mother detested that specific topping and now she jokes about it whenever she needs to enter a room with her permission.

She heard a lighthearted chuckle coming from the room and Teri knew that she was in a good mood,

"Well, take it back and have your boss eat it along with his bogus tickets. If I have to collect ten of those things with every purchase then I better darn well get a full pizza for free instead of a meager slice." she shot back with ensuing laughter from both of them.

Teri opened the door and stepped into her room while closing the door behind her with a _creak_ and finally a _click!_ In her parents bedroom, it was less tidy than the other areas of the house, which was surprising seeing as their daughter was a complete neat freak. The room's floor was littered with papers, documents, mailing letters, and other important materials that somehow made it on the greyish carpet. Along the dresser was a cluttered mess of family photos and old heirlooms that they brought back from Japan like a mini Buddha statue that her father kept with him as a good luck charm. The bed where her parents slept was a tangled mess of bed sheets and an occasional pillow that somehow made its way to midsection of the mattress mainly because her parents were restless sleepers who would wake up in a manner of weird positions. She even used them to predict whether she was going to have a good day or not, whenever she got a chance to peek into their room.

And laying with a swath of sheets wrapped around her like some obscene blanket mummification, was Yui Pepakuma, who was peeking at her only daughter and child from underneath the covers with only one eye opened. She greeted her tiny child with a simple wave which Teri mirrored while she approached the bedside and sat down on the comfy mattress. The rounder paper bear didn't move, but kept staring at her as if in a slight daze, she must've been really tired from the night shift in her office,

"What's the matter, Teri-bear?" she quietly asked.

Inwardly, Teri rolled her eyes at the nickname her mother used and wondered why they insisted on using it nowadays. It was fine when she was nine, but she's almost thirteen now and she wanted a respectful title and not a baby name. However, the topic of her nicknames would have to wait as she wanted to let her mother know what she and Gumball were planning on doing,

"Nothing too dramatic, I just wanted to let you know that me and Gumball are going out to the grocery store to get some items for a cake we're baking." she explained, her airy voice rising a little as she thought about the concept again.

Her mother's thin mouth curved into a bemused smile and she chuckled in amusement. This was obviously something she found to be entertaining. Though she was curious as to why her daughter and very rowdy cat friend were doing such a creative activity that took up a lot of resources and time,

"Okay." she responded, reaching up and rubbing her other eye with the back of her hand until it was open and focused on Teri,

"Why are you and Gumball baking though? Is there a party going on that I'm not aware of?" she looked Teri in the eyes in order to read her emotions.

Teri elicited a small nod to confirm this before answering in a lowered voice to prevent from disturbing her too much,

"Kind of. There's a picnic that my friends are hosting in Elmore park that's happening at noon in order to celebrate the day off and we're making a cake to bring with us to the gathering." she replied, not sparing anything from her because she didn't like lying to her mother or leaving much of her daily activities out of her awareness.

Her mother and father worried about her a lot when she was out by herself and would even panic if they didn't know her whereabouts because she was so frail and they didn't want anything happening to her. Telling her these things was the result of a trusting bond they all shared ever since she was able to remember. One of the negative side effects of this though was through all the coddling they did to her whenever she was hurt or upset lead to her being rather self-centered and a bit of an attention seeker. She's trying to learn not to be so selfish, but old habits really do die hard.

Once again her mother showed a positive response when she heard that Teri was doing well with people she got along with. Yui was always happy to come home to her daughter's various stories about all the activities she was participating in at school such as marching band, music class, and cheerleading, especially cheerleading. While she was happy to hear that her beloved child was getting involved in creative activities, she was also worried about her relationships with the kids there. She got along with the other girls just fine, but she often heard about how she was usually reserved and didn't speak much when in a group. What made things worse was outside of school activities most of her friends were reluctant to hang out with her due to her "fascinating" quirks that lead others to get irritated with her.

She remembered receiving many phone calls from the school ranging from the school nurse to her class teacher at times, all complaining about her daughters various attempts at feigning illness. If that wasn't stressful enough, the very few times she brought her friends home from school, she could always tell from their expressions and interactions, even the way they spoke, that they were less than pleased to be there with her. It broke her heart especially when about a year ago, she brought home a friend of hers named "Masami" from school to spend the weekend with. The little cloud girl, whom she learned was actually the daughter of the Yoshida's, the owners of the prosperous Rainbow Factory company, stayed for literally half an hour before drifting out the door saying to her that her daughter was so difficult to deal with that she'd rather leave and never visit again. Teri was in tears that night and both her and her husband had stayed up all night comforting her.

It was rough dealing with all that on its own, with them being away at work more often and leaving Teri at home alone, her faking ailments in order to gain attention from everyone around her, and some of the kids being mean to her for her less than desirable attributes. Then after the start of the seventh grade, something had changed! After Teri had spent a Sunday night sleeping over at a friends house, she suddenly came home Monday evening with an injured leg while stating that she tore it while she and Gumball were hanging out. Ever since that day, she kept coming home to brand new stories about this Gumball Watterson kid and how he was really kind and helpful and how they would often discuss things together in class and on the bus. Following that, her introverted daughter began hanging out with Gumball even more and soon it became quite evident to Yui and Fukijima that Teri had found a friend that she could trust and be with that will make her happy.

It made her very happy to see her daughter get excited about an activity she could do with someone that became so close to her in a short span of time. Yui knew there was something more to that boy than Teri was letting her know about, but she could tell by the way her daughter has been acting lately, she was starting to develop more than just friendly feelings for the boy and she could see it within him too. She hoped this friendship would carry on to become something more.

"That sounds wonderful!" she commented cheerfully,

"I hope you two enjoy yourselves then because it sounds like a lot of fun, but do be careful, please." she said, looking at her little one with adoration and worry at the same time.

Not wanting to cause her mother any distress, Teri complied with her wishes and promised not to anything too risky. She then leaned over and gave her mother a hug, kissing her on the cheek and then receiving one on the forehead. Her mother rubbed the top of her head affectionately and looked at her in a sly manner,

"And also make sure that you and your boyfriend are only hugging and holding hands now, understood?" she said, her evil grin growing wider by the minute.

Teri felt her eyes widen in shock as she shot backwards away from her mother with a horrified look on her face,

"MOM! That's so gross, we're not even like that!" she whined, feeling her face burning up in a bright red hue.

Her mother was cackling with laughter at her daughter's hysterical reaction and laughed even harder when she tried covering the blush with her hands. It was a futile effort for the young Pepakuma, for there was no writing material or eraser on this planet that could cover her embarrassment. After a moment, the circular Pepakuma had managed to calm down enough to start speaking properly again.

"Okay, okay. You guys have fun, but remember: if you need to make the first move, just guide him into a secluded place and-!"

"BYE MOM, LOVE YOU!" she shouted this time, not caring if she was being impolite, as long as she could prevent her from finishing that particularly inappropriate sentence.

Bursting into laughter again, Yui watched as her little girl stormed her way out of the room with her face redder than before. She was fun to tease and was even funnier when Gumball was around: she'd never believe the two could radically switch color pallets with only a few lines uttered from her. Before she had a chance to close the door behind her, her mom called out her name, causing her to stop mid-shut and tilt a listening ear in her direction,

"I mean it, please be careful. I don't know what's happening in this town, but there have been a lot of accidents popping up around here. I just recently got news that a section of the incomplete highway bridge was destroyed by what appeared to be explosive devices." she warned.

She remained silent for a while because Teri knew all too well what she was referring to: yesterday's battle on the bridge, the one where her first plan nearly got her along with Gumball killed, where Gumball received all those injuries and retold the story to the others as a dog attack, and the place that was devastated by her carelessness. To the average person, all these events may appear to be random accidents or perhaps the deliberate acts of criminally insane people, but only she, Gumball, and Rob knew the real truth behind these bizarre events. One of the hardest things she's ever had to do in recent times was lie to her parents.

She knew why she had to do so, it was all to keep them from living in constant fear of their daughter's safety as well as their own. She wouldn't be able to protect Elmore if she was locked away in her room or worse, if they fled the country and took her with them. She heard from Gumball what is was like to be deliberately dishonest with the people he was close to and it was a feeling that they both shared as a pair. It felt really bad for her though because their family was built primarily on trust and being able to confide within each other about the events happening within their lives so they could look out for one another. Her mother and father became doctors because they wanted people to trust them with their lives and bring them through difficult times in their lives and she shared the same desire by wanting to become a nurse when she grew up.

Having to constantly lie about such horrible events felt like it was ripping a hole within her, metaphorically speaking, and what made it harder was that the more she continued to lie, the more and more she felt that this powerful, bonding trust was being worn away, bit by bit.

Putting on a brave face, she looked her mom directly in the eye and did her best to assure her that it was all going to be alright,

"I will. You won't have to worry about a thing." she promised.

Her mom studied her face for an instant before loosening up a little and was soon smiling once again. Teri couldn't help but feel assured by her mother's smile, despite the fact that it was _herself_ that was leaving. She knew her mother trusted her because she loved her and cared deeply for her, she was always going to be here when she got home or would always be coming back after helping her patients in the Elmore hospital.

She heard her mother say something to her while she was deep in thought,

"I love you, Teri." she said softly, her warmth and affection carrying on through those four words and the way she looked at her.

She smiled back at her, feeling her pain melt away for a moment as she embraced those words,

"I love you too, mom." and with one last wave, she exited the room and quietly closed the door behind her.

She leaned against the wooden structure as soon as the door was shut behind her and slumped against the wall: her heart heavy with guilt. She hoped that when this ongoing battle for survival was over, she could speak truthfully to them again and let go of this necessary evil. She sulked for a minute or two before getting up and heading on over to the kitchen, where Gumball was while keeping her parent's bedroom to her back.

Once she arrived in the kitchen, she quickly resumed her cheerful appearance and approached Gumball, who had just finished taking inventory, writing down a list of groceries, and was currently looking through his phone for certain cake recipes. Teri came to a stop by Gumball's side, watching the blue cat as he concentrated on picking between two different cakes that looked really good and manageable. She admired the way he looked while in deep thought, his eyebrows were all scrunched up, his blue eyes darting back and forth between the different objects listed, and his free hand resting on his chin while his index finger consistently tapped his lower lip. This was quite the spectacle for her because she never would've believed that someone could be so hard pressed in deciding what _cake_ they should make when to Teri, if they lacked cow products then any cake would have been suitable to her.

Gumball let out a frustrated groan as he rested his phone against his lap and he craned his head over to Teri,

"You know what? Just for you, I'll make a pun on a bun." he said, wiggling his eyebrows as he made his witty joke.

Forcing back a snicker, Teri pretended to glare angrily at him while shaking her head in disappointment,

"Seriously? I leave you to decide on what cake we should make and you give me a stupid pun?!" she was really trying to hold back her laughter now, but her cheeks were puffing and her face was turning red.

Gumball was very well aware of the effects of his lame dad jokes and pressed on despite knowing that something in this kitchen might wind up being lobbed at him,

"Okay, you're right, bad idea. How about _pun_ -kin _pi_? It's got 3.14 the percentage of actual humor and about 97% filler." he quipped, a smirk forming on his face as he pretended to air drum, adding a _ba-dum-tsh!_ sound effect for comedic effect.

Now Teri could no longer hold it in, the absolute lameness of the bakery puns was too much for her and she soon was sinking back against the counter, clutching her sides while she roared with laughter. She had to admit, his jokes, while lame, were always able to put a smile on her face and put her in a happy mood. It's like he had some kind of sixth sense that allowed him to detect whether she was stressed and knew just how to diffuse it. She felt blessed to be such close friends to this lovable dork!

Finishing up with her laughing fit, she got back up, reached over in to the sink, turned the faucet on, allowing the steady flow of water to run around her hand to soak it and then began flinging the water droplets at the humorous kitty. Feeling the droplets of water collide with his face and shoulders, Gumball immediately raised his arms in front of his face, hoping to repel Teri's new onslaught. He was giggling uncontrollably along with Teri, who was also cackling as she enacted her revenge for his stupid puns.

With one eye closed and a hand waving in front of him in order to ward off her attack, Gumball couldn't help himself to another sly slip,

"Augh! If you have something against my puns, then say it don't spray it!" he remarked, following up with more laughter.

With another fit of giggles, Teri flung even more water at him with greater ferocity and speed,

"Shut up! Your puns are lame and so are you!" she teased, laughing hysterically.

After a few minutes of a clearly one sided match, Gumball gave in and called for a truce. After relaxing for a moment, the now drenched cat boy pulled out his phone again and showed her the two cakes he was stuck on. Both were non-dairy and could be made with substitute items, however one was lemon flavored with white frosting and the other was a rainbow mix with chocolate frosting. Both seemed very good in Teri's eyes and found her mouth watering a little at sight at of such wonderful delicacies.

It didn't take her long to figure out which one she thought would look best at the picnic,

"The rainbow one!" she whispered, completely entranced by the swirling blues, pinks, reds, and violets that mashed together in a very exotic pattern.

Gumball just found himself chuckling at her choice and the hypnotic look in her eyes. He was actually leaning more towards the lemon flavored one because he liked the way the sweet and sour clashed (in his mind at least.), but after seeing how cute Teri looked when she chose the rainbow one, he knew he couldn't disagree with that face and went along with it. He pulled the phone away and tapped on the image with his thumb, pulling up the recipe right away,

"Figured you would've wanted to make that one." he remarked, with a slight tease,

"Good news is it only takes about two hours to make, plus prep time, so we're not too constricted here and the things we need are in a convenience store not too far from here, though we will have to take the bus." he said, carefully factoring in the time it takes to get to the store.

Teri understood what he was talking about without too much confusion. She knew where the store was because they would often pass by it on the route to school and it would take them a bit of time if they only walked. She was about to start heading out when she remembered something very important and was glad she caught herself before she had completely forgotten,

She whipped her head towards Gumball, who just looked on with slight curiosity,

"I forgot to ask, do you have any money? Because I don't at the moment?" she asked, feeling a little sorry for spending the last of her allowance on some more notebooks.

Looking at her with assurance, Gumball pat his pocket and nodded in her direction,

"Not a problem! Over the past few weeks I did some chores around the house and mom gave me a bit of an allowance. What I have should be enough." he explained.

Feeling relieved that they were set and prepared for their trip to the convenience store, the lanky, pre-teen girl began heading to her room, to go grab her things. Gumball figured what she was doing and followed soon after, wanting to be prepared for this trip in case something happens. He wondered if one of them should sleep sometime in the future, that way they could spot any new threats looming on the horizon. They had six hours to kill so, they should be able to work a nap in somewhere, he hoped at least. He mostly wished that no monsters would show up today at all or for them to just disappear entirely, but in times like these they had to be on their guard.

With their things eventually packed and ready to go, they both headed downstairs, finished their breakfast and were soon standing in front of the main doorway. Turning to her best friend standing beside her, she shot him a questioning glance,

"Ready?" she asked, placing a fragile hand on the door knob.

Gumball pointed towards the door and nodded,

"Let's get going." he replied.

She opened the door and the two were greeted with a blast of cool morning air that came blowing through the door. Outside, they could see that the sunlight was more visible at this point, casting the sky in a dark blue with shades of pink in the distance where the sun was rising. There were birds chirping in the trees that decorated the lawns of the various suburban houses and the sound of insects buzzing could also be heard. There weren't any cars driving by on the main road, making the place a bit quieter in Gumball's mind. It was a peaceful morning.

Leading the way, Gumball began heading towards the bus stop with Teri following closely behind.

 _-Rob's duplex, 7:12 AM-_

The strong, pungent smell of metal being welded together filled the bedroom of a certain cyclopean pre-teen, although this hardly bothered him one bit as his focus was entirely on the device in front of him. The place he intended on traveling to had a very hostile environment, but where there was peril and challenges, innovation could be found. His quest for knowledge can only succeed as long as he had the right tools: his brilliant mind, his diligent hands, and extraordinary foresight.

His desk was in the same shape as his room was, completely littered with pieces of machinery scavenged from the junkyard (or purchased online from sites that were legit and sometimes… from shady people.) and scattered blueprints for his various devices. However, at the center of his workspace was a most peculiar instrument: a smooth, box-like device fitted with a safety harness so it could be worn on the back of the wielder, covered in nozzles that pointed in several different directions for use as propulsion in an otherwise low-gravity environment. A few dials and gauges were welded to the side of the metal box with colored wires feeding into the device to give precise measurements on fuel and pressure.

Attached to the propulsion device via a thicker cable was a gun-like machine that was rather bulky in appearance, but was actually comprised of light weight materials such as titanium alloy, thus making it easy to wield. It was a deadly weapon created with a lot of time and commitment, with Rob often getting very little sleep nor even stopping to eat until it was finished. It was a computerized weapon that would carve runes onto copper pellets based on a command given from the cell phone strapped to his wrist before firing at a spiritual opponent. It was an effective weapon to be used against the Nephilim, and unlike Teri, Rob understood all five runes in his arsenal thanks to earlier experimentation.

His goal for today was to travel into the void, where all things are left once they are forgotten or when the universe recognizes it as a mistake, and see if he can retrieve any precious artifacts that have been lost to time. It was logical to believe that if runes were used to combat the Nephilim thousands of years ago, eventually being lost to the ages thanks to man's negligence, then he should be able to find them in the place where all discarded objects go and should be his for the taking. Such an opportunity should not go to waste, not when the Nephilim are invading and more power would be needed to fight them.

Then again, such power could be used for other purposes once the war was over.

Placing the plasma torch down, Rob lifted the mask that shielded his eye from the intense glare produced by the flame and gazed at his finished project. A satisfied smile crept onto his face as he admired it's perfection. Alas, he could now traverse the void with ease and with security to assist.

Pulling off the welding mask, he wiped his brow of the perspiration that had accumulated from the intense heat and from his narrow concentration,

"Finally." he sighed, standing up,

"Now all that's left to do is to head on over to the forest of doom." he muttered to himself.

He learned that the void portal shifted locations every once in a while, he couldn't explain why this was, but it always seemed to stay near Elmore. During the summer, he had constructed a scanning device that allowed him to locate the void portal thanks to a special type of energy the gateway emits. He figured he should start the developing process for a scanner that can trace the Nephilim portals, but faced a lot of barriers including: time, resources, the fact that the Nephilim's portals operate on another plane of existence, and that finding the Nephilim in a dream was the easiest option.

He was lucky that he didn't have to go to school and that he could sleep throughout most of the day, but he rarely worried about the Nephilim in Elmore thanks to the fact that Gumball and Teri were always on it before he could so much as prepare to set out to the destroy the monsters. He had to give them credit though, for a duo that used such archaic weapons and strategies they did get the job done and made an excellent team. He had been spying on them with his specialized drones that he kept in storage, but that was neither here nor there.

He was in the middle of packing his gear when he heard a sharp knock on the bedroom door before the handle turned and the door swung open. In stepped a highschool girl who was sixteen of age, had smooth cyan skin, fluffy, voluminous hair that went down her back and was a mixture of two different colors with the upper portion being lemon yellow and the bottom part being the color magenta. Her outfit was rather plain, adorning only a plain white T-shirt, a yellow skirt, white sneaks with two pink stripes on each, and a white headband sporting two yellow stripes. In her hand was a paper bag marked with the joyful burger logo and her expression seemed apathetic.

Rob huffed and continued to pack in his foil suit that he was going to wear into the void, pretending to not care for her presence,

"You know, Rachel, common courtesy says when you knock you should probably wait for someone to answer before entering." he muttered sarcastically.

The multi-colored girl scrunched up her face in anger and tossed the burger bag right at the disfigured cyclops, not too hard of course, and the soft object bounced off his polygonal head and landed on the ground with a thud. This didn't bother him one bit because he was used to the teenager's aggressive behavior, having lived with her for two months now and all. Actually, she wasn't really angry with him, this he knew because this was a common reaction to his snarky comments. He looked over at the discarded bag and then back at her, his single eyebrow raised in a way that indicated some confusion,

Rachel huffed and crossed her arms while she leered at him with her dark eyes,

"You've been cooped up in your room for the past two days and I've only seen you eat a bag of cheesy-squares this morning. You seriously need to take a break from your "mad science projects" and start functioning like a regular person." she remarked, answering his silent question,

"I got you two double ham slammers with some fries, although I ate the fries on the way back, so you have the burgers. I know it's not the healthiest of food, but it was the cheapest thing I could afford today." she said before twirling around and marching out the door to leave him in his privacy.

Now that she mentioned it, Rob did feel very hungry and with most of his concentration going into the trip, he had completely ignored the constant rumbling in his empty stomach. He looked down at the bag of cheap, processed and probably greasy food from the local fast food restaurant. He could smell the burnt ham and baked buns wafting up to his invisible nostrils ( **A/N: I know he doesn't have a nose, but Darwin doesn't either, yet he's been seen with nostrils in some scenes, plus my story so, yeah!** ) and he could already feel his mouth watering. He didn't feel tired yet, but he could most certainly take a meal break, for a brief moment of course.

He reached down, picked up the discarded bag, and walked over to his king sized bed that he bought at garage sale. Plopping down on the memory foam mattress, the lanky kid dug into his food and began scarfing down the burgers; finishing the small meal within a minute. Honestly, he was glad to have Rachel as a housemate, she was too good for him sometimes.

Two months ago, when he decided to visit the forgotten dimension for the first time in ages, he wondered the abnormal space for a little bit, searching for devious items to use to get his arch-nemesis to fight him again (Gumball's depression and lack of motivation actually upset him a little and he too wanted to see his hated enemy back on his feet and thwarting his plans once again because kicking a guy while he was down was not satisfying at all.) when he came across a bedroom from one of the houses in Elmore. Within it, he discovered Rachel Wilson, although at the time he didn't know her name, curled up on her bed and staring out the window. When he first approached her, she seemed rather frightened of him, but after assuring that he wouldn't hurt her, she became a bit more relaxed and soon warmed up to him.

After asking if she remembered anything about herself or her past, the only thing she could recall was her name and age, but nothing else. It became evidently clear that the universe had forgotten this poor girl or believed her to be a mistake and left her in the void like a discarded piece of trash in a universal landfill. Feeling a lot of sympathy for this person whom he'd just met, Rob asked her to come with him to the real world and she agreed, deciding that starting over from there would be a lot better than sitting there for all eternity.

Once they got back, Rob did everything in his power to help reunite Rachel with her family. However, tragedy struck when after searching through various records, the cyclops was able to pull up a couple documents detailing what appeared to be her little brother, Tobias Wilson, a seventh grade student at Elmore Junior high and what may have been her mother, Jackie Wilson, who resembled her in many ways except for her face and color. He brought the teenager over to her family's house, but upon meeting her parents they were shocked to see that they didn't recognize their own daughter and this forced the two to leave.

With her spirits crushed by the revelation that her parents didn't even remember her and treated her like an outcast, Rachel didn't even know where to start with her new, lonely life. Having been in her situation before, Rob felt the need to comfort the lost girl and decided to let her into his life. He'd managed to find a cheap apartment duplex to stay in and even somehow got the colorful girl enrolled in high school again, however some of it had to be paid for through some shady deals, seeing as he wasn't exactly eligible for a job yet and he could only resort to crime as a means to gain cash.

However, his crime filled life slowed down a bit when Rachel caught wind of it and managed to get a part time job to help cover for rent. Now the two of them lived comfortably with each other despite the odd living conditions being shared between a twelve year old and a sixteen year old. Sure, they got on each other's nerves sometimes and would often get into the most ridiculous fights over trivial matters, but she was good company to have and being with her made Rob feel less lonely. He didn't have any romantic feelings for her and neither she for him, but they had a steady friendship and were very comfortable living around one another. It actually took a surprisingly short amount of time for the two of them to get accustomed to one another's living arrangements and had even made a lot of good compromises when it came to working around the house.

Either way, he was happy to be living with the rainbow lass even when things would occasionally get rough between the two of them.

He crumpled up the paper bag along with the wax casings that held the burgers and tossed them into the wastebasket next to his desk, which was already starting to overflow with trash. He was probably going to have to empty that out soon, maybe tomorrow. Up on his feet once more, he finished packing and made his way to the exit.

The duplex they lived was small, but cozy, with two bedrooms, a medium sized bathroom, a kitchen that they rarely used, a living room where they spent a majority of their off time, and a backyard they shared with another family that lived downstairs. It didn't take him long to reach the living room where he spotted Rachel lying on the couch in front of the television, lazily watching her favorite drama while Rob passed on by. She decided to take the day off from high school simply because she believed that if the middle schoolers got the day off then why shouldn't she? Rob heard that some kind of fight broke out in the school yesterday and the reason none of the kids were attending today and tomorrow was because of the damages done to the building, but once Rachel made up her mind about something, there was no talking her out of it. He wasn't too worried though as he knew she was bright student and got good grades regardless of her absent days.

He gave her a small wave as he twisted the doorknob and pulled the door open,

"Later and thanks for the burgers!" he said, casting a curious glance in her direction.

Without looking away from the television set, the multi-colored girl waved back at him with a three fingered hand,

"See ya round!" she called back to him.

Adjusting the strap of his backpack around his his shoulder, Rob began to step outside the apartment, but was stopped when he heard Rachel calling his name. He quickly spun around and faced her with a slightly agitated and perplexed look,

"What?" he asked, peeking in at her.

She lazily lifted an arm an arm and pointed in his general with a finger, her eye were now resting on him,

"Could you grab a small pillow from the convenience store? Like, one of those fluffy animal ones? Recess is SOOOOOO boring at my school and I wanna sleep on the bench comfortably." she asked in response, giving him her cutest pleading smile she could muster.

Rob strained to keep his eye from rolling and just let out a little sigh instead,

"You know recess is where you're supposed to be active, socializing, and playing around right?" he remarked sarcastically.

Hearing his disapproval made Rachel pout and fold her arms in response. Rob knew she was actually going to use it so she could get some sleep during detention and did not condone this kind of behavior. He knew it made him sound like some kind of overbearing parent, but he actually did care about her and her grades, mostly due to his lack of academic success and not wanting to have her share the same fate as he.

He still stood his ground even as she began her retaliation,

"We do all that during Phys. Ed! Recess is just that time of day when we get to relax and chill out! What's wrong with catching a few Z's during a half hour period!" she shouted.

It was Rob's turn to cross his arms and look annoyed. He knew this was going to just escalate into a shouting match if he didn't diffuse the argument right away. Propping himself up against the door while glaring at his feisty teenage roommate, he spoke in a calm, sophisticated manner,

"You really need to actually go to bed when it's bedtime." he stated simply, ignoring the nasty look she gave him as a response,

"Your grades are amazing, but your teachers are not impressed by your behavior during class time, considering that you nod off during the lectures." he finished, feeling slightly better now that he got some concerns off his chest.

Rachel paused for a moment to stare at the T.V, as she contemplated her previous actions at school. She noticed that she had been dozing off as of lately and while her grades weren't suffering, it was the reason she would receive a harsh lecture and usually after school detention afterwards. Rob knew of this because during the school year he'd been masquerading as her guardian and had already attended a few parent-teacher conferences in just the first month of school.

However, her sleeping habits were a nightmare (mind the pun.) to deal with, she had a hard time falling asleep due to the many doubts regarding her identity and purpose in life after learning she had been tossed into the void because the universe had simply forgotten her and the only way to calm herself down was just to chat with some of the friends she had made recently in school on her phone. She knew spending all her nights messaging her friends wasn't healthy, but she had no clue how to deal with her anxiety induced insomnia. She hadn't told Rob about it yet because she was unsure as to whether or not he could help. She might be in need of therapy, but wasn't so sure of that either because how do you explain such a situation to a trained psychologist without sounding like you need to be tossed into the looney bin and heavily sedated for the next few months?

It seemed to her that there was just no easy way out of this and she wondered how long it'll be until her academic performances started suffering as a result. She even wondered how this would affect her current relationships with the people she considered her friends. She decided to quickly blow this off by retaliating in witty way,

"Well I don't doze off during all the important parts at least." she muttered with a little grin,

"Besides, you're one to talk, Frankenstein! You spent two days holed up in your room working on your doomsday project while muttering something about runes, gates, and monsters." she shot back while also using the nickname she gave him when she first learned that he was an inventor.

Not wanting to answer any uncomfortable questions, the disfigured mad scientist finally rolled his large, yellow eye before turning around and heading out the door. He quickly hollered out behind him,

"Later Rachel! I'll be bringing home some pasta shells since I know you love those so much!"

"Quit dodging my questions and have a good day! Also, don't forget about the pillow!" she hollered back somewhat jokingly.

He didn't answer her and shut the door behind him, leaving him with nothing but the silent morning in front of him. He noticed some clouds in the distance, but it didn't look too bad weather wise. Looking around he saw that none of his neighbors were out and doing their morning activities despite it being a weekday, which was strange at the very least but not concerning. He began strolling towards his dusty old metro sitting in the driveway, his mind drifting towards Rachel's question,

" _Man that was embarrassing!"_ he growled inwardly,

" _I really hate it when she brings stuff like that up. Ugh, this Nephilim fighting thing is so irritating when you and two other people are the only ones who can see them. I really wish I could talk to her about it, but that would just make things even more stressful than they already are."_

He wasn't sure if Rachel was aware of it or not, but he understood that she was going through some stressful times at the moment. A couple weeks before the first Nephilim showed up in this little town, he snuck out of his room to get a glass of milk late one night and heard her crying in her bedroom. When he listened to her through the closed door he could hear her weeping to herself and complaining about how she didn't know who she was anymore and if the universe was going to erase her again, this time for good. Hearing all that really upset him and struck him with a feeling he'd never felt in a long time: _sympathy._

He understood all those fears and insecurities that she was feeling because he had felt those things before as well. He remembered his first few weeks back from the void and how he was a complete wreck. With no trace of his past self, coupled with a deformed body, he constantly hid from everybody, fearing any sort of judgement that may come from anyone unfortunate enough to spot him. And then, when he found out the true nature of the void, he found himself spiraling down into a deeper depression, knowing that the universe had no love for him and even considered him a mistake. Even when given a new purpose by Gumball and Darwin he still felt that nagging bit of loneliness bite at him from within as he knew that no one could share or understand the pain he had felt in those bitter times.

Until he met Rachel, an innocent just like him, cast out by unforgiving gods and was recovering from the reality that she was forced to endure. This was why he did everything in his power to make sure she was as happy and as stress free as possible, he knew there were some things she would have to face on her own, but he could definitely help by easing her pain. She had the benefit of retaining her appearance before the void, unlike him, and a shot at getting a decent life.

As for him, he knew what he wanted and was pushing towards that goal. Without a degree, it was going to be rather difficult for him to get by, but there were many options left open for him to grasp. For now, he had his list of obstacles that he needed to clear before he could focus on those prospects.

Popping the trunk, he placed his bag into the storage space and slammed the lid shut. He glanced at his mismatching hands for a moment, reflecting on his current condition and how it compared to others. His own troubled past seemed so trivial now, with all that's happened in the past couple of months, and for whatever reason, this made him feel slightly more comfortable with himself. Maybe it was because he felt as though he had a greater purpose that helped negate the loneliness and despair that nagged at him? Possibly.

Within a few paces, he soon found himself sliding into the driver's seat of the decrepit vehicle and soon had the key within the ignition. Giving it a twist, the engine roared to life and the car was soon vibrating with life. Feeling satisfied with the noise, the brown haired kid placed one hand on the wheel and used the other to switch the vehicle in reverse. As the car pulled out of the narrow driveway that ran along the tiny apartment complex, Rob's mind began to drift towards certain ideas,

" _I don't know what I will find in that forsaken place, but any knowledge gained will be more than enough. Knowledge is power after all!"_ he thought with amusement as a smirk slowly etched itself on his flat, pentagonal face.

He soon found himself out of the driveway and rolling onto the street leading him out of the suburbs. He put the metro on drive and pressed down on the gas, feeling the car lurch forward as it began accelerating in said direction. The forest of doom was about an hour away from his current location and he was really coming to appreciate the driving skills he acquired a while back. He actually wished that he could bring Rachel along on trips like these and just cruise along for a little while, just him and her,

" _Maybe on a weekend when things aren't so hectic or busy."_ he thought to himself with slight promise.

Looking out the window, he could see that the sun was really creeping out from beyond the horizon, making way for a beautiful dawn and possibly a wonderful day to follow. He figured he had nothing to worry about, seeing as both Gumball and Teri had today and tomorrow off, they'd probably take care of any Nephilim that have the nerve to show up on such a wonderful day. If there were any nearby in his general vicinity, he'd deal with them personally as he was opportunistic, not lazy. He also did have a deep seated hatred for the vile spirits for attacking Elmore and it's citizens when that was clearly _his_ job. Nobody likes a wannabe who can't even be original. He did want to know their actual motivations for attacking though and hoped to gain more intel on that subject while going about his travels.

The more he thought of his mission, the more hopeful he got. Soon he was grinning from ear-to-ear at the possibilities of what lies within that space,

" _What if I find powers that go beyond what I carry and beyond comprehension! What if I find a way to defeat the Nephilim quickly and perhaps find something that goes beyond this meager existence of humans, Bizarros, and Nephilim!"_ all these wild thoughts and fascinations spun through his head like an unwieldy hurricane, but one thought brought an even bigger smile to his face,

" _What if I find a way to repair the damage done to Rachel and I from the void."_

That question, that single thought, lit a spark within him that would gradually grow into an all-consuming blaze of hope and unyielding perseverance. He now knew what had to be done and by whatever god's grace, he will not stop until he completed his goal, until he had saved Rachel and himself. He considered this quiet little drive towards a deadly forest housing unknown and terrifying secrets on a beautiful day to be the catalyst of the greatest journey that he will embark on.

The metro continued to cruise along the many streets of Elmore, with its sole occupant feeling absolutely satisfied with the free hour he was given to think.

 _-Teri's house, 7:32 AM-_

Gumball watched as the colorful batter slowly spilled out from the mixing bowl and into the empty baking pan. It was really thick and goopy, so it took its sweet (can't stop with the puns!) time to allow gravity to pull it from one container to another. It looked really bizarre, like some kind rainbow science experiment gone wrong, as it was mostly pink with bits of velvet and blue splotches here and there throughout the mixture. According to the reviews it was supposed to taste like a berry mix, but Gumball and Teri wouldn't know until they actually try it out themselves. It did smell good though, so the two bakers were fairly confident that they followed the recipe right. There was a bit of confusion when it came to adding the flavors and the food dye which was why the colors weren't as well distributed as the picture had shown, but it didn't look as though it would be too much of an issue.

After a painstaking minute and a half, most of the batter had been dropped into the baking pan, with Teri scraping out any leftover residue with the wooden spoon they used for mixing. With the oven slowly heating up, Gumball lifted the loaded pan and slid the mixture into the slightly warm container, closing the hatch as soon as the pan was resting on the shelf within. Sliding off the oven mitts and placing them on the counter, he turned to Teri, who was licking the batter off of the spoon,

"Well, that does it for that! The recipe instructs us to wait an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes before popping our delicious baby out." he chirped happily.

Teri gave the spoon another lick before moaning in satisfaction, a look of content written all over her expression,

"Mmm-hmm-hmm. Maybe we should just bring over the batter instead because this is wonderful." she said, her taste buds swimming in delight.

Chuckling in amusement, Gumball grabbed the mixing bowl and ran his finger through it, which didn't bother Teri too much seeing as he did good job of cleaning his paws, and placed the now batter covered digit into his mouth and lapped the creamy mix off with his tongue. His mouth exploded with various berry flavors that clashed in wondrous ways all over his tongue. He too found himself moaning in pleasure as he withdrew his finger from his mouth,

"Heh, heh, that would be great, but I think the cake would be better. We can bring the bowl and spoon for everyone else to have a lick!" he jokingly suggested.

"Ewww! So gross!" Teri groaned in disgust that was soon followed by some laughter seeing as Gumball's was so infectious. The paper girl turned to him and waved the spoon at his face, like a police officer waving a baton at a criminal,

"For that remark you're not getting another lick!" she stated, enacting it like it was a capital punishment.

Feeling his inner drama queen and sarcasm bubbling up from within, Gumball let out a dramatic gasp, feigning betrayal and hurt with his wide eyes, and clutching at his heart as he dropped to his knees. Teri watched the dorky cat's over-the-top display of fake hurt with amusement and didn't even bother to hide the smile that was brought to her face or to stifle the giggle that escaped her lips. Gumball continued with his "captivating and heartfelt" performance by letting out a fake sob as he reached his hand out towards the paper girl in front of him,

"But madame!" he sobbed with a horrible French accent,

"How can ah receive your forgiveness if you will not allow moi to get _batter_!" he snarked, trying to hide the snicker as well as prepare for what was to come next.

It was just as bad as he thought it was, and by bad, he meant hilarious. Teri's reaction went from humorous to downright disgust as she reached on to the counter, retrieved the oven mitt that Gumball had set there and began repeatedly swatting him upside the head (lightly.) with the floppy piece of protective wear,

"What. did. I. say. about. PUNS!" she laughed as she continued to swat at him causing him, as usual, to laugh even harder and try his hardest to annoy her more.

He spotted his opportunity to hit her with another pun and something else that would get quite a reaction from the offended paper cut out girl. Standing on his feet once more while using his arms to deflect all incoming attacks from her, Gumball spoke up,

"That I'll taste your fury." he answered.

This caused the paper girl to stop with her simple strike and stare at the blue cat perplexed,

"Hmm, that's weird? I thought you were going to make another pun or some other lame attempt at-?!" she halted mid-sentence when she witnessed what Gumball did next.

While she spoke, he leaned forward and licked the spoon she was holding. As quickly as he did, he snapped back into position and smacked his lips a little as he savored the taste of the cake batter. He formed a sly smirk as he stared at her deviously while her eyes widened in shock at the sudden stunt he just pulled,

"Interesting! Fury tastes like raspberry." he remarked with satisfaction.

Teri had to admit, she didn't see that one coming and it was pretty clever on his part, heck, she didn't even think that he would do it despite the fact that that's _exactly_ something he would do. Sadly, his cleverness wasn't going to save him from the can of hurt she was about to whip out on him. She began swatting his head slightly harder than before, catching the boy off guard even with prior knowledge of this particular outcome as he tried jumping back.

However, Teri Pepakuma will not let him off that easily. She continued to attack him the harmless strikes with the mitt in hand as she playfully shouted at him,

"Oh no! You're not leaving until I serve you a good can of whoop butt! After that, we'll talk about dessert!" and with that, her punishment continued.

Gumball tried to evade her wrath by running away, but she relentlessly pursued the shrieking boy until she chased him all the way up to her room where she had him cornered. The two kids then engaged in a friendly tickling match (with Gumball going really easy on her because he didn't want to rip her accidentally.) on the floor which then moved to her bed until they eventually stopped. Out of breath from romping around and from continuous laughter, they both just lay next to each other while staring at the ceiling.

They were both really close to one another now, with their arms brushing and the heat from their little match radiating from their bodies that could be felt by either person. For a few moments, all that could be heard in the room was their heavy breathing and rapid heartbeats as they calmed down from such an active few moments. Gumball eventually allowed his head to turn to his companion, who felt his movement and also turned in response, although she actually had to lift her flat head in order to see him. He smiled at her as he looked into her eyes for a moment feeling more warmth spread into him when she repeated his actions. Right now, all they cared about was just how pleasant this moment felt to both of them and they continued to admire each other for a few more moments.

Upon realizing how long he had been staring at her, Gumball snapped out of his daze and looked back up at the ceiling,

"Um, since we have about an hour until the cake is done, you wanna go on a walk with me? It's very nice out!" he asked, quickly stealing a glance towards the window while refusing to look at Teri for fear of possibly blushing when he saw her face again, _"what is wrong with me?"_ he wondered.

Teri, who was also looking away out of embarrassment from realizing that she had just gotten lost in Gumball's eyes, _"seriously! His eyes!? This has never happened before! What the heck is going on with me?"_ her mental self questioned while she quickly formulated a response to his question,

"U-uh, yeah, definitely, I was actually just about to suggest that myself." she nervously responded, hoping that he didn't catch the skittishness ever so present in her voice.

Actually, she really wanted to stay here, in her room with Gumball, not really doing anything, just relaxing and lying next to him while they talked about what was on their minds. It sounded really pleasant and she suddenly became very aware of Gumball's arm brushing against her own. Soon it was all she was fixated on, the rough, yet warm, fuzzy feel of his sweater on her bare, paper arm as well as the possibility of his furry little paw enclosed within her hand… okay maybe a walk was a good idea after all.

She quickly sat up on her bed, clearing her head of these strange, pleasant thoughts and felt Gumball rise up next to her. She looked at his kitty face and noticed something different: he was now carefully avoiding making eye contact with her at all, heck, he wasn't even looking at her, and he looked rather… upset about something, but it didn't appear negative from what she could see in his eyes. Curious about the emotional state her close friend was in, she leaned in until she could see his face clearly,

"Something wrong, Gumball?" she asked, looking him in the eye again, only this time trying her best to maintain her focus.

He jumped a little at the sound of her wispy voice and he found himself looking directly at her with surprise written all over his face,

"Oh, no, just thinking about something, that's all!" he quickly explained, feeling his excitement simmer down as soon as he cleared his head of certain thoughts concerning the girl talking to him.

Hearing his answer and seeing his troubled expression melt back into his goofy, confident one, Teri felt relieved that everything seemed to be all right and formed a small, grateful smile. She thought about touching his shoulder as a sign of comfort, but she didn't see any reason to and opted instead to stand up and offer a hand to him. He first stared at the extended appendage as though it were a hundred bucks being handed to him and then back at her with a wide-eyed expression filled with surprise and something akin to joy. He grabbed her hand, sending a small spark that traveled throughout her body at the sudden contact, and pulled himself up.

"There's a nice, quiet section of the city several blocks down that actually housed an industrial center for Elmore back in the 1800's. It's been shut down for several decades so it's mostly empty and abandoned." she suggested, feeling like it was a good area to spend some time in.

Gumball felt his eyes light up like diamonds at the suggestion of such a place and found himself agreeing rather quickly,

"Yeah, that sounds pretty good. Nothing says scenic like a bunch of abandoned warehouses and factories left to time and ruin by human neglect and-!" he was already allowing his sarcasm to leak out when Teri stopped him.

"I get it!" she snapped sternly, looking down to realize that she was still holding Gumball's paw and quickly retracted it in order to place it on her hip,

"I said I liked it because it was quiet, not because it was pretty." she scoffed at him.

Gumball was about to say something else that would have been even more sarcastic, but he held his tongue. Right now was just a time to head on out and enjoy the morning air without having to be anywhere, just enjoy the time they had at the moment. He nodded in silent agreement causing Teri to spin about on her heel and march out of her room with Gumball in pursuit. He quickly remembered to grab his bag and hers from her bedroom just to keep with them for the sake of safety. They left their bags there when they went to the convenience store and he found that he had been on edge during the entire trip for the fear of what may happen.

Once downstairs, Gumball and Teri quickly checked on the cake that was sitting in the oven and saw that they still had quite a bit of time before it was finished. With that knowledge in hand, the two kids left the house and made their way down the street once more. It was brighter outside today and the weather didn't seem to show any drastic signs of changing, which was all the better for the two.

While walking past several neighboring houses on the block, Gumball turned his head in Teri's direction, remembering that he had something he wanted to say to her,

"Thanks for having me over today and yesterday as well!" he exclaimed, showing his pearly whites in another big smile.

With a half smile on her face she turned to the kitten with a look that mixed both happiness and confusion,

"You're welcome, I enjoy having you here. Why the sudden thanks?" she asked, still feeling content with his appreciation for her hospitality.

Arching an arm back, he placed a paw on the back of his neck, and rubbed it nervously all the while averting his gaze from her face. He knew why he was thankful for being here with her, but the moment she asked he suddenly felt tongue-tied and very skittish. In a sheepish voice he answered her question,

"I, uh, just really like being with you, that's all. These past few weeks, you've been really nice, supportive, and a good friend, as a matter of fact, I think it's because of you that I'm getting better. You pulled me out of a bad situation I was in and I can't seem to thank you enough for all of that. So, yeah, thank you for all that and for letting me stay with you yesterday evening and today, I honestly couldn't ask for a better way to spend a day of no school." with that, he dug his hands in his pockets and looked down at the sidewalk with a slight red hue on his face. He still had no clue why he did that.

Astonished, Teri felt her mouth hang open for a brief moment before she closed it again. Where did all that come from? She didn't hate his explanation or think of it as weird, she actually thought it was very sweet, but she had no idea how much he actually saw in her until now. She had been very well aware of his gradual change in behavior since that one night and also noted that he seemed to be spending more time with her, even when there wasn't much to talk about between the two of them. She was completely surprised to learn that she was the one responsible for his positive changes.

She found herself fidgeting again as she struggled to find the right words to say,

"Oh! Well… thank you so much for that. I'm glad that you consider me such a good friend and what you said was very touching. I'm happy to be your friend too and I'm also glad you are mine as well. I feel like ever since you started hanging out with me that I have been gaining more confidence in myself and also you make me feel less lonely. I was overjoyed when you said you wanted to hang out with me yesterday and I am very glad you are with me right now." she said with a wobbly smile, fearing that she may have sounded a little cheesy.

Good thing was, Gumball believed everything she said was genuine and found his heart fluttering while she spoke. Of all the things that had happened so far today, this was another one of those moments he enjoyed. He was thankful that he could trust Teri with his feelings and that she was able to do the same. He was really happy and lucky to have her come to his house that fateful night when he was at his lowest.

With all these positive feelings bubbling from within, Gumball turned to her with a cheery expression that caused the paper girl to become plagued with the same feeling he was displaying,

"What's with that look?" Teri giggled, her face turning red.

"I don't know!" Gumball answered, his face now on fire as well,

"You're the one who got me feeling this way." he now found himself laughing as well.

"I so did not! You're the one in control of your emotions, you dork!" Teri defended herself, although now her face was so red that she had to look away in order to keep him from seeing.

Gumball noticed her actions and found it adorable,

"Well, seeing as you gave me this energized feeling, let's hurry on over to the industrial section!" he eagerly exclaimed.

And with that, he grabbed her by the hand and began tugging her in the direction they were still heading in, speeding up their progress a bit. Again, Teri noticed the blue cat grabbing her by the hand despite the several times she told him not to, but this time she didn't mind it as much. She was way too happy to even care about that now,

"I'm still going to tell you that your overly positive emotions are your fault seeing as you're the one who started this conversation by thanking me!" she said, now looking at him with a smile still plastered on her face,

"But seeing as your gladsome attitude is contagious…"

She tightened her grip on his hand and immediately took off in a sprint, dragging the now astonished Watterson child along,

"...let's go have some fun!" she exclaimed, turning her head to him with amusement twinkling in her eyes and her smile.

Now it was Gumball's turn to be caught completely off guard with her sporadic action, but he didn't mind the sudden change in the usually shy girl's behavior,

"Never thought you to be one who was impulsive!" he exclaimed with a cheeky grin.

Teri let out an excited laugh and continued running, blaming him for rubbing his bad behavior off on her. The two continued to tease each other playfully as they made their way through the neighborhood, surprising many people who knew Teri and were now shocked to see the once reserved Pepakuma child now tearing down the sidewalk with a mischievous cat in tow. What was the world coming to? All this didn't matter to the two children as they were too caught up in the moment together and continued to go about their fantastic day.

 _-Carrie's house, 7:40 AM-_

"If you don't like the film, we can watch something else." Carrie stated, looking down at Darwin, who was currently lying down on the floor in front of her bed with his head turned in the direction of her door.

Darwin pulled his knees up to his face, trying to hide the fear that was ever so present in his widened eyes and quivering lips. Truth be told, he wasn't really a fan of horror films to begin with (he did make an exception for cheesy ones though.) and the film he and his horror obsessed girlfriend were currently watching, _Ryan Maverick vs. the evil undead dragon army of the demon apocalypse king_ , was definitely one of those films he'd rather block out while it was playing. Regardless of how he was feeling though, he knew that Carrie had been waiting for this film to be released in the local video rental store and even got up early to beat the line so she could purchase it and didn't want to let her down because he simply didn't like it.

He pulled his legs further in and tried to block out the gruesome sounds coming from the TV speakers with happy thoughts,

"Nah, It's cool! I'll just stay down here and, uh, think about other things." he responded in a squeaky, small voice.

Looking down at the shivering orange fish from the edge of her bed, Carrie could tell he was lying and was just trying to make some kind of compromise so she could be happy. As sweet as that sounded, Carrie didn't really like that kind of attitude because he was just making himself suffer needlessly because he believed she would somehow be better off if he did. She was glad that he was thinking about her and her feelings, but this was unacceptable, plus she was capable of compromising too.

Reaching over to the corner of her massive mattress, the little spirit grabbed the remote and with several clicks of a button, she lowered the volume of the speakers. Immediately taking notice of the sudden change in volume within the room, Darwin sat up, looked at the television set, immediately looked away in regret at seeing yet another gruesome image, and turned his wide eyed expression towards the only person who could be responsible for the decrease in sound. Upon seeing Carrie staring in his general direction, the walking goldfish raised an eyebrow in suspicion and shot her a silent question.

Now having gained his attention, Carrie moved over and patted the spot next to her with her hand,

"Come sit next me." she ordered, giving him a soft smile that let him know she wanted him there.

Confused, Darwin pointed at the TV with a single fin and spoke in an unsure tone,

"Uh, you sure you don't want to…" he trailed off when he saw her patting the blanket again with her translucent hand.

She kept her soft smile, but her visible eye seemed to indicate her seriousness,

"Come on, I wanna talk to you. I can still watch the movie while speaking and I don't want you to be bored or miserable." she said, her voice filled with traceable amounts of concern.

Darwin was about to counter by saying that he was fine as long she was enjoying herself, but one look at her face and he knew that this was what she wanted. She was more perceptive than she let on and it actually made Darwin glad that she was like that because it made her more understanding and compassionate towards others. Without another word of resistance, Darwin crawled onto the queen sized bed and nestled himself in beside her until he was flat on his stomach. There was very little space between the ghost and the fish, but that didn't bother them because they were comfortable with each other.

As soon as he felt comfortable, he began talking to her while the screen flickered with various colors in front of them,

"Thank you." he said bashfully, feeling kind of silly for not just talking to her about the film.

Understanding what he was referring to, the emo ghost just brushed it off lightly and chuckled a little,

"No problem." she returned before moving on to another subject,

"Got any plans for after the picnic?" she asked.

Both she and Darwin had gotten the mass text from Alan and Carmen this morning at around the same time and Darwin immediately made his way over to Carrie's ruinous mansion so that they could talk about it. They both decided to just buy chips for the gathering seeing as they were both not really up for baking anything and planned on just chilling out with their friends once they had arrived, although Carrie said she was going to be sticking real close to Darwin because she was going to need a body to eat some of the food. Darwin agreed only on the condition that she didn't go crazy and eat all the food and she promised to control herself as best as possible.

They didn't know how long the event was said to last, but seeing as it was starting at noon, it would probably end at around two or three depending on what people had planned for today. Darwin decided to go with the safest answer seeing as there were a lot of uncertainties regarding today,

"It depends on how long the picnic will be and how much _we_ eat." he replied, giving her a sassy stare when emphasizing _we_. She stuck her tongue out at him in response.

"If it wraps rather early, I was thinking we could go hang out at the mall or wherever you feel like we should go. I don't really have any actual plans after the picnic to be honest." he shrugged, letting her know that it didn't matter either way.

She made a cute little frown at him and lightly shoved him after he gave his honest opinion on the subject. The shove achieved nothing as her hand just sunk into his side, you know, for such a small fish he had an unusual amount of blubber. However, it did make Darwin smirk a little because he always liked it when Carrie got playful,

"You're so boring." she teased, a pout making itself present on her partially hidden face,

"Leaving me in charge to plan our two extra days off, eh? I guess I would just like to hang out at the graveyard after the picnic is over." she took a gander at her window and saw that it was bright and sunny out,

"Although I do wish there was a little more cloud cover." she grumbled, not taking to the sunshine very well.

Back then, Darwin would often avoid the graveyard along with his brother and sister whenever they came across it, but now, he wasn't as scared as he was back then because of Carrie. It was actually because of Carrie that Darwin stopped seeing cemeteries as scary places anymore. On a glorious day like this, Darwin wouldn't mind hanging out amongst the tombstones with his lovely spirit as a means to pass time, maybe they'll listen to music while they're there too, which would be nice in Darwin's mind.

He let out a little grunt that indicated he agreed and added in,

"You wanna listen to some songs on my phone while we're there?" he decided to ask since it was on his mind.

Carrie shrugged and gave a slight nod in his direction, not really showing a whole lot of emotion,

"Sure, I'm down with it." she agreed, although she sounded indifferent.

After she gave the confirmation he was waiting for, Darwin nodded and rested his head on his fins while he stared at all the punk rock posters that decorated his hard-core loved one's room along with all the other mysterious items that filled the shelves on the wall. After a few minutes of silence, he slowly draped a fin over her back and pulled her in closer to him. She blushed at the comfortable contact and turned to peck him on the cheek, which wasn't too difficult due to how close he was now. Afterwards, she floated up and towards the back of the bed where her pillow was and rested her oval shaped head against it. She then invited Darwin to sit next to her with a simple hand wave and the little fish practically leapt over to where she was, causing the mattress to bounce and her with it. After having a few laughing fits, the two began cuddling with each other with Carrie watching what remained of her film and Darwin nestling his face within the crook of her neck in order to avoid watching the film. She felt really soft, there wasn't any warmth because she was a ghost, but that didn't matter to him because he loved how she felt. She also smelled really nice too.

A few minutes of peaceful silence passed on by and Carrie swore that Darwin was about to doze off right then and there. Then again, she couldn't blame him for she was absolutely comfortable like this and with him being there, the idea of just falling asleep next to her lovable, level-headed, pure-hearted, goofy, and softie of a boyfriend was very tempting. Actually, a nap may be a good way to pass the time once the film was over and so Carrie was set on catching a few Z's after she finished watching the somewhat corny horror flick.

Unfortunately, the moment was kind of ruined when she noticed a familiar, white, fluffy head poke it's way into her room. Moving quickly, Carrie sat up (kind of.), causing Darwin to jolt upwards all wide eyed and bushy tailed while Carrie used her telekinesis to draw the remote towards her from its resting spot and she paused the movie. She quickly turned her head towards the door and used her other hand to move her bangs away from her other eye as she used both of them get a better look at the grinning intruder,

"Dad?" she said in a questioning tone that sounded both embarrassed and angered at the same time.

Shocked, Darwin twisted his head until his view panned from Carrie's surprised form to her ghostly dad standing in the doorway. Like Carrie, he was a transparent entity with black, empty eyes, snow white skin and a wispy tail instead of legs. However, unlike his girlfriend, Vladus Lokowitchki had a more humanoid appearance than that of his daughter with a broad upper body and noodly arms, all of which was covered in a heavy, buttoned up grey-brown trench coat. On his head was a cap that matched the color of his coat giving him the look of a classic, scruffy sailor which was actually quite possible given the time period he must have lived in before he met Carrie's mother.

He greeted the two with a silly smirk that revealed his pearly white gates and kind, tired eyes that had bags under them,

"Hey you two! Hope I'm not interruptin' anything?" he greeted in a sly, friendly tone with his gravelly, yet gentle voice.

Carrie felt herself blush a little bit when he indirectly brought up their cuddle session and really wished that he wasn't ghost so he couldn't silently make his way upstairs and phase through her door like that. She knew he could be a bit of joker sometimes, but for most of the time he was usually quiet around her and anyone who came over. He wasn't shy by any means, just a quiet person in general, but every time he pulled one of his pranks it was always unexpected and came completely out of nowhere.

Darwin, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind his intrusion and waved cheerfully at the old ghost,

"Hello Mr. Lokowitchki! You weren't interrupting anything and also, how are you doing?" he greeted pleasantly. It had taken him a while to remember and pronounce his full name and was glad it could roll off his tongue now.

"I guess you can say I'm doing alright for a ghost that was once cursed for hundreds of years." he responded, using his usual quip whenever he greeted one of the Watterson boys. It was his weird way of thanking them for helping him get free of the Limbo he was trapped in after he used a spell that resulted in said fate.

He turned to Carrie once again, this time with a serious look that decorated his bearded face lightly,

"Carrie, I came up here because I just remembered that you and me are going to be travelling to Transylvania tomorrow to visit some relatives and that we're going to be leaving first thing in the morning. There'll be no need to pack anything because we're only going to be there for about an hour or two." he explained, placing both hands in his pockets as he drifted a little further into the room.

Carrie nodded as soon as he finished explaining and thought about specific things regarding tomorrow's trip to Romania. She was a little nervous about visiting the relatives on her dad's side of the family because she had never met them before. She also didn't hear much about them from her father because he was always so silent and only mentioned them recently when he spoke of the trip four days ago while she was hanging out in the living room listening to music and doing her homework that she had forgotten to finish on Friday. She formulated a few questions that had been nervously floating around her head the moment he brought up the trip,

"Do I Have to look nice or behave in a certain way when I'm interacting with them?" she asked, knowing full well that most of the people who appreciated her punk rock style were the people closest to her and the ones who knew her well.

With a subtle shake of his head, Vlad indicated that such things were unnecessary for this family reunion,

"I reckon you don't have to. We're only going to be there for a short period of time and that's pretty much just to say hello. Besides, I'd like to show them what my baby girl is really like." he said warmly, giving her a gentle smile.

Carrie smiled back appreciatively, feeling thankful that she didn't have to pretend to be someone else in order to avoid harsh judgement from other people who didn't even know her. A moment later, Vlad paused and scratched his scraggly beard as if he were remembering something important. It eventually came back to him and he quickly snapped his head back at Carrie, who was now surprised at his odd movements,

"Oh yeah, if memory serves me right, you should be wary of your aunt Charlotte, she's a bit stiff and not in the dead sense and also, watch out for your cousin Wilhelm, if you value your sanity don't bring up the war of Spanish succession, he's still a bit salty for joining the losing side and getting his head lopped off by another soldier." he pointed out.

Carrie mentally noted what he said and decided beforehand to avoid those people as much as possible.

Hearing the conversation, Darwin found himself to be rather ecstatic! He was actually a big fan of travelling to new places and enjoyed hearing stories from friends and relatives who had gone to new and exciting places. Romania was another one of those places he thought was rather interesting and wanted to visit in order to scratch off his bucket list.

Jumping up on the bed, startling both Carrie and Vlad who had been too enveloped in their conversation and completely forgot that there was another person in the room, Darwin gasped in amazement,

"Oh my gosh, that is so cool! I heard about Transylvania in a few books that I've read! Is it true that Dracula lives there?" he exclaimed excitedly, that being the first question amongst many.

At first, not a word was uttered from the two ghosts until Vlad let out an amused chuckle at the fishboy's excitement and bizarre questions,

"Fraid' not my boy!" he said with a grin,

"Although there are vampires living in the city, although that's nothing compared to that one group of bears that came from Norway that got lost because they were trying to trade some fur in Rome, but got on the wrong ship because it said Romania! You should've seen the confusion written on their faces when the Romanian's weren't responding to their Italian dialect. Good thing I had sailed the world for a while and had picked up on a few languages and was able to help them out. They were actually really good company." he explained with a reminiscent smile. You could practically see the nostalgia flooding his eyes.

And with that, Carrie's ghostly father pivoted towards the door and flew towards the exit, turning his head until he could see the two of them out of the corner of his empty eyes,

"Anyway, that's all I came up here to talk about and I don't want to bore you with my old stories." he said with a tip of his cap before he vanished through the door,

"I'll be downstairs in the living room if you need me. You two enjoy your make out session!" he called out from the other side of the wooden door.

Carrie shot straight up with an annoyed look on her face as she cupped her hands around her mouth and called back to him,

"Whatever, and you're not funny either!" she snapped.

All that came back was a simple _hee-hee!_

Somewhat flustered by her dad's suggestive comments about her activities with Darwin, Carrie turned around, floated back to where her boyfriend was and laid back down on her pillow while she used her supernatural powers to unpause the movie. Darwin had to admit that the scene was a little funny, but did his best to hide his snickers as he sat down besides Carrie and nestled himself back into a comfortable position. There was a bit of a heavy silence in the air as the two sat by each other, one staring mindlessly at the flashing screen while the other examined a poster with the rock band, _Broken Asylum_ pictured on the front with four ripped, demonic-looking dudes all decked out in leather and metal studs playing guitars and drums that matched their color schemes.

Finally Darwin decided to break the ice with a joke he just thought up,

"Wanna make out?" he suggested, turning to her and raising his eyebrows several times in a lude fashion.

Carrie slowly turned her head in his direction once, delivered an icy glare from her eye, before turning back to the screen and crossing her arms,

"Your sense of humor has just dropped to the lowest level of tasteless humor. A level we simply refer to as "dad", so congratulations!" she growled, although she knew he was just pulling her leg.

Darwin felt another snicker escape him and he shook his head slightly before jumping on to the subject he actually wanted to talk about,

"Well, seeing your family in Transylvania sounds really exciting. Aren't you excited?" he asked, now actually curious seeing as she didn't really give out much of a reaction when Vlad announced the trip.

Feeling rather mixed about the family reunion, Carrie didn't feel as though she could give Darwin an accurate answer in regards to how she feels about it. On the one hand, going on a trip and actually doing something with her father sounded really exciting, but then there was his side of the family tree and Carrie wasn't sure what they were going to be like. The only other relatives she had known and interacted with were her mother and grandmother and that wasn't really going off of much.

First off, her grandmother was literally a disembodied, ghost hand that wandered the house and while it was great to have her around just for company's sake, she wasn't much of a conversationalist. Her mother, Elizabeth Krueger, was another story, being a pure ghost, she spends a majority of her time in the underworld and sometimes in the grave. With the rules of the afterlife binding her to one spot for all eternity, Carrie was only able to speak to her whenever she was present in the grave and while she would like to search for her in the world of the dead, it was a near impossible task because finding one soul there is like trying to find one grain of salt in the Sahara. Any time they did speak, they would have very meaningful conversations with one another and Carrie actually enjoyed all their small conversations. Whenever all hallows eve came, sometimes her mother would join her and the two would spend a few hours in the graveyard just talking and interacting.

It was by no means a normal mother-daughter relationship, but at least they can still be together when the time was right.

Bringing it back to the current topic at hand, she hadn't had enough experience with relatives to understand what a family normally acts like, leaving her feeling rather unsure if she could interact with these relative strangers normally. Crossing her arms and releasing a breath she been unconsciously holding as a sigh, she stared up at the ceiling while she answered Darwin's question,

"I honestly don't know how I feel about the trip to Transylvania." she started with sincere honesty, making Darwin look at her with a straightened face, although she didn't notice because her attention was elsewhere,

"My dad and I have been trying to connect in a meaningful way ever since we were reunited and I can tell he's been trying real hard to be a good father despite his introverted nature. It's been going pretty well as far as familial relationships go, we don't get into any major arguments, there are no awkward moments between us, and we even found that we share a similar taste in films, which is surprising because I never feel as if I do anything other than listen to music, watch TV, and hang out with you and friends." she rambled off while trying to make sense of her own convoluted feelings.

Now Darwin was intrigued, she was confused as to how she was feeling about meeting people she never met before, yet they were related to her. That kind of stress must be pretty hard to deal with especially when you have issues connecting with your immediate family. Looking at his own family and his experiences with them, Darwin could definitely see the contrast between him and Carrie. He and his family members were pretty close, dysfunctional, but well woven. Now throw in a new family member that you never heard about nor had any memorable interactions with and Darwin would say that meeting them wouldn't be too difficult or awkward because you understand that you're family and can find some common ground.

There was no easy solution to this and not a whole lot of time for Carrie to process all of this information that was being thrown at her. The only thing Darwin felt that he could do for her right now was just tell her how he felt about it. Clearing his throat, the walking fish also turned his attention to the ceiling,

"You know, you and your dad have a great relationship with each other, I'm sure the rest of his family members are going to be awesome like him." he commented positively.

Confused, Carrie rolled on her side until she was facing him and began studying his face: sure enough he was being genuine about what he said and wasn't just saying stuff to make her feel better.

Darwin was aware of his girlfriend's gaze, but continued anyway,

"I mean, that's kind of what I notice with a lot of families, including my own. Everyone in the Watterson household loves and cares for one another, even if we got our own issues and conflicting opinions that causes everyone to butt heads often. When Granny Jojo came over to visit the first time, it was a little awkward at first, but after she spent some time with everyone, she became a Watterson essentially. She loves all of us, but just like the rest of us she's stubborn, thick headed, and set in her own ways." he now turned to look at Carrie, who still appeared to be confused.

"So what's your point exactly?" she asked.

Shrugging, Darwin just gave her a reassuring smile and got to the point,

"I'm saying you've got nothing to worry about. I'm positive your dad's relatives love him and they'll love you too, and even if you guys don't necessarily agree on everything, you're still a part of their family." while he spoke, his optimism was shining through like always and gave Carrie a bit more confidence in herself.

What he said actually made sense to her and did a better job of helping her grasp the situation and her own feelings towards the matter. She knew her father wouldn't do anything to hurt her or put her in an unpleasant situation. He even went out of the way to explain to her how nutty his family actually was and to be honest, both Carrie and her father were both nutty people as well. Whatever happened at that reunion tomorrow, will just have to happen and Carrie felt more prepared to face the unknowns that awaited her the following day.

She grinned at the thought and leaned in to plant a kiss on Darwin's lips. She remained with her face pressed up against his for a moment, allowing the cuddly goldfish to feel the sparks fly before her lips parted from his. When she brought her head back to get a good look at her fishy beloved, she saw that his lips were still puckered, but for only the briefest of moments because he then opened his eyes and saw that she was giggling a little at his entranced expression,

"Thanks for that talk." she said in a soothing voice, feeling her ghostly cheeks turn pink a little,

"I feel better about the journey to Romania now." she said while giving him a hug.

Darwin returned the embrace, patting her back gently while he whispered in her ear,

"Glad I could help, I'm happy that you're willing to go through this with a positive attitude. I love you." and with that he hugged her tighter.

"I love you too." she responded, holding him tightly.

They both remained in a silent embrace, allowing the quiet, wonderful moment to stretch on while they remained entangled in each other's arms. Carrie considered herself lucky to have such a kind, thoughtful, and helpful person as her boyfriend. With him, the things she considered the worst seemed so trivial to her and while she was in his arms, she felt okay.

Eventually they let go and slumped back onto their backs and just thought happy thoughts while staring off into space. When Carrie began thinking about family, she began to think about Darwin's family and how they were doing, one such person that also came to mind was Gumball,

"Speaking of family, how's yours doing?" she asked, scooting a little so she could be on her side as she propped her head up with one, tiny arm.

The question came out of nowhere, so Darwin had to take a moment to actually think about an answer because he had to bring up his last memories regarding the people he lived with. After a moment of recalling, Darwin began rattling off what he knew,

"Everyone's doing great!" he started off in a chirpy, optimistic tone,

"Mrs. mom's working her new position as department manager in the Rainbow Factory, so she's making a lot more money and she gets to get home earlier and sleep, Mr. dad is well, you know, the usual except that he's even more happy that mrs. mom is bringing home better food and is able to see her more often. Anais has been spending so much time with her new friend, Macey Barnes, that she sometimes disappears at her house for a whole week and also the high school teachers love her." he got to the final person on his list and paused for a second.

He knew his older brother was doing better than he had been earlier, but he realized that Gumball didn't actually _talk_ about what he does nowadays. Every time he asks him what he's been up to, he kind of keeps it short and vague before quickly moving on to some other topic. It was kind of odd seeing someone act so much better about themselves and yet be very secretive. He would normally brush it off as Gumball just getting into something that involved Teri that he didn't feel the need to share with everyone else and he would totally accept it because sometimes people just do their own thing.

He continued on with his discussion with Carrie once he realized his pause had exceeded the three second limit this kind of thing needed before it got weird,

"...and as for Gumball, he's doing fine, actually. He's way more talkative and humorous now and he even stood up to Tina yesterday, Teri helped too, but I was more surprised at Gumball. Speaking of Teri, she and him are baking a cake today for the picnic!" he exclaimed.

Carrie was more than aware of Gumball's new behavior that had surfaced as of recently, but she also began noticing a lot of strange things regarding the cat boy, Teri included. In a really odd coincidence, the night following the day where Teri and Gumball were first seen together in front of Gumball's house, Carrie began sensing something really odd and out of place somewhere in Elmore, like as if a presence had made itself known, but was clouding her psychic sense. When she saw the Watterson's neighborhood destroyed the next morning, she wondered if it was connected to the strange sensations that plagued her mind at around midnight.

Another thing she began to notice was that she began sensing more and more of these abnormalities throughout the month and every single time she felt it, the feeling would vanish. What was really strange though was that every single time the feeling popped up, she would sometimes see that Gumball and Teri had vanished and would be back several minutes after it would vanish, sometimes with injuries. She even felt one yesterday after the brawl between Ocho and Bobert broke out in the classroom and once again, Gumball had disappeared from the class, only to show up later with Teri in an unoccupied classroom. Of course, it was an awkward situation because Masami was also there and, well, there were rumors about the two… anyway, she couldn't stay long to question them about what was really going on.

One last thing she had noticed was that Gumball was carrying the cursed scythe she had given him as a friendly gift after his break-up with Penny Fitzgerald on his person the same day these bizarre events started. There was no mistaking it was the scythe because she could recognize the distinct aura it gave off and given how powerful of an aura it has now when compared to several weeks ago, she could tell that he had been using it quite a bit. She also sensed that Teri was carrying something magical, but it was so weak that she couldn't exactly figure out what it was.

Whatever the case may be, those two were definitely up to something and it probably had something to do with that "Nephilim" Gumball asked her about that Monday morning.

While she went over all these mysterious facts that had sprung up in her mind, she continued to hold a conversation with Darwin,

"Well that's good. I can't wait to see what kind of cake he and Teri are going to bring." she responded with a hungry smile.

Darwin nodded in a agreement, his face brimming with delight,

"Yeah, I'm so looking forward to the picnic now cause all I can think about is cake!" he said, allowing his mouth to hang open as a little drool formed at the corner of his mouth.

Carrie giggled at her boyfriends goofy face and his unbelievable fondness for sweets. She flipped her bangs to the side a little and sat up on the bed, allowing herself to stretch her arms and not because she had to, but because she felt like it. She picked up on some Darwin's morning habits during one of their many sleepovers,

"I'm not so sure of the rumors myself, but do you think Gumball has a thing for Teri and vice versa?" she asked, turning her head to eye the laidback goldfish.

Surprised, Darwin shot up and into a sitting position as he stared at his ghostly girlfriend with perplexity,

"You've been getting those rumors too?" he asked, completely baffled by this.

Carrie glared at him as if he just asked her to add two and two,

"Uh, yeah dude, some of the girls, and Leslie, have been gossiping about it yesterday. Masami even went over to her friend circle and told them that Gumball and Teri were kissing and holding hands after we spotted them in the eighth grade hall together when you sent me to go look for them." she muttered in a monotone voice.

Darwin's knew that Masami was obviously just spreading drabble because she was one of the Elmore Jr. High's top drama queens and also because he heard from Gumball himself where he had been and what he had been doing. He didn't show much of a reaction to this, but did let a little sigh escape him before he flopped back down onto the bed,

"If only Gumball were aware of the dumb situation he's gotten himself into." he groaned, covering his eyes with a single flipper.

"I don't think neither he nor Teri actually care about the things people are saying behind their backs. It appears as though they have a lot more going on that is occupying their minds." Carrie said, lightly implying the mysterious antics regarding the two kids.

There was something else that was bothering Darwin about his older brother and he felt the need to get it off his chest right away. Sitting back up, placing his fins on his lap, he gave his incorporeal lover a serious look and asked her a question,

"Do you think Gumball has gotten over Penny?" his normally high-pitched, cheery voice was replaced with a lower, more somber one.

Carrie was actually about to ask that question herself, but now saw an opportunity to give her opinion on the matter. Placing her hands together and raising them to her mouth, she paused before coming up with the exact words she wanted to say,

"It has been a few months, so it would seem that way, but I don't he's moved on completely, yet. We know that he was devastated by her moving away and the subsequent end to their relationship, and even though he's now showing signs of recovery, I still think he's carrying a lot of baggage. His relationship with Teri on the other hand can show signs that he's getting better and if he takes his time with it (that is if he's actually into her.) then it could actually work out for the better." she explained, feeling as though that were the real case when it came to the two of them.

Darwin couldn't help but feel that Carrie was right on point with what he was thinking. As a matter of fact, what she said was exactly what he was thinking too and he was glad that they were both on the same page. He could tell himself that Gumball actually had a thing for Teri even though he probably wasn't aware of it himself and he also believes that Gumball is still recovering from the event that happened quite some time ago. Either way, he was happy for his older brother, even it annoyed him with how much he was actually keeping from him and the rest of his friends and family.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Darwin rested his head on his appendages and looked about the room that was becoming brighter as the sun rose,

"Well, that's pretty much what I was thinking." he muttered, allowing his head/body to fall back on Carrie's for the third time. Carrie noticed this and moved to join him and was soon cuddling up besides him,

"I just hope he doesn't mess this one up and go through an even _longer_ depression." he said, exasperated, not even wanting to think about the blue cat boy's fragile mental state.

Carrie silently nodded in agreement and snuggled in closer until her head was pressed up against his,

"Yeah, I wouldn't worry too much about it. I seriously doubt that those two are going to be leaving each other's side any time soon." she muttered, her voice a little softer despite the cynical undertone.

She levitated the TV remote to her once more, unpaused the Ryan Maverick movie, and resumed watching her anticipated film. Not feeling slightly interested in the film, Darwin closed his eyes and allowed himself to gently fall into a light sleep. Soon Carrie could feel the rhythmic movement of his chest heaving up and down while he slept along with the sound of his breathing getting slightly louder and deeper. It was all very soothing to her and she soon found herself glancing over at his sleeping face: was there ever a time he didn't look this cute? Thankfully she couldn't remember, although she did remember the one time he tried wearing a fringe to make himself appear emo-like and the memory elicited a giggle from her. Good times.

Everything seemed to just kind of space out for the ghost girl due to her being so comfortable and the fact that the only things she was paying attention to were the television set and the sleeping form of Darwin. She was happy, content, and perfectly at peace right now. When she looked over at the clock, 8:05 it read. They still had another four hours until they had to leave which seemed like a wonderful blessing to her right at this moment.

Eventually the film ended in a grotesque blood battle with Ryan holding the demon king's head up in his hand for all his followers to see and the film cut to the end credits. She turned the box off and set the remote on her dresser so that it wouldn't get knocked over. She laid beside Darwin for a little bit, until she too felt her eyelids grow heavy and she started to descend into a deep slumber. She pulled out her phone and quickly set the alarm for ten and set it on her dresser before placing herself next to Darwin once done. Allowing her head to rest against his, she felt the warmth radiating from his body and she soon started to feel drowsy and began to doze off. She finally felt darkness obscure her vision and her conscious fade into the oblivious realm of sleep.

However, before she could fully get to sleep, she felt another dark presence. It was further away, but it was no doubt similar to one's she's been feeling as of lately. This one was coming from the direction of the Elmore industrial section.

 _-Elmore industrial section, 8:10 AM-_

Ever since it's start in 1856, Elmore has always been considered an industrial city, where businesses boomed and workers were arriving by the dozens to collect wages for their families. Throughout it's timeline the shabby little city had been considered nothing more than a nest of smokestacks surrounded by a desert by many outsiders, but what really made it stand out were the kinds of people it attracted.

Promising jobs to the "bizarros", all beings considered both sentient and sapient, yet do not hold many human attributes, many creatures of different shapes and sizes flocked to the fledgling city with the promise of getting better jobs while avoiding human discrimination in many human owned businesses. With the variety of different beings applying their unique skill sets to the many jobs the small town provided, Elmore rapidly became a place of prosperity and economic growth. This prosperity attracted even more Bizarros, some humans too, to Elmore and within a few decades the tiny industrial town began to grow exponentially.

That was until the great depression arrived to the United States in the 1920's and many businesses suffered from the economic downfall. This lead to many of the warehouses being shut down and abandoned as there was no way the business owners could pay their workers enough which resulted in many quitting their jobs there. Elmore eventually recovered after the outbreak of World War 2 two decades later, but most of the industrial section was still left to rot as business had now shifted to other areas of the city.

The vacant sector of Elmore was now a nest of deteriorating warehouses and industrial complexes, with peeling paint on the walls that revealed the many bricks underneath, empty rooms covered in a sea of dust, filth, and spider webs that clung everywhere like ghastly streamers of silk. The only inhabitants of this desolate place were certain pests such as rats, mice, skunks, a few stray dogs, multitudes of different insects that lived within the buildings and the occasional gang of thugs, criminals, and teenagers looking for a place to hide in peace, away from the prying eyes of society.

On this particular day, there weren't any inhabitants, save for two kids: a blue cat boy with a brown sweater and a paper doll girl who resembled a bear of sorts. They both wandered through the twisting streets filled with discarded beer cans, torn-up newspapers, and broken pieces of the buildings that had fallen due to the sands of time wearing down heavily on them. The buildings were like brown-red empty husks of amazing beasts that contained powerful machinery at one point before it was scuttled and sold off to different businesses for money and lined every block like an eerie graveyard. Teri honestly didn't like coming here by herself or even at all at most times, but she wanted a quiet place to walk in and enjoy the peace with a friend.

Who, of course, was besides her and was engaged in the most ridiculous conversation that she had been involved in all day,

"I'm telling you, I heard Dr. Crox use the F-word while he was insulting Junior." he stated, obviously talking about two characters from the medical drama _Under the knife_ that he and Teri enjoyed so much that it was starting to become a ritual to watch it and discuss it whenever they had the chance.

Teri, however, was having none of it and absolutely did not recall hearing the otherwise grouchy, snarky doctor use foul language in the show,

"That's complete ludicrousy!" the paper girl exclaimed, folding her arms while she strolled besides Gumball's right side,

"That show is supposed to be family friendly, so there's no way he would have said that! Besides, which episode was it? Last nights?" she asked, sounding real skeptical.

Gumball rolled his eyes as if it were the most obvious thing in the world and spoke in a slightly condescending tone,

"Uh, yeah it was last night's episode! That's the one we've been talking for the past four minutes now-!"

"Six minutes." Teri corrected with a smug grin. She quickly stepped over a broken glass bottle while simultaneously guiding Gumball away from the shards in fear of him cutting his bare feet and getting an infection.

"Whatever!" Gumball continued as he lowered his eyes to ground in order to keep a lookout for certain objects,

"All I'm saying is that a man like Dr. Crox should never use the words "Fanny pack" ever because it is belittling of a man of his gruff type!" Gumball nearly shouted in annoyance.

Now it was Teri's turn to look annoyed,

"Fanny pack? That's what you're so worked up about?!" she exclaimed in disbelief while she glared at the unbelievable blue cat.

Gumball remained angry looking and didn't even look in her direction because he knew she was giving him a look that would tell him he was being ridiculous, as most of his arguments were,

"I had such high hopes for him…" he grumbled, still keeping his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed in a direction that wasn't in Teri's.

Noting Gumball's reluctance to look at her just further proved Teri's idea that he knew he was getting worked up about nothing. He was so silly sometimes and she often wondered why everyone got on her case for being a germaphobe. Some things in this universe will just never make sense to her.

"You're being ridiculous." she replied, a half smile etching itself onto her face,

"He was using it to belittle Junior like he normally does, so it wasn't out character for him. Also, what's wrong with a male using "fanny pack"? Doesn't sound unmanly to me?" she commented.

Now Gumball decided to drop the subject because when she puts it that way, it did make more sense. He knew he was just rambling about a fictional character and it didn't matter too much, but it was another fun thing to get worked up about. His mind eventually drifted to the current time and he decided to pull out his cellphone to check the time. He wanted to make sure they got home in time and make sure the cake didn't burn in the oven and if he were to guess, they probably had half an hour to get back.

He ran into an immediate issue when he tried turning his phone on, only to discover that it wouldn't.

Raising an eyebrow, he pressed all the buttons on the device and tapped the screen several times only for it to remain silent and dead,

"Huh, that's weird? My phone won't turn on!" he exclaimed, still messing with the device in a vain attempt to activate it.

Curious, Teri looked over at Gumball's phone and saw the screen blank. It was odd, but not out of the ordinary to her,

"Is the battery dead?" she asked, now looking up from his phone and at his face.

He furiously shook his head and held down the power button to see if it will start up that way,

"No, it was at 73% when we left! No way it should be dead right now!" he responded, frustration making itself present in his voice.

Now that was odd to the paper girl and so she wondered if there was some kind of interference with the network. She pulled out her flip phone and opened it,

"That's odd, I wonder if the network is malfunctioning or something. Let me see if I can turn on my phone." she suggested, pressing the power button on her cellular device. She sometimes turned off her phone after she left the house as weird habit of hers. Maybe she was just paranoid of the battery draining or something?

While Teri tried to power up her phone, Gumball gave up on his and decided to peek over at Teri to see if she was having any luck. The upright blue cat then noticed something the moment he turned in her direction and stared at the building on their left. In the reflection of the ground floor window of the warehouse they were passing, the eldest Watterson child could make out a long shadow-like creature that resembled a serpent in some shape or form.

He didn't get a good look at it because the moment he saw it, he saw a gaping mouth with two rows of sharp teeth in the reflective surface of the glass and his instincts kicked in the moment he sensed they were in danger,

"SHOOT!"

He cursed and doved forward, tackling a surprised Teri by the upper torso just as an explosion of glass shards erupted forth followed by the unearthly snarl of an enormous beast lunging out from the glass and missing them by a few inches. Before Gumball and Teri had a chance to register anything that was going on, they could already tell that they were being attacked by a Nephilim!

Rolling to the side while grasping Teri tightly, Gumball maneuvered them away from the beast before coming to a stop and allowing the both of them to jump to their feet. Quickly checking to see if either one was okay, the two kids quickly looked each other up and down before verbally confirming that they were fine. Surprisingly, none of them had gotten cut by the glass that had fallen after the monster's emergence.

Speaking of the monster, both Teri and Gumball quickly pivoted on their heels and got a better look at the thing that tried attacking them. Just like the shadowy reflection Gumball had seen, the Nephilim was indeed a large serpent, maybe twenty feet in length, that had three foot thick, cylinder-like body covered in glittering bronze scales, an unusual color for a Nephilim considering all the others that had appeared so far, and a narrow, triangular head with the top covered in ten, ruby red eyes and a gaping mouth full of four inch, dagger-like fangs. Like all it's brethren, it was a beautiful, yet horrifying sight to see.

With fear coursing through the two kids, they both took a step back while the monster slithered and twisted itself around in a pile of broken glass. The sound of glass shards and metallic scales scraping the ground created a beautiful and interesting sound while the monster moved. Gumball quickly pulled his bag off his back and began pulling the scythe out while Teri did the same by pulling out a few explosive runes,

"Well, at least we know why our phones weren't working." Teri whispered.

Gumball was about to reply, but he never got the chance. In one, unbelievably quick motion, the bronze serpent lashed out with its tail and caught both of them in the stomach before slamming them into the wall. Both kids immediately felt the wind leave their lungs as their backs and heads struck the solid surface. Then, as quickly as it struck, the Nephilim hissed, slithered across the street and dove into the window, leaving behind ripples like the surface of water after something disturbs it.

Slumping down from the wall, Gumball felt his head spin and a slight ringing in his ear: he didn't even remember what had hit him or what had happened. Right next to him, Teri peeled off from the wall and fell forward slowly, her head pounding like a hammer and anvil while a groan released itself from her lower abdomen and straight up through her throat. She didn't even get a chance to attach a few bomb runes to the evil spirit and Gumball's scythe wasn't even unfolded: it was it's first strike and the Nephilim already proved too fast for either of them.

After regaining her senses, Teri lifted her head and looked around to see where the Nephilim was. She didn't spot the slithering creature anywhere in the abandoned street and counted it as a good thing. It will probably be back shortly to finish them off, so now would be a good time to move. She quickly checked to see if anything was wrong with her and found that none of her organs were ruptured and none of her body parts had been torn. Her head hurt and she was caked in dust, but all in all, she was fine.

Turning around to check on Gumball, she saw that he too was fine and moving, albeit a little slowly as he rubbed the sore spot on the back of his head from where it had struck the wall. Feeling a little woozy, Gumball shook his noggin until he felt his head clear up and as soon as his eyes were focused, he surveyed the area. He was just in time to see Teri leaning forward, grabbing him by the arm that clutched the compacted scythe, before taking off with him being dragged behind her.

Teri was really frantic now. They had their fair share of tough Nephilim opponents, but at least they had a good idea of what they were going up against whenever they dreamed about them. This time however, the Nephilim came out of nowhere and they weren't prepared for it. None of them knew how to fight this thing and so Teri's only thought was to run and put as much distance between them and that monster,

"We gotta get out of here now before that thing shows up again!" she shouted to Gumball without turning her head.

Gumball could hear the panic within her voice and was actually on the same page as her. He didn't understand what was happening or where and when the Nephilim was going to attack. Not knowing what you were up against was terrifying in it's own right and Gumball believed that a tactical retreat was the best option they had at the moment,

"I think I'm with you on this one!" he called up to her in agreement.

While they ran, all the empty buildings from the industrial era of Elmore seem to become a blur as the two reached breakneck speeds. While they were trying to get away, they weren't necessarily trying to leave the industrial sector, at least Teri hadn't planned on it, seeing as leading the Nephilim to a populated area would be disastrous. One fear that made its way into Teri's head was the monster leaving the vacant area to her neighborhood and to where her mother was. They needed to defeat it here and now before things got out of hand, but first they had to come up with a plan.

While Teri was desperately thinking up of possible solutions to their current snake-related issue, Gumball spotted the darkened silhouette of the Nephilim slithering in the glass of the building across the street from them. It was no doubt their earlier attacker and despite the fact they were both running at top speed, the Nephilim was still managing to keep up with them. It seemed as though wherever the serpent was currently, it was free from any obstacles as it passed from one pane of glass from another, like a shadow following its owner.

Quickly allowing the curved blade of the scythe to spring out of the hollow space within the steely handle, Gumball kept his eye on the evil spirit within the window and alerted Teri,

"Teri! The window, to your left!" he warned.

Just in time too, the moment Teri saw the coiling monster opening its mouth for another strike, she quickly let go of Gumball and jumped to the side just as the window shattered. The twenty foot, scaly cylinder came shooting out of the small broken surface, all ten eyes locked onto Gumball as it soared towards him with its gaping maw ready to swallow him whole. In the short period of time it took for the cold-blooded demon to reach him, Gumball managed to narrowly dodge being eaten alive by rolling to the side, his most common evasion technique. The serpent slammed into the wall behind him like a bronze battering ram, causing the brick wall to cave in a little with a light boom

Standing up, Gumball's eyes widened as he screamed when the Nephilim's head snapped out of the hole it made and was already raising it in an attack position. It bared its many fangs that gleamed in the sun like white crystals and lunged its head at Gumball a second time. In a moment of sheer panic, Gumball jumped backwards while simultaneously swinging his Nephilim destroying weapon in front of him in a semicircle arc, only to discover that the blade's tip bounced harmlessly off the Nephilim's head as it came crashing down. Good news was he managed to dodge the lightning quick attack from said monster.

Landing on his feet, Gumball's revelation that he couldn't harm the monster drove him into a panic. Not only was he barely able to keep up with it, the bronze scales covering its body were impervious to his weapon's effects. If it attacked again, there may be little he could do to stop it,

" _I hope Teri's rune magic will work on it!"_ he thought desperately to himself.

He then thought about trying to use that grey fire technique again, the one that helped him in the fight against Concretin on the broken bridge the other day. He immediately dismissed the idea,

" _Absolutely not! That was a completely reckless decision on my part and left me completely derived of any common sense in exchange for increased strength and speed. If I use it here and act carelessly like last time then I may wind up with more than just scratches."_ he scolded himself internally.

In real time, the bronze serpent had lifted its head again and followed with another attack to the clearly outmatched blue cat. When Gumball saw a hole surrounded by razor-sharp teeth heading towards him, his first instinct was to jump back again or perhaps to the side in order to clear its path, but he could tell by the way it was moving side to side and at a higher speed than before that that wasn't going to be an option that would better his chances of survival. He had no choice but to attack.

Do or die time, he quickly spun around until he was a little off to the serpent's side and held his scythe out in front of the ten-eyed monster. The serpent was too late to read Gumball's attack and felt tremendous pain as the inside of the scythe blade caught the corner of its mouth and dug into the interior flesh with the serrated edge. Gumball was nearly yanked off his feet when the charging Nephilim was caught on his scythe, but he managed to stand firm, although his feet were scraped up when they were dragged along the rough sidewalk. With a hearty pull, Gumball brought the weapon forward and tore it free of the serpent's mouth, along with a few strands of flesh.

He had finally found a weak spot, although getting to it was going to be a problem.

The serpent hissed louder than before while bringing its tail around and quickly swatted Gumball away. The scythe wielding kid managed to catch its tail with the shaft of the magical weapon and prevented further injury to his body, but it wasn't enough to actually catch the momentum the tail carried with it and he was sent flying down the street. He bounced a couple times before rolling to a stop, his scythe clattering on the pavement a few feet from him and Gumball clutched his side as he groaned in agony. He was starting to get the impression that trying to tank a shot from these monsters was going to result in nothing but bruised ribs and other body parts.

The bronze, window hopping snake smirked triumphantly as it watched the small mammal fall helplessly on the ground after it had tail-whipped it. Surging forward to finish him off, the vile creature locked it's multitude of eyes on its prey and unhinged its jaw in order to devour him. This time Gumball was helpless to stop it because he was once again too exhausted from the pain he suffered and his only means of killing the monster was a few feet away from him.

That was, until five small explosions blossomed on the serpent's backside, violently rocking the beast and shattering a few windows from the shock wave that ensued from the destructive force. The Nephilim hissed angrily, a long, black, forked tongue lashing out of its mouth as it turned itself around to see who the attacker was. Its red eyes focused on a frightened-looking Teri who stood a few feet from its midsection, a few pieces of paper and pencil in both hands as she nervously stared at the demon that was glaring down at her like an angered exterminator that was bitten by a wasp.

The reason Teri was frozen with fear at this precise moment was because she expected her bombs to kill the monster right away: instead her magic did nothing but leave a few scorch marks that tainted the serpent's scaly hide like random inkblots. She had lost her first set of runes when the monster attacked them the first time and while Gumball was dealing with it, she quickly drew up five of them, trying her best not to mess up because she knew Gumball was having some difficulty fighting the Nephilim on his own and attacked when the spirit monster lunged at Gumball the second time. Now she was standing there in the open, no weapons to defend herself with, no time to create more, no origami to get her out of here, and Gumball was temporarily out of commission.

" _What am I going to do?"_ she thought to herself in horror.

For the longest five seconds of her life, the serpentine Nephilim didn't do anything except stare down at her, almost as if its hungry glare alone was enough to keep her in one spot. Then it let out a gurgling noise with its throat that sounded really odd to Teri and moments later, the otherworldly monster sprayed a golden, liquid substance from two small holes located on the roof of its mouth. Without thinking about it, Teri immediately darted away from the twin streams of golden goo spraying from the monster's maw, a mere second before the stuff splashed her. While she ran away, she looked back and saw that when the liquid substance struck the broken pavement, the concrete began sizzling and dissolving, making it abruptly clear to the only Pepakuma child that it was acidic and had she been standing there moments earlier, she would have been broken down in the blink of an eye.

The Nephilim stopped spraying the corrosive poison at Teri moments after she had evaded it and slithered towards the glimmering puddle. With a subtle hiss and a quick lunge, it dove into the puddle of golden goo and disappeared entirely. The only thing remaining was a highly reflective golden puddle that slowly ate its way through the road it was set on, hissing and popping as it undid the foundations of the asphalt. Both Gumball and Teri were left completely baffled at the revealing of the Nephilim's newest trick.

Speaking of Gumball, the blue cat had finally reclaimed his breath along with his weapon and rushed towards Teri, carefully avoiding the pretty splatter of acid on the ground and stopped short a few feet from her, his heart racing a mile a minute. After looking her over, he could see that she was alright, physically, but she seemed rather shaken at her encounter and he knew why that was. Most of their opponents before had been tough, but not invincible. This one, on the other hand, had very few weaknesses to offer and it's only weakness that had been exploited was also well defended.

He gently grabbed her shoulder, causing Teri to look him in the eye,

"Are you alright?" he asked, looking concerned for his friend. He knew that moral was low right now, but he needed her with him right now and wanted to help her get back up.

Realizing the condition her mind was in and that Gumball was able to see it clearly, she put on a straight face and nodded with an assured smile,

"Yeah, sorry about that. That's the first time my magic didn't damage a Nephilim and also, I'm not exactly comfortable with being that close to my demise." she chuckled.

Gumball chuckled too and mirrored her smile,

"I know what you mean, I'm not exactly a fan of going toe-to-toe with these ancient giants either." he replied jokingly before turning to point his scythe at the shimmering puddle of acidic liquid produced by the Nephilim,

"It probably won't be gone for long and we can't fight it down here, can you make something that can get us in the air?" he asked while keeping a lookout for any mysterious shadows in the windows reflections.

Teri gave an affirmative reply and reached into her backpack, which still managed to stay with her, and pull out a green, blanket sized piece of paper. While she folded the sheet in different ways according to memory, Gumball stood guard and watched while Teri worked her magic. Soon, a beautifully created paper quetzal was formed by the paper bear and the two soon lifted off from the ugly, empty streets and above the buildings.

She didn't fly too high though, for the fear of discouraging the Nephilim from hunting them and deciding to pursue other targets. She also circled around the area they lifted off from because both she and Gumball wanted to keep the Nephilim contained in a certain area if they could help it. At least up here, they had a better chance of seeing and countering the Nephilim if it decided to pop out of a window for another surprise visit. Gumball resumed his normal position while riding Teri's origami and maintained a constant lookout for any threats while Teri formulated a plan.

"Okay, we have the advantage up here, but how are we going to destroy this thing?" she asked Gumball, who was nervously scanning the windows and other reflective surfaces for any slithering shadows.

While keeping his eye on a passing window closest to them, Gumball offered some insight,

"Well, I discovered that it's mouth is vulnerable to attacks, so our goal should be to get it to swallow one of your bombs or you can use another rune, seeing as you have four others that you haven't used yet." he suggested, flinching when he saw their reflection in the glass of a nearby window and mistaking it for the Nephilim.

It finally clicked in Teri's head that Gumball was right and that she hadn't even thought about using the other magic symbols she had in her arsenal. She had gotten used to using the explosive ones that she kind of forgotten about the other four runes, whose uses are still a mystery to her. Then again, the reason she never actually used them was because none of them were labeled and if she learned anything from her mother and father's scoldings was that you should never mess around with items that aren't properly labeled.

"We'll use one of new the runes as a last resort, I'm still not sure about using them yet." she said, having made up her mind already. She checked some of the windows they were passing and was sort of relieved that she didn't see the Nephilim moving besides them in the glass,

"For now, let's just focus on what we do know: one, the Nephilim is capable of hopping through reflective objects and is capable of spitting acid that can also serve as a portal for the monster. Two, it's only vulnerability is its innards and it must have some excellent senses if its able to track us while in the glass. Any ideas?" she asked.

Gumball spotted a slim, dark object shoot across the second floor windows of the empty textile warehouse next to him and he sprung into a defensive position, but the shadow quickly disappeared. Confused for a brief second, Gumball figured it must be observing them and was looking for a better way to strike the both of them or was just messing with them so that they'll panic. He knew a lot of the Nephilim acted more like animals, but that was no reason to underestimate their intelligence seeing as most of them act like cunning predatory animals.

Like predatory animals… that's when it hit Gumball,

He excitedly turned to Teri, ignoring the wind that was now slapping his face and stinging his eyes as he brought forth a possible solution,

"If it's tracking us, why don't we trap it in a confined space, like one of these warehouses and finish it off there. It won't be able to maneuver easily and you'd be able to deal some damage to its weak spot. I can even distract it for you, if the situation calls for it!" he explained.

There was a moment of silence as Teri thought about the details, pros, and cons to the plan Gumball suggested. The bronze Nephilim was faster than them for sure, but most of its attacks required a lot of room to deal some damage and trapping it in a small, narrow space may keep it from reacting quickly enough. The problem that kept presenting itself to her though was that the creature didn't need to do much to kill them either. If they found _themselves_ trapped then all it would have to do is devour them, spit acid at them, and/or finish them off with a doom blast, if it had such an ability. Also, it can easily escape by creating a reflective pool of acid which would ruin their plan.

Still, it was a good bet and better than fighting the monster out here where it had the advantage.

Teri began to bring the bird down to the street while Gumball carefully watched the nearby windows,

"Okay, we'll go with that idea, but how will we escape if it somehow corners us?" she asked, glancing back at him.

"Serpentine patterns, I guess?" he uttered with a shrug.

Teri frowned and gave him a _really?_ Look as she scoffed at his lame pun,

"Really couldn't help yourself there, huh?" she snapped back.

Gumball chuckled a little and waved her off with a single hand,

"Sorry, sorry, If we both get cornered we can use your origami or your runes to escape or I can bust out my grey fire and knock it down, hopefully without getting cocky this time." he threw these ideas out there because he too was worried about getting cornered by the twenty foot demon serpent he now named "Window Hopper" and wanted to make sure that they had options.

Teri liked all those options, except the last one he brought up and found herself slightly worried that he'd even go for something like that. Yeah, it was a powerful skill that could better their chances against the Nephilim if they ever found themselves caught in a troubling situation, she'd seen the battle against Toxic Pill and Concretin to confirm that, but it was by far a solution with too many drawbacks and could wind up with either Gumball or the both of them getting killed and that was something she wanted to avoid at all costs. She was glad that he put the other solutions first because it told her that he was aware of his limitations and the dangers his newfound power posed and was trying to cut down on the risks to her and himself.

CRASH!

The chilling sound of glass shattering ruptured the silence of Teri's thoughts and brought the paper girl cutout back to reality. Looking to her left to the building closest to them, Teri saw the bronze serpent launching itself out from another window and was aiming straight for her! When she got a good look at the cold-blooded monster, she noticed something about it was off, it wasn't as big as it originally was, instead only being half its original size. This made it look less intimidating, sure, but Teri recognized the problem the moment it presented itself. With the Nephilim's size being reduced, it was much lighter and faster than it was earlier and was now rocketing towards the pilot of the paper quetzal with unmatched speed, it's mouth dripping with acidic venom.

There was only one thing Teri could do to save both herself and Gumball from certain death: she quickly willed the bird to tilt to the right and shield themselves from the serpent's attack path. Gumball hadn't been keeping an eye out for the Nephilim while he was talking to Teri and was now completely shocked at seeing the now half-sized monster shooting towards Teri from its hiding spot. _How could I have been so careless?!_ He mentally chastised himself as he felt the bird tilt and was forced to hang on tightly in order to avoid a thirty foot drop to the street below. Gumball was thankful that she had her wits about her and made a silent promise to never let his guard down again.

The good news was Window Hopper had missed its intended target entirely and Teri was saved from a painful death. The bad news however, the quetzal Teri had crafted didn't exactly make it. When Teri banked to the right, Window Hopper kept sailing straight ahead and tore through the left wing of Teri's bird with its acid coated fangs, effectively separating the flimsy appendage from the body. The ten-eyed serpent kept sailing forward and disappeared into another window that was fixed on the building across the street. As for Teri, Gumball, and the damaged paper craft modeled after the famous emerald green bird of Mexico, they all began spinning out of control and careened towards the ground at a fast pace.

Seeing the ground approaching fast, Gumball acted quickly, grabbed Teri, who was trying to control their descent despite the damage done to their ride, by the waist and leapt off the bird just as they were ten feet from the ground. The ruined paper bird smacked the pavement and simply bounced away without making much of a sound while Gumball fudged the landing and wound up on his rear while holding on to Teri,

"Ow!" he exclaimed in pain as he let go of the paper girl, got up, and rubbed his sore behind,

"Man, that was less cool and dramatic than it was in my head, also more painful." he complained.

Teri just rolled her eyes at the blue cat's whininess before grabbing him by the arm and rushing towards a building that looked like it was going to collapse by a stiff breeze. Normally this is the last place she would hide in, but she wanted to get to a sheltered area before the serpent showed back up again and catches them out in the open. She thought about retrieving the remains of her origami bird, but decided it wouldn't be worth it.

They were a few feet from the door of the warehouse, Teri and Gumball tried to read the sign above it to see what it said, but the words were too faded to even make out, much less read and they stopped just outside the entrance. Taking a moment to catch their breaths, both the children decided to thank one another.

Gumball decided to go first, seeing as she saved him first,

"Thanks for reacting in time to Window Hopper. I let my guard down and gave the Nephilim the right moment to attack. I'm sorry about that." he apologized, feeling guilty for almost costing Teri her life.

Teri looked at him and smiled a little, his sincerity and concern for her well-being making her feel even more grateful to have him by her side,

"It's alright. Thank you for pulling me off the bird before we crashed. That was real nice of you." she said, earning a smile from Gumball upon hearing her gratitude and forgiveness.

However, he still had doubts as to whether he actually did any good and he voiced his opinion while rubbing the back of his head nervously,

"Actually, that probably didn't need to happen because the bird probably would've absorbed the impact and you wouldn't have gotten hurt, plus that fall wouldn't have caused any serious-!"

"GUMBALL!" she shouted, cutting him off before he could continue with his self-harming drabble. This caused Gumball to cease his nervousness and place his full attention on his friend and classmate. She calmed down and assumed a more relaxed pose, although she still looked serious,

"Thank you. You helped me because you were concerned for my well-being. I can't tell you how appreciative I feel right now, so once again, thank you!" she explained, clear and simple.

Surprisingly, that was all Gumball needed to hear to put an end to the doubts he had at his ability to keep her safe. Sure, he messed up, but at least she managed to help them both avoid any losses and he helped her escape a potentially dangerous situation. They were both in on this together and anything they did to help one another was a major step forward. He was going to keep going forward with her by his side, catching each other when they fell, and helping in any way they can, no matter how small.

Feeling his confidence returning, Gumball's eyes lit up with determination and he stood up straighter. He was going to do his best from now on. It was right at that moment both he and Teri heard the sound of glass shattering and the sound of something large and heavy hitting the ground with a metallic _Clang!_ Turning until their vision rested on the other side of the street, both Teri and Gumball spotted the sinister serpent back to its original size and was shaking the broken glass off it's reflective body.

Then it spotted them, let out a hungry hiss, and began slithering towards them at a frightening fast pace.

With only twenty seconds until the Nephilim reached them, Teri turned around and tried opening the door that lead into the warehouse. She wrestled with the doorknob only to find to her horror that it was locked! Seeing the issue rather quickly, Gumball quickly used a hand to push Teri back a few feet before slamming the butt of his scythe into the door handle and breaking it off.

Being made in an earlier time, the door unlocked once the handle was forcibly removed and Gumball pushed open the door, quickly ushering Teri in before turning around to see where the bronze serpent was. He felt all the hairs on his body stand on end when he saw that Window Hopper was only ten feet from him, moving his mule-sized head side-to-side with all ten eyes locked on him as its forked tongue shot in and out of its mouth. Its metallic scales made a grating sound as it contracted and relaxed its body to slide across the pavement. This was all taken in by Gumball in under an instant and the blue cat quickly darted through the door, slamming it shut behind him.

With his back against the door, his heart racing a like a jackhammer, and his body paralyzed with fear, Gumball stood absolutely still. That was until, he felt the force of the snake spirit's head slam into the door behind him and he was sent flying forward and past Teri, who was just standing a ways away from the door with a frightful look on her face. Gumball landed flat on his face, his front half immediately becoming caked with all the dust that had been collecting on the floor for years causing him to sneeze a couple times after inhaling it, but quickly found himself scrambling to his feet once he realized that the door had been flung open and that both he and Teri were in danger.

Once on his feet, Gumball whirled around until he could see the door and saw something that was for once a relief to him. Wedged into the door's frame was Window Hopper's snout as it struggled to get itself through the opening that was clearly too small for its large head. Feeling his heart rate slow itself down after a minute of watching the Nephilim continue with its pointless struggle to force its way into the building and actually found himself snickering at the sight.

Teri, who was overcome with fear, heard Gumball's light snickering and at first looked at him like he was deranged, but then saw what he was laughing at after glancing back and forth between him and the Nephilim referred to as "Window Hopper" by said cat. It then dawned on her that the name was a play on the name "Window Shopper" and found herself groaning inwardly, _seriously, how does he come up with these names?_ Soon, she too found herself laughing at the monster's rather embarrassing situation,

"Well, I guess he's found himself in a _tight_ situation!" Teri joked, causing Gumball to actually start laughing.

Window Hopper began pushing even harder, as if it understood Teri's insult and was now trying to work its way into the building to attack her for the offending joke. Then again, it probably could understand her because the Nephilim have been known to understand them and actually speak to them. Maybe they just choose not to talk them or can't because the form they appear in prevents them from speaking. Teri had been doing all she could to learn about the Nephilim in her spare time, but she didn't pull up anything when it came to the Nephilim's contact with the people of this world.

After hearing Teri's joke diffuse the situation, slightly, Gumball decided to join in, not being one to be low on humor himself,

"I guess being _narrow_ minded just doesn't get you very far in life, huh?" he chuckled, hearing the snake's scales grinding against pavement outside getting louder as it tried to break through the wall.

Both of them laughed harder, filling the empty room they were in with echoes of their laughing.

Teri found herself clutching her sides while she continued to laugh, but managed to squeeze out another joke that popped in her head,

"Well, I guess it doesn't always pay to have a big head!" she said, shrieking with more laughter.

Gumball immediately stopped laughing and turned towards the paper being with an angry look in her eyes. Hearing silence from Gumball along with the weight of his glare on her, Teri slowly stopped laughing and curiously glanced in the boy's direction. After seeing him offendedly staring at her, the paper doll cut out wondered what it was she said, and then came to a conclusion regarding his sudden anger. She forgot that he too had a big head and was somewhat sensitive about it. Oops.

Wearing a more sorrowful look, Teri slowly put up her hands and waved them back forth as she tried to show her close friend that she was sorry for what she said,

"Sorry! I didn't mean to upset you! I got caught up in all the joking and-!" she blubbered out and stopped when she saw Gumball raise a hand and shake his head while closing his eyes.

He was hurt, but he didn't feel that now was the best time to start arguing about that and also, he knew she didn't mean it,

"It's okay, it's not that big of a deal." he sighed.

"Pun intended?" Teri asked with a sneaky grin.

Gumball was about to yell at her for that comeback, but stopped when he heard another scraping sound and turned to see what Window Hopper was doing. Teri also heard the noise and her senses immediately went back into alert mode when she turned to see the latter mentioned Nephilim. To their surprise, the oversized serpent had removed its head from the tiny doorway and was now rearing it back.

Having given up on forcing itself through a small doorway, the Nephilim opted to make it wider and opened its mouth. Soon, a familiar gurgling sound could be heard and the two kids immediately recognized what was about to happen. Fearing the imminent danger they were in, the two made like a frightened pup and zipped back further into the decaying building, leaving the horrific entity behind as the darkness of the hallway swallowed them up.

The warehouse had several floors and many large rooms that could at one point hold massive machines that could be run by dozens of workers to assemble various products for consumers to purchase after they had been shipped out. Given the concrete layout of the building floor and the various wires that hung from the walls and ceiling, Gumball and Teri could deduce that this factory was one of the "newer" ones that came a little before the great depression, probably late 1910's if they were to estimate. Either way, the place reeked of ancient history, with musty smells and dust irritating the nostrils as the two inhaled the dirty air. Teri promised herself that she was going to deep clean her whole body (and make Gumball do the same, following her own decontamination process, and there was no way he was backing out of it!) when she got back home. If she got back home.

The good news was, some of the hallways were extremely narrow and would prove quite a challenge for the large demon if he tried making his way in here. The bad news was, there was little light in some of rooms and the two were having a difficult time seeing and making their way through the hallways. Right now was the time Gumball wished his cell phone wasn't compromised with the Nephilim's presence as he could have used the flashlight on the device to illuminate the dark, musky halls of the dying building.

Surprisingly, they didn't hear any sounds coming from behind them nor any sound at all really. They've been wandering the dim hallways for three minutes now, having slowed down after feeling as though they had put enough distance between themselves and the acid spitting Nephilim, yet the sound of metallic scales grating against concrete could not be heard from anywhere within the building. While Gumball was appreciating the silence the halls were giving, he felt really tense right now because he was worried the monster was setting a trap for them or worse, had gone off to hunt other prey.

Teri who was moving silently behind him was feeling the same way and wanted to formulate a plan rather than wander the halls in silence, plus she wanted to put a little ease on her mind and the only way to do that was to talk to her only companion in the dark. Clearing her throat as to indicate to her partner that she was about to speak, she gently grabbed Gumball's shoulder and prevented him from walking any further,

"Wait a minute." she whispered.

Gumball cautiously turned his head towards her. He was still armed and felt pretty sure that he could defend the both of them if Window Hopper decided to show up and engage them in close quarters, but he still didn't feel at ease in the darkness so he wasn't exactly happy to be stopping in the darkened hall,

"Something wrong, Teri?" he whispered back.

He heard a slight crumpling sound and a few swishes, indicating that she was shaking her head side to side,

"No, not really, I just came up with something!" she exclaimed.

Gumball felt his spirits lifting the moment she presented herself with a plan,

"Oh thank goodness! I really thought we were stumped here for a moment and were just going to wander through this dingy place until the thing shows up and tries to kill us. What have you got in mind?" he asked, allowing his anxiety to release itself from his troubled mind.

Teri ignored his comments and continued on with her train of thought. She took a step forward and began whispering in his ear, worried that the Nephilim may be nearby and listening in on them,

"I think it's back in the reflections again so we're going to go on with your original plan. Let's find a large room with windows and draw it out. Once we accomplish that, let's lure it back in the hallway, I'm going to use a rune to finish it off and if that doesn't work use your grey fire trick to finish the job." she finished and took a step back, wanting to see what his response will be.

At first, Gumball remained silent as he thought it over and then lifted his shoulders in a shrug since he didn't see any other options in defeating the reflection dwelling Nephilim at the moment,

"That works for me, although I'm still feeling unsure about my new abilities." he stated, giving her his honest opinion. At the same time he felt his hand clutching the scythe tightly.

Aware of his uncertainty, the origami wielder made sure to assure him that they will only use his uncanny ability as a last resort. Feeling confident in her plan, Gumball nodded and took the lead once more, as they both searched for a room with windows and was hopefully well lit too. While they continued to creep through the vacant building, Gumball wondered what it was they made here. He could imagine the thunderous sounds of many machines working as workers dressed in drab uniforms meandered through the halls and stood by the assembly lines as they performed repetitive tasks that would most definitely drive him nuts if he ever had to work at such a job.

As a matter of fact, Gumball still hated the aspect of growing up and selling yourself to a job that you detested. He knew that it was an eventual outcome in life and that he was going to have to do it sometime (despite how much he loved and even acted like his father, he didn't take well to the idea of being a stay-at-home dad either.) in the future. It then occurred to him that maybe he should look into things he actually enjoyed doing and apply himself to that. Maybe he could be a baker or a gym teacher, seeing as he was actually starting to enjoy exercising, but he still didn't know if those were _his_ kind of jobs. Well, he still had a lot of time to decide these things and will worry about it when the time actually comes. He realized that this place was making him think about his future and decided to push the thoughts out of his head in order to focus on the mission.

They wandered the ruinous hallways for a good minute and a half when they finally reached a room that had many windows lining the walls and was basking the place with an unnatural amount of light. It was so bright in fact that Gumball and Teri had to shield their eyes while they entered the room. Gumball hissed as response to this blinding effect that agitated his eyes that were adjusted to the dark prior to entering this place,

"Augh! What gives? This place is like walking into the Bobert store, only with twice the brightness!" he groaned, furiously rubbing at his burnt out eyes with a free paw.

Teri too groaned as she reached for the pocket on her backpack that held the pencils so that she could draw on a pair of shades,

"Urrgh! Where is it?" she muttered to herself as she kept reaching back for the pocket containing her drawing materials.

After a few agonizing moments the two were able adjust their eyes to the brightness and intensity of the room and opened their eyes after blinking a few times. When they looked around they noticed right away that they stumbled into the absolute worst of places they could fight Window Hopper: a storage room filled with dozens of ornate, full length mirrors that caught the sun's glare shining through the windows. This was definitely bad news for the two of them.

The first one to voice out their frustration was surprisingly not Gumball, but instead his paper companion,

"OH COME ON!" she shouted, stomping her foot as her voice echoed through the cavernous room,

"Of all the factories we walk into, how is it remotely possible that we wind up in the one that produces mirrors of all things!" she continued to rant, her face twisted in anger and her flimsy hands balled up into fists.

Gumball noticed a sign with visible print on the wall right next to the entranceway and saw that it read: **Looking Glass factory storage room. Warning: reckless behavior around mirrors could lead to serious injury or seven years of bad luck.** Looking Glass factory, eh? That would've been nice to know from the beginning.

Gumball looked away from the sign and sighed out loud with his eyebrows furrowed in frustration,

"Well, I guess now would be a good time to reflect on our poor choices." he muttered to himself.

Teri glared daggers at him and raised a finger up to his face as a warning,

"One more half baked pun and I will shatter you!" she hissed.

Gumball barely even noticed the venom in her voice and shrugged a little, a sly smirk making its way on its face,

"Good one." he complimented,

"But I thought we were done with bakery puns?" he replied, his smile getting wider.

Teri froze in place because she was caught between two important decisions right now: should she throw him at a mirror or should she clobber him with her bag? Well, she supposed she couldn't harm him now, since she kind of needed him for this mission, but she _definitely_ could play an annoying song nonstop or make him watch a horrendous show later on in the evening. Question was: what did he really hate and which one sounded really bad?

Unfortunately, before she could come up with a decision, an explosion of glass could be heard followed by a breeze seeping in from a broken window, as Window Hopper had located them and was attacking now. Looking up and across the room where the windows were, Gumball and Teri watched in shock as the massive spirit dropped from the highest window, in its jaws was an orb of red energy that grew brighter by the second, and before the Nephilim hunter reached the mirror that it was heading for, it discharged the energy blast in Gumball and Teri's direction.

Without having to think about it, both the cat and the paper bear dove forward and placed their hands on the back of their heads just as the hot blast of exotic energy struck the ceiling above the doorway. Seconds later, a roaring sound could be heard as rubble torn from the damaged spot came raining down behind the two, completely blocking the doorway they came through and sealing the two kids in the mirror room.

When Gumball and Teri stood on their feet again, they observed the damage done by Window Hopper's doom blast and to their dread saw that their only means of effectively fighting the monster and the fastest means of leaving this room was cut off by a mountain of smoldering bricks and plaster. The Nephilim had been waiting for them here and set up a trap for the two of them. Now they were sealed in room filled with mirrors and a creature that was so fast and deadly that they could barely fight it the first time. Both the boy and girl felt their hearts collectively sink at the realization that they had just been fooled.

Gripping the scythe as tightly as possible, turning his knuckles white in the process, Gumball began to sweat profusely as his eyes darted about each mirror in the room, searching for any flickering shadows,

"Well, so much for that idea." he said nervously, his voice shaky and filled with terror,

"Any other ideas?" his voice cracked, as he slowly turned his head to see what Teri was doing.

He saw that she had already pulled a few normal-sized sheets of paper out along with a larger one, obviously for origami making. She was scribbling a few symbols on the smaller sheets of paper and from the frantic motions of her hands added in with the speed she was drawing with, Gumball could tell right away she was nervous. She no doubt had a plan in action, but for now she needed some time to construct her items.

And Gumball was just the guy to buy her that time.

He returned his attention to the many mirrors scattered about the room. They had some dust coating the surface and some of the metal frames had already begun to rust, but they could serve their purpose to the Nephilim whose travel methods are bizarre as his anatomy. There was one thing that Gumball noticed though and that was whenever Window Hopper leapt out of a window, it always shattered and he'd immediately have to enter through another one. He could also use his reflective poison to travel to his dimension, but one thing remained constant: he could only enter through reflections, but whenever he left them they shattered and became unusable.

What would happen if he shattered a mirror while he was in it?

Reaching back into the debris behind him, Gumball pulled a brick still warm and blackened by the doom blast out of the rubble and carefully began searching for the shadow the Nephilim always left behind in the reflection. Seconds felt like hours as the eldest Watterson child narrowed his eyes against the glaring reflection the mirrors gave off while he continued to search for a familiar shape. He wondered if he should try searching faster because the bronze otherworldly creature could move pretty fast, but he kept his search at a medium pace for fear of accidentally missing it.

Then he spotted it! To his left, twenty feet from Teri, leaning against the wall, a mirror with a rust covered frame adorned with carvings of angels playing trumpets or pulling aside curtains displayed a silhouette of the murderous snake monster curling around in a circle as it prepared to strike at the unsuspecting Teri, who had finished with her runes and was working on the origami. Reacting without thinking, Gumball felt his whole body tense up as he twisted on his heel, curved his arm backwards like a baseball pitcher would before finished with his half spin and snapped his arm forward, releasing the brick at the same time.

Watching the solid, rectangular prism projectile sail through the air, Gumball immediately felt a twinge of doubt fill his mind as he wondered if he had thrown too hard and was going to overshoot the mirror or if he had miscalculated the weight of the missile and was going to undershoot the target. The brick sailed through the open space in an arc, spinning as it traveled, and made its way towards the mirror within the span of a second. Unbelievable to Gumball, lady fortune was smiling on him today as the brick struck the mirror square in the center, forming spider web-like cracks that spread across the silver, rectangular surface and distorted the world it was reflecting.

After the brick that had been thrown clattered to the ground, the damaged mirror exploded into several hundred silver shards whose sizes varied from the size of a pea to the size of a human hand as they rained down in a pretty, glittering shower of broken glass and metal. What also came tumbling out was a five-foot long Nephilim serpent, who was writhing about the floor as if in agony and spat out little globs of acid as it hissed violently. Evidently being forced out of its hiding spot caused it to shrink in size and also resulted in excruciating pain for Window Hopper. Gumball mentally took note of this and decided that it would provide them an excellent advantage.

Getting over its initial shock, the Nephilim spirit reoriented itself until it was on its belly again and turned to glare at Gumball with hate filled eyes. Seeing as he had cheesed it off some, Gumball quickly got himself in a defensive position, lowering his body and keeping his weapon raised as he carefully eyed the creature, tracking any little changes in its body that would indicate to him when it was going to attack. Coiling its body up, the shortened serpent sprung at Gumball with its jaw opened and its fangs aiming for the little kid's vulnerable neck.

Already counting in for the increase for the changing monster's speed, Gumball was already reacting by the time the snake had coiled itself to launch. Placing his right foot behind him while keeping the scythe's curved blade to his left, the moment the Nephilim was in striking distance, Gumball swiped at the beast, not with the blade itself, but instead with the stock end of the weapon since it was faster and caught the monster in mid attack. He managed to catch the bronze spirit in the mouth and with his body's momentum, he carried it over until he flung Window Hopper to the wall opposite of where it came out of. The five foot, living cylinder of bronze scales sailed like the world's prettiest missile all the way over the opposite end of the room and crashed onto the cold floor with a heavy thud. After a few moments of laying still, the Nephilim regained its bearings and spotted a mirror in front of it before quickly slinking away and disappearing into the looking glass.

Watching it disappear from sight, Gumball found himself wiping the sweat off his brow with an unconscious swipe of his forearm as his heart pounded in his chest,

" _That was way too close for comfort!"_ he thought to himself.

He'd had plenty of intense, deadly moments throughout his life, even during all his and Teri's fights with the evil invaders from another world, but this one literally left him shaking because for most of this fight, they were barely able to keep up with Window Hopper and up until a few seconds ago, it felt as though any chance of hitting it while it was attacking was less than likely. He actually felt proud of himself for managing to fend off the monster on his own, but also regretted not using the blade-end of his scythe because that probably would have caused some damage given the Nephilim's reduced size. He brushed off his regret though, he defended himself and bought Teri some more time: he did great!

Finally finished with setting up her paper creation, Teri stood up for a moment to admire the craftsmanship of her work. What she had created by folding the piece of paper as carefully as possible was a grasshopper! Whenever Window Hopper attacked, Teri noticed that it only did so whenever they were within its range and even had a limited agility when it came to movement that only improved when it decreased its size. So she decided that outrunning the monster was a bad idea since speed was its greatest advantage and opted to create something that had greater agility. Rather than outrun it, she was going to outmaneuver it!

While she had been working, she was aware that she was leaving herself open to an attack and was also keeping her and Gumball in one spot. This was a concern for her, but she needed to do this by hand because whenever she did so, her creations would perform better. She never understood why this was the case, but she had known this ever since she found that she could control paper just by touching it. Maybe it just had to do with how much thought and care she placed into the creation process that affected the Origamis' performance.

And when she heard the mirror shattering beside her along with the Nephilim hissing and eventually attacking, she didn't even pause while she worked. This was because she knew Gumball was watching out for her and wouldn't let any harm come to her while she put together her plan. She trusted him entirely and knew her life was safe in his hands. Her faith paid off when she heard Gumball catch their attacker in its attack and flung it away from the two of them. This made her incredibly happy causing a small smile to form on her lips that was unseen by Gumball before she finished creating the grasshopper.

Turning to her reliable companion, she called his name and gestured for him to climb aboard the incredibly realistic-looking paper insect,

"Hop on! We're going to kill that snake!" she said confidently.

Seeing her determination shining through, Gumball also felt himself getting fired up and complied with her orders. He dashed over to the dog-sized, jumping insect, saddled up, and waited on Teri, who was gathering four sheets of paper that held her deadly magical symbols. Having everything she needed, she quickly clambered aboard in front of Gumball, and briefed Gumball on her plan,

"Okay, I created three explosive runes and one new one I'm going to use first on Window Hopper. We're going to move about the room and when we land next to any mirrors, smash them with your scythe! Also, you're in charge of defending us in case it gets too close." she explained, placing her hands on the grasshopper's round head, causing it to spring to life and leap into the air,

"It may have us trapped, but it too is cornered, let's turn that into our advantage!" Teri said as she searched for a spot to land.

Gumball nodded in acknowledgement and hefted his favored weapon over his shoulder while he kept a grip on the insect to maintain his stability,

"Good plan! I feel as though I _hissed_ it off earlier, so we shouldn't have to wait long for it to attack." Gumball replied.

Teri didn't want to waste her energy yelling at him, so she just rolled her eyes and groaned,

"Ugh!" she hated his puns, but was glad he could keep lighting up the situation with humor. He's got a spirit that just never quits and that was something Teri would never want to see fade any time soon or at all really.

The fight began the moment the grasshopper and its riders landed on smack dab in the middle of the mirror storage room. Not even one second after the paper insects six legs touched the ground, Window Hopper's giant head shot out from a dirty mirror laying on its back on the floor not too far away from them and attempted to snap them up in its fangs. Luckily Teri was able react just in time and pulled them both out of the trap by leaping high into the air again. Down below, the bizarre entity left the broken mirror that it exited from and raced towards another one nearby and quickly left the realm they were in.

Once alone, Gumball and Teri quickly descended and began visiting every mirror that was within their reach, smashing every one they came in close proximity to. While they did this, Window Hopper immediately went on the offensive, attacking the two every time they got close to the ground, predicting where they would go before finally stopping them by pinning them with a doom blast. Fortunately, like Toxic Pill and Concretin, the red blast of energy was deflected when Gumball's scythe lit up with flames the color of a grey winter sky, allowing the cat boy to act. With the grey fire coating his scythe again, Gumball and Teri went into a panic as Gumball quickly tried to will the flames to disappear before anything bad could happen to his mind.

Strangely enough, the moment Gumball's thoughts went from desperation to worry and fear, the weapon's grey flames went out.

"Huh? That's all it takes to shut them off?" Gumball wondered out loud, surprised that nothing bad happened and that a solution to such a problem could found as easily as that.

Seeing that they were about to be attacked again, Teri ignored Gumball's self imposed question and got the grasshopper moving again,

"We'll worry about that later! Right now, you need to worry about the Nephilim and not using the flames unless they're needed. There are ten mirrors left, we gotta smash the rest and defeat that thing for good!" she exclaimed, before getting them up in the air again.

She'd never seen Gumball use the grey fire to deflect a doom blast up close before, but was now quite impressed by the power that he wielded. She had a feeling that the scythe was on a level of its own and wondered if there was more to it than she and Gumball knew. She was also curious if the magical device was able to be used by anyone or if it was reacting only to Gumball, he never used the magic stored within the weapon until their battle in the desert and again on the bridge. Perhaps this was something he was going to have to train with in order to get better at wielding it. Whatever the case may be, any more help in defeating the Nephilim was more than welcomed by the paper bear girl, as long as it didn't affect them in a negative way.

The struggle continued in the storage room, dragging on for another three minutes that felt significantly longer for the active participants involved and was starting to grow in intensity the longer it dragged on. Within those three minutes, Gumball had successfully destroyed seven out of the ten mirrors remaining while parrying any surprise attacks enacted by the serpent and Teri continued to nimbly avoid any attacks Gumball could otherwise not defend against. Within the heat of the battle, both pre-teens having been thrown into this conflict only a few weeks prior, were now an impressive team that continued to whittle down the Nephilim's best means of attacking, defending, and escaping during the ongoing conflict.

Sensing that it had very little hiding places left, Window Hopper, now sitting in a room mostly filled with broken, unuseable mirrors, decided to change tactics. Opening its mouth, it began whipping its head about the place while spraying acid in every direction as far as it could. The corrosive liquid splashed all over the place covering the most of the floor and the walls, melting broken mirror frames and dissolving all the mirror fragments it covered. Gumball and Teri were fortunate enough to avoid the waves of acid that covered the room, but now understood that their problem just got worse.

With many pools of reflective, golden acid everywhere, the air was filled with the hiss of materials being broken down to their base elements and the repulsive smell of said materials dissolving. Satisfied with all the new hiding places it created, Window Hopper began slinking his way towards the nearest puddle. Within a few seconds it will disappear in its dimension and will be able to attack from which ever puddle or mirror (the ones still intact, at least.) it chooses.

Still up in the air, but with few places to land, Gumball began desperately concocting a plan. Thinking on his toes, he spotted the Nephilim making its way towards the nearest puddle of acid and thought up of something. It hadn't noticed them yet, which was good, but the problem with Gumball's plan was that it was a gamble.

Nevertheless, it will probably help defeat the beast before it reached the puddle to begin a new series of attacks. Reaching over Teri's shoulder and pointing towards the retreating form of the twenty foot monster, Gumball shouted in her ear,

"Land on its back and use your new rune, quickly!" he shouted.

Teri understood right away and quickly twisted the grasshopper until it's head was pointing towards the Nephilim. They fell for a second, grasshoppers legs outstretched as it prepared to land and the Nephilim's nose was just mere inches away from the reflective puddle of ooze. They weren't going to make it in time!

That was until, Teri crumpled up the rune sheet and hurled it at the Nephilim below.

The paper wad moved faster than them and struck the serpent's scaly backside. Rather than bounce and roll off, the paper stuck to the spot it landed on and at first nothing happened. They landed on the serpents neck area just as it was dipping its head into the pool of acid, when suddenly, it stopped moving. It pulled its head out of the golden puddle and began looking around with wide eyes as if sensing something wrong and indeed something was.

Right behind the grasshopper riding Nephilim fighters, sitting on Window Hopper's back was the wad of paper with a triangular rune that Teri had written onto was glowing and causing the Nephilim's shiny, bronze scales surrounding it to lose its color and eventually turn into stone. The effect spread a little ways, like a virus, across a section of the Nephilim's body before a five foot section of the beast was reduced to stone, granite by the looks of it. When Teri had looked through the notebook Rob had given her, she spotted an easy to draw rune that looked like a triangle with a little circle located within the upper point and decided to try that one out first.

Turns out it petrified the bodies of Nephilim spirits, though not completely and now Teri wondered if the Nephilim were any smaller, would it completely petrify it?

While she was lost in this thought, Gumball spotted a golden opportunity to finish the Nephilim off. Using his powerful legs to pounce over Teri's head, Gumball landed on its back and began to race all the way up to Window Hopper's head. In the meantime, the serpent had realized that its midsection was completely turned to stone and had left itself completely immobile. Panicking, the Nephilim let out another hiss as it tried desperately to move its body again while it felt something crawl on top of its head. With its eyes lining the sides of his head and facing outwards, it wasn't able to see what it was, but it knew for a fact it was one of the vermin it was trying to exterminate.

Nearing the nose of the beast, Gumball shifted his grip on the scythe so that his paw was closer to the blade itself, knelt down on one knee, and drove the blade into one of the creatures brilliant, ruby red eyes. Window Hopper let out the loudest hiss that Gumball had ever heard it make as it began thrashing its head about, desperately trying to rid itself of the attacking cat boy. Gumball had no choice but to hang on for dear life as he was flung about like a ragdoll, all the while calling out to Teri,

"Teri! Throw your bomb runes in its mouth! Hurry!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, starting to feel queasy from all the thrashing the monster was doing.

Recognizing the chance Gumball had provided her, Teri sprung into action! Quickly skittering up the Nephilim's neck and onto its head, she willed the paper insect to cling on tightly as she grabbed onto a flailing Gumball and pulled him onto the grasshopper with her. Without being tossed around like a towel, Gumball felt slightly better now, although his eyes were spinning in his head and his stomach was trying to crawl into his heart. With Gumball safely aboard, Teri quickly moved to a better position and pulled out the bomb runes she had prepared earlier. The metallic snake was still thrashing its head about and hissing in agony as it tried to move away and into the acid puddle, but couldn't because its middle was still stone solid.

Having reached the monsters mouth, Teri crumpled up the three magic bombs, leaned over and tossed them into its gullet, being extra careful to make sure they were thrown in deep. The whole time this was happening, Teri was feeling really disoriented from all the movement and having done the deed, was more than glad to leap away from the doomed beast and onto the broken window it came in through. The grasshopper clung on tightly to the window sill with its four front legs, all the while the two riders were catching their breaths and waiting for the world to stop spinning.

A moment or two later and a bright light filled the room, followed with a thunderous boom, and shockwave that blew all the acid and broken mirror away from the source. The second the explosion came, it ended and through the smoke that filled the room, the two kids caught a faint glimpse of a headless serpent collapsing on the ground. Seconds later, it's brilliant bronze scales that glimmered so wonderfully in the sunlight, faded into a blackened color before bursting into purple flames that traveled up with the smoke.

Another battle had been won.

Simultaneously feeling a breath of relief escape their mouths, the two exhausted middle schoolers took a moment to just let the stress flow out of their systems and process over everything that had just transpired. That had definitely been one of their toughest battles, while previous fights never lasted beyond twenty minutes, this one felt like it lasted at least half an hour. There were so many times they could have died and so many times they had no choice but to run from the enemy they were facing, rather than just keeping their distance and studying it while also figuring out how it fought through trial and error. On the plus side, they adapted to the situation and emerged victorious, with surprisingly little injury to themselves. Also, Teri now had a new rune to use and Gumball knew how to shut off his power, kinda.

With all the excitement they faced today, both agreed that it was time to go home and Teri reformed the grasshopper into a quetzal bird again in order to fly them back to her house. Having achieved air travel, the industrial section of Elmore began to fade away behind them as they headed back to the Elmore suburbs. However, there was something that was bugging Gumball ever since the fight had ended and now wanted to share his observations with his partner and close friend,

"You know what I noticed." Gumball stated, folding his arms across his chest, his grey weapon already folded away and stashed in his bag.

Teri turned her head back and returned his question with a curious look,

"What?" she asked.

"We never even dreamed about the Nephilim before we left, so we never knew of it, yet it appeared in the industrial section at the same time we were walking through it." he remarked, sounding suspicious.

Teri knew where he was going with this and also thought it was strange that it would happen to appear at the exact place they were walking. It could be that its portal opened nearby and Window Hopper was just seeking out the nearest target, but she couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling that it wasn't just a coincidence. She wore a solemn look on her face as the realization kicked in and she eyed Gumball,

"You think it was hunting _us_ , specifically?" she asked, fear gripping her voice.

Gumball shrugged as he didn't have the answers to give, only speculations,

"Maybe. It wouldn't be too strange for them. For starters, they have shown signs of intelligence and counting out the first night they appeared, they hadn't scored a single casualty or caused any real damage to Elmore. If their goal is to kill everyone in this town, then removing us, the ones that have been repelling them…" he trailed off when Teri picked up on what he was saying.

"...would leave them with no one to stop them from killing everyone in Elmore." she muttered, clarity now resounding within her.

This was troubling news for the both of them because not only did it mean that they themselves were being hunted, but it meant that everyone else around them was in danger of being attacked. Also, counting the fact that every Nephilim that has come to Elmore has been eradicated by the city's three defenders and yet, they were still able to coordinate an attack specifically aimed at the two of them. That would have to mean that the Nephilim are getting information on them somehow and that they were now acting with a strategy. This lead to the possibility that their enemies were well organized and were not attacking randomly or opportunistically, but were actually waging a war against this town.

With all these possibilities in mind, that still left one thing really clear to the two of them,

"We have to be really careful from now on." Gumball said.

There was no need for Teri to verbally or physically express her agreement because she already knew that they were going to have to proceed with caution from now on. She also became aware that their only other ally, Rob, was probably on the Nephilim's hit list as well and made a mental note to warn him about their findings whenever she would get the chance. She also figured that all three of them were going to have to take extra precautions, starting tomorrow in order to better prepare for the next wave of attacks, that is if their theory was correct.

She figured that Rob could take the day shift, seeing as he didn't have to go to school and could sleep whenever he wanted, plus he was very capable on his own. Next was the night shift, which seemed more challenging because Teri's parents had her on a strict schedule and couldn't exactly sleep when she wanted to until it was bedtime, Gumball, on the other hand, may have better luck in that field. After pondering on it, she figured she could ask her parents if she could stay after school to work on school work and ask Gumball to ask his parents if he could do the same. That way they could finish any school work during the afternoon and have more time to prepare for any attacks.

Now came the issue of getting everyone to go along with the plan, but she would worry about that after the picnic.

That's when a sudden, terrible realization came to her and her eyes widened in horror as she remembered something they were supposed to do when they got home. When they left the house, they were supposed to be gone for an hour, but fighting the Nephilim took up a lot of time. She, of course, was worried about the cake both she and Gumball had left baking in the oven this morning.

With her mind on overdrive, she mentally commanded the inorganic bird to hightail it back to her house and the bird immediately began picking up speed. Soon, the Elmore industrial sector fell away from sight and the trees, cars, and houses that came into view below them, shot by in a blur of motion. Gumball was sitting behind her, sifting through his thoughts on the Nephilim when he felt the bird's speed increase dramatically and actually felt his upper body start to lean back to the sudden increase in acceleration. Quickly reaching forward, both his hands found Teri's waist and he quickly pulled himself forward until his chest was pressed against her back,

"What's the rush?" he hollered over the roaring wind.

Teri wanted to focus on only getting home because her mind was in such a panicked state, but she managed to answer any way,

"The cake! We fought Window Hopper for a really long time, and it completely slipped my mind! We gotta get home fast or else the cake is gonna burn!"

Now understanding the reason for her maddening dash forward and nearly throwing him off the bird, Gumball realized that their project for the picnic had completely slipped his mind as well when Window Hopper appeared and it was probably past 8:30 at this point. Feeling rather concerned, he pulled out his phone and checked the time, 8:37 AM the screen said. He immediately felt his fear vanish once he realized that not much time had passed and that the cake can be saved. He actually remembered putting the cake in at 7:33, meaning that it was probably still good. Still didn't mean they shouldn't hurry though.

Putting his phone away, he kept a tight hold on Teri as her house slowly came into view,

"There it is! We're almost there!" Teri exclaimed, feeling her heart jumping as she sped up towards the driveway.

Gumball couldn't help but feel himself smile a little bit as his over-reactive friend continued to tear them both across the sky and towards the house,

"Teri, it's alright! It's only 8:38, I put the cake in the oven at 7:33, it's definitely not burnt at this point." he explained, laughing giddily afterwards.

It was as if a light went on in Teri's mind and everything seemed to slow down afterwards. Well, that was partially because after Gumball had told her that everything was fine, she did cause the bird to slow down a little, but mentally speaking all her anxieties seem to just leave her like a poisonous vapor being vented out of a crowded room. She looked back at the cat boy with a shocked and confused expression sprawled all over her facial features (she also just now noticed that Gumball was practically hugging her and was _extremely_ close.) as she noticed that he was very calm,

"Wait, what?" was all she asked while continued to descend despite not looking where she was going.

Gumball continued to keep a cool face and head as he calmly explained to her what he discovered,

"I said not to worry. I placed the cake in the oven at 7:33 before we left, also, I forgot to wait for the oven to warm up, so the actual cooking process didn't actually start until around 7:43." he checked his phone again, 8:40 it read,

"We're actually right on time." he said with a chuckle.

Feeling a bit of red creep into her face, Teri looked away in embarrassment and continued to make her descent. She felt incredibly silly for freaking out like that without actually checking the time and checking in with Gumball as well. It was funny, she always thought herself to be the level-headed one of the two, but here she was, making a fool out of herself over something she overlooked.

They landed on the paved driveway of the Pepakuma household and dismounted from their odd form of transportation. Everything appeared to be in prime condition and a sweet, warm smell was wafting through one of the screen windows they left open in the kitchen. Looks like the cake was ready to be born into the world and decorated by its odd parents.

Unfolding and refolding her origami into a simple square before placing it in her bag along with her other supplies and began heading towards the house with Gumball following close behind. She still felt embarrassed about her reaction and held her head low as she made her way towards the closed door that safely guarded the interior of her home from the outdoors. Sighing to herself, she grabbed the doorknob and with a twist followed by a push, the door swung open,

"I'm so embarrassed." she squeaked.

Gumball overheard her talking to herself and let out another chuckle, causing her to turn around and look at him with another baffled expression. Her eyes seemed to ask _what?_ as Gumball calmed down and looked at her with a goofy smile on his face. Sometimes Teri really wondered how she survived so long with this dork,

"It's okay, Teri! I probably would've freaked out if you hadn't because I probably would've came to that realization too, given time. You also did the right thing by getting us here faster, so good job! Also, you look really cute when you're embarrassed." he said, feeling another chuckle making its way up.

A rather odd way of putting things, is what Teri thought to herself as she watched the big-headed blue cat let loose an amused laugh. However, what he said did the job and put her in a better mood. Yeah, she panicked, but at least she got them here on time and now they can finish what they started, which was a definite win for the both of them.

She turned to walk into the house, but stopped when she remembered the last line he said to her and turned around with a suspicious glance,

"Hang on a sec! did you just say I looked cute when I'm embarrassed?" she asked in a tone that was both accusing and curious at the same time.

With his laughing ceasing the moment the question left her lips, Gumball remained frozen in place as he went over what he had just said. Teri watched as his pupils shrank in terror and his face went from the shade of Cyan to the shade of a strawberry in under a second. Teri swore that she could hear his fuses blowing as he tried to come up with an explanation for his unusual choice of words. The fact that he said she was cute and coupled with his reaction of her pointing that out, made Teri suspect that something was going on with him, but she didn't get a chance to question him about it or even ponder on it because a second later, the once blue boy quickly sprang up and made a dash for the house, rushing past her as he shouted,

"I THINK SOMETHING'S BURNING!" and raced into the kitchen, despite the fact he knew was supposed to be quiet due to her mother's need for rest.

Pausing for a moment to think about what just happened, Teri shrugged it off and followed the overreacting boy's trail to the kitchen where said person was pulling the rainbow cake out of the oven, but was in such a hurry that he forgot to put on oven mitts and burned his hands by accident. She helped him by soaking his burnt hands in cold water to cool off before placing her own hands into protective mitts and pulled the cake out of the oven. _Such an odd, wonderful day!_ She thought to herself as she placed the warm, scrumptious-looking piece of doughy wonderfulness on the counter. They then proceeded to the next step of decorating the cake with frosting, having fun as they did so.

 _-Void, time: unknown-_

Aside from being boring, lifeless, downright eerie and unsettling, the farthest depths of the void can also be described as pitch black. This one, true, simple fact did a really good job at highlighting the other descriptions used for the realm of forgotten items and mistakes and could make anyone venturing this place want to leave it immediately. Long term exposure in such a terribly dull landscape could also drive a person mad and cause them to lose all sense of reality and even their own identity, assuring that nothing ever left this trash dimension that doubled as a prison for the forgotten.

Coming back here over and over again was always unsettling for Rob, not just for the memories it would bring, but the sheer hopelessness this place enforced on its occupants. Diving into this place for Rob, was like diving into the true world of death, everything and everyone left here for eternity in absence of the real world, while slowly allowing whatever consciousness that the unlucky few were able retain rot. Everything else was just frozen, caught in a limbo of nothingness.

Rob guessed for those who were frozen along with their thoughts had a more peaceful existence, for they couldn't feel anything, but it was still terrifying to think about: having everything that makes you, well, _you!_ just fade like that, was unsettling to think of.

However, he wasn't here to contemplate such dreary things or to stay as a prisoner, he was here in this dump for something extremely valuable: knowledge! Whatever may lay within the darkest depths of the void had to be extremely valuable in terms of power and perhaps even held valuable information on the Nephilim themselves. He knew that the invading monsters were just beginning in their small city and that in order to fight the monsters at their doorstep, he was going to need something that will level the playing field or maybe even tip it in their favor.

He arrived at the forest of doom at around 8:30 this morning and began his long trek with his equipment in hand as he made his way into the deadly forest. He met very little threats on his way to the void entrance, though he did have to scare a swarm of man-eating squirrels away with an air horn and also had to fend off a slug-like monster with many teeth by zapping it with a stun pole he had constructed many months ago, and eventually found the tear in space time hidden very well in the dense foliage. After suiting up in a foil jumper, a motorcycle helmet covered in foil too, along with the thruster pack he finished creating today, he pulled out a type of bracing device made from steel poles that could root themselves in any surface out of his suitcase, and used it to keep the void portal open throughout the duration of his travels.

After placing a transmitter that served as a beacon near the front entrance, the cyclops stepped into the portal and let himself drift off in the open, static filled space before him. The good thing about his suit was the fact that it allowed him to keep his memories thanks to the protective properties found within the tin foil. He had been here many times and learned through many trials and experiments on how to travel this creepy, parallel world without getting lost or losing his memories in the process. This, however, was the first time he had ever gone deep into the abyss and so that's why he spent two days and nights preparing for the journey.

The mad scientist and former student of Elmore Junior High drifted through the weightless world shrouded in darkness, avoiding any stray objects that appeared on the HUD that was placed in the lower corner of his helmet's visor. Most of the items located within this ancient expanse were small things that had been forgotten by time, like transcripts written by Egyptian merchants, discarded poems carved in stone by Roman poets, failed carvings of Greek deities, and so much more material tossed aside by people who lived so long ago, both mighty and meek. None of it was useful to Rob though, so he kept pushing forward.

It really did help that the void was set up in a similar manner as a tree, with the outer rings being the newest and most recent while the inner rings, the ones that receded further into the trunk, were where the oldest of things were held. Of course, not everything stayed where it was, some things would drift in between time zones because of the weightless nature of this place. Rob encountered a few strange objects due to this phenomenon, like a live Dodo bird wandering _the Hindenberg_ and a sergeant belonging to Napoleon's army stuck on the prototype version of the Viking longboat, which was just a really long log with a sail attached to it's center, actually, that last one could've been that soldier's bad attempt at escaping wherever he was.

Regardless, this place was intriguing and held some really interesting insight to the lives of people from earlier times.

Using his rocket pack, Rob quickly shot around a Sumerian inverted pyramid that was carved with all the laws of their empire, but was abandoned because the structure of the object simply would not hold, Rob could only wonder why it was left to be forgotten in this place. After avoiding a collision with the massive blunder of engineering by some guy even the Sumerians tried forgetting about, the disfigured inventor recorrected his course and continued to move forward.

He could feel his excitement mounting as he made his way further down the world's garbage timeline,

"Okay! I am now passing beyond the timeline of the world's oldest Human/Bizarro civilization! Beyond here should contain some history of the Nephilim and the people who lived during the time!" he eagerly muttered to himself as his one eye kept scanning the darkness obscuring his vision, save the little, blue screen within his visor.

He detected another incoming object approaching his proximity and with the way the scanner was binging, it was pretty big! Quickly glancing at his HUD, he could see that the object he was approaching was enormous, covering up the scanner entirely. This was very interesting, not only did he not expect something so large to be popping up so soon after leaving the Sumerian era behind and from closer inspection, it seemed to be less of an item and more of a barrier of sorts. It was about 900 meters away and even though he couldn't see it, he knew it was quite a distance from his current location.

Curious, he reached up and pressed a single button on his wrist pad causing the rocket nozzles on his back to spew forth an explosive chemical compound that increased his overall forward speed. Without any gravity to slow him down, the human-shaped missile shot forward and closed the gap really quickly, before slowing himself down when he was halfway from the unusual object. After his approach was slowed and the risk of him becoming a Cyclopean pancake was minimal to non-existent, Rob slowly drew closer to the massive object and planted his boot covered feet on a surface that felt like glass.

Like all the other objects drifting within the void, the thing he was standing had its own gravity that allowed Rob to stay standing on top of it or whatever the definition of "top" was in this place thanks to the lack of gravity removing all sense of direction, which could easily disorient beings who were only used to linear planes. The "object" was definitely a barrier of sorts because the instruments placed within his stolen space helmet that he covered with tin foil were showing no signs of an ending point or an edge, if you will. The place seemed to span like an infinite horizon within the darkness.

He knelt down and placed a gloved hand on the glossy black surface below him,

"Hmm, this barrier is placed right before the Sumerian artifacts, definitely not a coincidence." he thought to himself out loud,

"There aren't any clues for me to follow off of here, but maybe this wall of sorts is magical by nature?" he really didn't have much to go off of, seeing as this is his first time visiting this place and he may actually be the only being in the modern age to have made it this far.

Formulating a conjecture to further to test upon, Rob pulled the weapon he produced within his own home off of the rocket pack's weapon harness and leapt off the dark barrier until he was hovering twenty feet above the infinite plane. Punching in a few commands on the smart phone strapped to his wrist, he pressed a button on the side of the rifle and moments later, a whirring sound could be heard as many devices from within the weapon's loading chamber began to carve the explosive rune into the copper pellet stored within. Within the span of ten seconds, a rune was carved into the bullet and Rob had already raised the weapon until he was in a firing position,

" _If the barrier is magical by nature, then it should have a reaction to the enhanced pellet I'm about fire at it."_ this was all speculation to him of course. If nothing happened here then he was going to have to go back and search some suspect areas for a possible means of bypassing this wall before him. There was never one simple answer when it came to science, sometimes multiple experiments were needed in order to move forward.

With the rune printing coil gun or RPCG for short, primed, loaded, and ready to fire, Rob sucked in a breath, held it, before squeezing the trigger. He felt the click reverberate from the rifle and throughout his body as the round was propelled out of the stocky gun thanks to the use of charged coils lining the barrel of the homemade weapon. The coils were given energy via a EMP resistant battery pack built within the booster pack itself and was connected by the thick cable Rob had to add in. The tiny projectile was sent streaking towards the solid, black barrier at speeds that dwarfed that of regular firearms and struck its target with a sharp _Snap!_ That echoed throughout the space around him. It was so strange to be in a place that had little gravity, yet still had an atmosphere that allowed him and the inhabitants of this dimension to breathe and create sound.

To his disappointment, nothing happened right away. Thirty seconds passed by, at least that's what it felt like to him, and the only thing that happened after the bullet struck the barrier was the sound that it created from striking it, faded away. He thought about possibly loading another round with a different rune carved into it and trying again, when something happened.

It was small at first, so insignificant that he initially dismissed it as a trick of his imagination or his helmet's digital display flashing in order to warn him about the pellet he fired earlier approaching his proximity and then, after a second glance, he saw that something _on_ the barrier was actually lighting up! Stopping the reloading process, the grey, polygonal pre-teen glanced up with his single, yellow eye and squinted to get a better look at the small glow originating from the mysterious wall in front of him. From his distant perspective, the marvel showing presenting itself before was but a mere orange glow, like a distant star or planet in the night sky.

Not sure if he should get close or not, Rob pulled the phone that served as a data pad and a command device for his various inventions (he really like how modern phones are able to connect to just about anything these days, so that anyone who has studied electronics as extensively as he had could produce such ingenious devices like the ones he did recently.) and pulled up the camera app in order to zoom in on the glowing object. After using his two fingers to expand on the image, he saw to his surprise that the brightly lit, orange object was actually a glowing symbol, and not just any symbol, but the familiar octagonal explosion rune he just used! So his theory of the wall being magical in nature was correct and that it did react to other magical objects.

Keeping his excitement about such a discovery down to a minimum, the temporary ally of Gumball Watterson remained where he was and waited to see what would happen next. Keeping his phone focused on the glowing symbol, Rob watched with amazement as the symbol began to glow brighter and three concentric circles containing geometric designs formed around the explosive symbol and the surface of the barrier began to ripple. Suddenly, the symbols faded entirely, replaced by a blank blinding white glow as though a porthole displaying a world of pure light were being opened and forced the cyclop's pupil to constrict into a slit-like shape at the sudden increase in brightness and forced him to turn away.

There was no sound being emitted from the light source, but the symbol's glare continued to glow ever so brightly, casting everything in the surrounding area in white brilliance. Even turning himself away, Rob could not escape the brightness surrounding him and wondered to himself if what he did was wrong! Closing his eye, curling himself in a tight ball, even allowing his RPCG to drift out of his hand as he placed it along with the other on the sides of his and gritted his teeth together. He waited in both fear and anticipation for whatever was to come.

Then, just like that, the blinding glow slowly faded, allowing darkness to creep back within the void and shroud everything within its suffocating grasp. The moment the light started retreating, the adventurous cyclops opened his one eye again and with the utmost caution coupled with a sense of wonder, checked his surroundings. Once again there was nothing but the blackness of an uncaring dimension peering back at him through his helmet. He didn't realize it at first, but he was breathing so heavily that his breath collected as fog on his visor. He had never been through something so intense and downright terrifying.

Taking a moment to catch his breath, Rob checked the proximity scanner within his helmet and his glaring, yellow eye widened significantly when he saw something on the HUD.

The small, blue, digital screen showed his current location in comparison to the barrier behind him, which was still where it currently was due to him not moving from his current spot. Approaching him however, was a very small object and was coming in _from_ the wall! Snapping to attention, Rob quickly reached out, grabbed his rifle, punched in a series of commands on his phone and felt several nozzles on his maneuvering pack fire off. He soon found himself recalibrated until he was facing the barrier with his rifle already primed and ready to blast away anything resembling a threat.

It took a few moments of ardent waiting and tracking the mysterious object before the polygonal, former resident of this dimension gained a visual on said object. To his surprise, the object that came to him was none other than an old book. Taken aback by this discovery, Rob placed the weapon back in its holster and reached out, grasping the book in his four fingers. Even through the gloves he could tell the book was bound in leather and was actually in good condition.

Holding it both hands now, the disfigured madman checked it out first, noting that the cover was a reddish brown with no distinguishable markings and the pages were yellow when viewed from the side. It was a thick book containing many pages, kind of like a textbook, and after finally getting a good look at it, he flipped it open to the first page. The inside cover was empty, but the first page was filled with dozens of runes he'd never seen before!

Amazed, Rob carefully turned several other pages finding that only thirteen of them contained runes while the rest remained blank,

"This is better than I expected!" he exclaimed, unable to contain his giddiness and amazement. There were so many different spells he could cast now and he didn't even know where to begin.

He turned his attention to the barrier once more and began filling his head with ideas to do in the future. If the wall spat out this book just after firing one rune at it, then imagine what else it could provide him with all the symbols he had now! He thought about firing another rune at the wall to see what else it would provide him, but ultimately decided against it,

" _I'll have to go home to study these runes for the time being, plus I need to develop better equipment for the next trip here, starting with a sun visor. I can't risk burning my eye out everytime that wall decides to release something."_ he mused. Then he thought about how he was going to obtain the necessary funds in order to build such contraptions, plus he needed more parts for his most ambitious project he had planned for the future,

" _I may have to rob a few banks, if needed or I can swing by the scrap yard, nab a few items, fix them up, and sell them online."_ he kept coming up with quick and easy solutions to make a few bucks for the parts he was going to need for his next void suit and… _that_ project.

Firing off a few rockets, Rob positioned himself until he was facing the beacon's direction and set off to the entrance with his prize. He had enough fuel in his pack for the journey back and felt at ease, knowing he could spend most of time just thinking. The darkness surrounding him also felt more comfortable to him now than it had on his way towards the most ancient section of the void.

He had so many questions regarding the barrier he was leaving behind and the mysterious contents that rested within. It was clearly put there to prevent people venturing into the void from retrieving the artifacts that it was guarding, but was willing to trade with him regardless. In a way, the barrier seemed more alive than it initially appeared to be and this left Rob with further questions.

Considering all these factors within his own mental space, the grey, polygonal being also remembered to maintain some caution moving forward because some of the things he may be given could lead him to further disaster. Wherever the path may lead him, he will always stay true to his goals: absolute victory over the Nephilim, the curing of both him and Rachel, and the things that will come afterwards once he wields such tremendous power.

The universe was such a big, scary place with so many unknown factors, but Rob definitely liked the journey it provided.

 **(A** / **N): and that's all folks! Really enjoyed writing this chapter and boy, was this one long too! There were quite a lot of things I wanted to write into this chapter, but didn't wind up doing so because I didn't want to stretch the chapter out any longer than it had to be. One of those scenes was the actual picnic scene where Gumball and Teri meet up with everyone at Elmore park, but couldn't because that would've been an extra twenty pages to write and I'm NOT writing a one hundred page chapter. I will explain what happened at the picnic in a flashback or summary exposition from one of the characters in the next chapter, just so you guys can get an idea of what happened and also because I like you guys a lot!**

 **So we obviously know that people all over Elmore, friends and family alike are starting to notice all the strange events that are happening all over town. Carrie is especially becoming suspicious and we'll be following her a bit during the next few chapters, but not as the chapter's focus. Also, we haven't been seeing things from Gumball's family's perspective (save for Darwin.) and we'll be seeing them in the next chapter.**

 **We also got a good look at Rob's life for a bit and what his motivations are. I honestly enjoyed writing about him in this section along with his interactions with Rachel Wilson. I kind of wanted to go with the sibling-like roommate style with the two because I felt like that would fit them perfectly in this story, but I feel like I may have made their relationship a bit deeper than that, at least in my opinion. Rob obviously has strong feelings for her and feels very sympathetic because he once found himself in a similar situation. I'm definitely looking forward to writing more about these two in the future.**

 **And, yeah, we also found out that Gumball can cook. This was something I noticed he could do in some of the episodes and thought it would be cute if both he and Teri decided to bake a cake together. It actually took the two of them a while to get started on the cake because Teri was trying to find something she could wrap Gumball up in because she was afraid of him shedding his fur on the cake and couldn't find any body-sized hair nets for him. Poor Gumball! I also thought Gumball making Teri breakfast was just so adorable!**

 **One last thing I wanted to point out out was the nature of some of Teri's devices, like her phone for instance. Like Gumball's cellphone, it can be compromised by the Nephilim's EM (ElectroMagnetic.) field because it was actually produced by a phone company rather than being made by herself. She can create paper constructions that resemble modern vehicles that are run by a form of energy she possesses and thus, can't be taken down by the Nephilim's EM field. This was a minor mistake that I caught after going through the editing process and wanted to clear this up with you guys just in case you noticed this too and are confused. I know this is basically retconning, but this is because I'm trying to produce a believable story without breaking too many in-universe rules that I established in order to provide for the best reading experience. So please forgive me for my mistake and I hope this didn't throw you guys off too much.**

 **Those are my closing thoughts on the chapter, this took me a really long time to write because I kept getting distracted and plus I work a lot, so yeah, not good for just sitting down and writing. I look forward to hearing from you guys and I can't wait for you to get your hands on chapter six: Forest of light. Have a wonderful day, enjoy life as it is, and please leave a review and a like down below!**

 **See ya on the wayside!**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Forest of light

Teri x Gumball

 **(A/N): Aaaaannnnnddd what's up fellow fans of TAWOG and readers of the romantic/fantasy story of Teri x Gumball: In between worlds. I hope you're all enjoying yourselves because I know I am! I've been working so hard on this chapter, plotting out events, adding information that pertains to the overarching story, deleting and starting entire plot points, and finally overcoming my procrastination.**

 **I also wanted to thank all of you for reading my fanfiction and sending me likes and reviews, I'm just really glad that a lot of you are enjoying the fanfic I'm creating.**

 **This chapter is going to be action heavy and adds in a bit more to the Nephilim lore. In this chapter we'll be following Rob as he seeks out help from a certain someone that has been brought up many times in the previous chapters and learns some new things regarding the runes, the Nephilim, and magic altogether. We also get to see Teri and Gumball face off against multiple, powerful adversaries in an environment completely alien to them. This will be a bizarre chapter for sure, but it will be fun and action packed.**

 **We'll also be seeing Gumball's family and how they are coping with all the bizarre events that had been happening all over Elmore.**

 **I hope you all enjoy this chapter, please leave a review and a like down below and also, leave some constructive criticism if you find any issues with my storytelling. With that being said, enjoy and have a good time.**

 **(I do not own The Amazing World of Gumball. All rights belong to Ben Bocquelet, the staff, Cartoon Network, and other respective owners.)**

 _-Eastern mountainside, September 19th, 2013, 6:32 PM-_

If there was thing Rob hated most in the world other than Gumball, his wacky friends and family, and the annoying pop songs sung by boy bands that Rachel CONSTANTLY plays at home, it was the bloody forest. He didn't mind having to trek out into the wilderness if he absolutely had to, but visiting the forest twice in one week was enough to get on the cyclop's nerves. He hated all the things that lurked within the wilderness that seemed hellbent on consuming his flesh, the constant chorus of various animal songs that filled the muggy air, and all the things that made his skin itch due to some weird allergies he may have obtained in the void, probably. Maybe he was always allergic to the wilderness? However, the main reason he hated these places was just the sense of isolation it brought him and being in a place that seemed so unfamiliar just brought back even more memories of the void.

Which was the real reason he currently found himself hiking up the mountainside with a backpack containing his modified Rune Printing Coil Gun or RPCG for short, the book containing the notes he recently acquired in the void, and a spare notebook, plus some supplies for the trip, he was looking for a way to cure himself and Rachel of the void's curse.

The air was starting to grow chillier on this side of the mountain and Rob wished he had worn a hoodie or a jacket to keep his bare arms and hands from burning in the frigid evening air. The sun was already starting to set and nightfall was starting to make its shadowy presence visible. This gave the sky a fascinating color of orange tinted with reddish pink and faded into purple the further away one would look from the sunset. It was very pretty, but Rob wasn't in the right mindset to enjoy such a spectacle.

He'd been up this path before and continued to weave in between the pine trees while occasionally stopping to catch his breath. Yesterday, Teri had contacted him and proposed a new schedule to better help the three of them fend off the malevolent spirits that crept out of the sky every so often. She suggested that while they were in school throughout the morning and afternoon that he could take care of defending the city from the Nephilim while they cover the night shift. When asked what would happen if an attacking spirit were to come and prove too much a challenge for someone as brilliant as himself, she responded with the promise that both she and Gumball would come to his aid if he contacted them. This actually sounded like a good deal to the brilliant inventor, seeing as that meant he could sleep all morning and afternoon while handling all his little projects during the evening. He could also handle fighting any monster attacking the city at any time and this gave him another benefit because Rachel would have school in the during the day along with her part time job and would allow him to go about such dangerous tasks without his multi-colored roommate getting suspicious, so it was a win-win situation.

And seeing as it was evening, he was free to visit a certain magic user in order to help him decipher the runes he recently acquired and planned on obtaining more from the void tomorrow evening. He was slightly worried though because throughout the entire day not a single Nephilim had shown up as of yet and after the paper bear had reported the possibility of the Nephilim hunting them, going out alone in isolated areas is more than enough to put him on edge. The Nephilim that assaulted his two partners yesterday was described as very strong with the cleverness of a predator and even though the two kids had managed to vanquish the bronze monster, they did so with very close moments that nearly cost them their lives. Now Rob had to be extra careful if he were to deal with these things on his lonesome.

He felt the twigs and dried up pine needles from the passing autumn crunch under his mismatched feet as he continuously hiked up the steep sloping terrain. He was pretty close to cave's entrance at this point and while he wasn't looking forward to the company that was possibly awaiting him, it did bring him a sense of comfort knowing that his journey was halfway done. He was surprised to see that not many deer and other forest dwellers had made themselves visible during his journey through the woods: even the shedding trees were lacking in crows and other fowl.

Taking another moment to rest and catch his breath, he found a strange boulder that was lined up with two other boulders of a matching color and decided to pop a seat next to it. Placing his bag on the ground, he rested his back and head against the large rock and allowed his mind to drift a little as he adjusted to the high altitude he was in. Several miles back and a thousand feet below his current position was the road that lead all the way back to the city from whence he came from and he thought about how he won't be back home until nine or ten, depending on the traffic,

"Well, at least Rachel won't be getting back home from her part time job until around eleven, so that leaves me a little time to spare." he said to himself, his voice filled with exhaustion from the constant walking from earlier.

He pulled the water bottle he'd been keeping in the bag's side pocket, twisted the cap off, and took a swig. The cool flow of water water splashed against his tongue and immediately cured his parched throat. Setting the bottle down by his side and breathing in some of the chilly, fresh mountain air, he locked his one eye on the heavens above and smiled a little,

"You know, after coming up here a few times already, I just realized how nice the changing sky looks from here. Maybe I oughta bring Rachel up here sometime and just enjoy the night sky. Maybe then she'll stop harassing me for a little while." he snickered, not actually minding the idea. One of the things his colorful roommate and closest person he had to a friend would often complain about at home was the lack of anything to do around Elmore.

He remembered that Gumball had invited him to a picnic yesterday, but he didn't actually get the message until he had left the void and gotten home. He would have liked to bring Rachel to that, seeing as she skipped school that day, but by the time he discovered the message it was probably too late by that point. Next time an event popped up like that and he wasn't too busy tasking himself with his quest to help himself and his fellow void traveller, he and Rachel would definitely go. One part of told him that he should message Gumball and Teri more often, but he felt too busy for such things.

"Yeah, it's pretty nice up here, If I were to say so myself. I'd probably calm down too if I were your lady friend and I saw this wonderful sunset."

Rob first wondered if his inner voice was booming so loud that it caused the ground to vibrate, but realized in under an instant that the great voice belonged to someone else. Jumping up to his feet while quickly drawing his RPCG from his bag, he whipped around and pointed the weapon in the direction of the voice. He wouldn't say that he was paranoid, but then again, in his world there was no such thing as too much paranoia,

"What the-?! Who's there? Show yourself, stranger!" he shouted in alarm, his narrowed eye scanning the foliage.

Suddenly, the ground shifted and the boulder Rob had been resting on moved, sliding backwards as it carved up a trail of dirt. After taking a good look at the three unusual rocks, Rob soon discovered that they weren't rocks, but in fact toes belonging to a massive foot! Seeing the massive appendage moving caused the lone cyclops child to back up cautiously while keeping his weapon raised. He didn't know what it was exactly, whether it be Nephilim or a ghastly forest monster, he wanted to make sure that he was ready to fend off whatever potential threat was looming over his head… literally.

The sliding purple foot came to a halt as whatever it belonged to found a good position to stand and began to rise. He couldn't see the rest of the colossal figure very well because there were several trees in the way, plus the setting sun made it more difficult to see, but Rob did happen to spot a mound of shaggy orange fur with magenta patches connected to the foot he was staring at. Eventually the trees concealing the giant shook and forced the polygonal figure to quickly look up past the tree tops. Above the pines, he could make out a face completely covered in a thick layer of fur that matched the color of the fur near his bare feet along with a set of broad shoulders that were equally as hairy,

"Hello down there!" the giant greeted in a gentle and friendly matter, waving his hand which was also bare like his feet and matched in tone as well.

This courteous greeting caused Rob to lower the computer aided rifle until it was pointing away from the ginormous figure and gave a silent, cautious wave of his own, his expression somewhat nervous.

His timid appearance didn't go unnoticed by the giant intruder and he quickly moved to apologize,

"Oh! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to startle you!" he said, gently raising both arms to indicate he meant no harm,

"If you're a hunter, you may want to leave though, most of the animals get scared when I'm around." he said, now noticing the gun the miniscule child was holding, although he didn't really look like a child.

It then occurred to Rob why the animals appeared to be absent from the forest, with a monster that towered over the trees crashing about the place and making a big ruckus, would definitely scare them off. After listening to the hairy behemoth for a few moments, he came to the conclusion that the giant posed no threat (actually that was pretty evident from the beginning, but he let his nerves get to him thanks to his cautionary approach to most large creatures nowadays.) and put his rifle back in his bag that he left sitting on the ground by the crater that was made by the giant's foot. Shouldering his bag once more, he stood up straight and looked the newcomer in the eyes, or where they should be at least,

"Thank you. I apologize for freaking out like that, most giants kind of leave me terrified because the last few I met were rather… bold in their approach. I'm actually not hunting here either, I was on my way to see Mrs. Jotenheim and was afraid that there may be monsters lurking in these woods." he explained, feeling kind of awkward for pointing a weapon at a friendly stranger and was also hoping that the massive person wouldn't take the nature of his journey the wrong way.

However, the hairy creature seemed to not be offended by his earlier actions and kept a positive demeanor. However, as soon as he mentioned Mrs. Jotenheim's name, the giant seemed to jump a little, as if indicating recognition. Pushing the trees aside as if they were merely bushes, Rob could hear the loud snap as the bark gave in under the extreme force and bent aside, the towering person stepped forward and Rob was exposed to a massive ape-like creature that was covered entirely with hair and had long swinging arms with short legs in proportion to his body,

"Are you talking about my mom?" he asked in that booming voice of his despite still being gentle with his words.

Now it clicked in his head! While talking to the giant, he couldn't help but feel that there was something familiar about him and coincidentally finding him on the mountain where the little witch's cave was seemed rather odd at first. Then he remembered his first visit to her mountainside home after he had found out about the Nephilim and recalled seeing a massive bedroom that couldn't have possibly belonged to the haggardly magic user. He never payed Hector much attention in the past because he just wasn't interested in finding out about the giant that would occasionally pop up in a few places around Elmore. However, he did hear a name tossed around once while stalking Gumball during one of his nefarious schemes to destroy the kitten:

This was Hector Jotenheim he was looking at!

"Oh… you must be her son, Hector, then!" he gasped, his jaw dropping and his pupil narrowing in surprise.

Hector didn't seem to catch his surprise and just scratched his head before shrugging indifferently,

"Yeah… so um, what brings you up here to see my mom this late in the evening? Are you looking for a spell to use?" he asked, his voice sounding neutral.

Rob quickly snapped out of his sudden revelation and refocused on the mission he was here to complete with a quick shake of his head. Reaching into his backpack with one hand while keeping his eye on Hector, he pulled out the book he had journeyed to the void for and presented it up to the giant with magnificent colors,

"Oh yes, right! I wanted to see her because there are runes in this book that I don't understand and I wanted to see if she can translate them." he stated, opening the book to one of the rune covered pages and holding it up with both hands for Hector to see.

The EJH star football player squatted downwards and leaned in until his face was inches away from the old book the lanky preteen was holding. On his way down, he accidentally broke three more trees with his rear causing sharp cracks to be heard throughout the forest,

" _Darn! No wonder I don't see this kid around town much! He's basically a giant, clumsy, force of destruction!"_ Rob thought to himself in shock as he watched the Jotenheim's only child destroy nature while being completely unaware.

Also, there was the fact that his face was really close now, giving Rob a better view of a head that rivaled the school bus in length that was covered in a tangled mess of hair with various specks of dirt, tree branches, leftover turkey near his mouth, and, was that an airplane propeller near his ear!? To add to the overall unpleasantness, face reeked of what smelled like wet dog fur mixed with his natural musk and his rancid breath was strong enough to bring down a satellite. It was a really revolting experience to be near this kid in such close proximity, but he seemed to be reading the runes carefully… at least that's what it looked like.

When a full minute passed by, Hector stood to his feet once again, this time placing a finger on his chin while he pondered something and Rob let out the breath he was holding in order to not die from the horrid stench that remained in his invisible nostrils and made his eye water a bit. Hector wasn't able to see the book and the stranger's runes very well, But from what he could see he knew he saw those symbols before somewhere in his home. He was really curious as to why this stranger would seek out help from his mother to translate such weird, yet familiar symbols. The runes seemed to be of ancient magic, if he were to be honest, although that could inaccurate because the only magic he knew of came from the only family he knew and he never really delved into that subject much. His mom told him that it was very complicated and dangerous and that he should keep away from such things.

With his train of thought reaching the station, the gentle giant looked back down towards the spindly fellow, who had been eagerly awaiting a response,

"I think my mom can help you, but why do you want to learn about such ancient magic, by the looks of it?" he asked, resting his body weight on his knuckles.

Before he could answer that, Rob had to choose his next words carefully. He didn't know how much these people knew about the Nephilim and that was a difficult subject that applied to practically anyone that could not see them. He had a feeling that Mrs. Jotenheim would know a thing or two about the Nephilim, seeing as she possessed the five runes he gave to Teri, which were effective tools against said monsters, but Hector, on the other hand, may have to be treated like everyone that didn't know of the Nephilim due to his apparent lack of interest or knowledge in the magic arts. There was, however, a way that he could figure out if he knew anything about the Nephilim without directly expressing what he knew about the invisible spirits of death and destruction.

With his next choice of words planned out, Rob snapped the book shut and placed it within the secure confines of his dorsal bag,

"There is a curse that plagues Elmore. I can not rid Elmore and its citizens of the evil spell unless I learn what secrets these runes hold." he stated, sounding convincingly urgent. Actually it wasn't hard because he partially told the truth and he was in fact urgent. The best lies are spun with a little truth mixed within.

Now all that was necessary was to see how the son of the witch responded to his explanation.

His scheme was actually easier than he imagined because Hector showed no signs of hesitation or doubts when he answered,

"Oh, if that's the case then we should probably get going then." Hector replied simply, almost naively even! The truth was while Hector wasn't too sure what the implications of this curse was based on what this stranger was telling him, he did know that it took magic to destroy some curses and while the disfigured cyclops didn't seem like a magician, he did have in his possession a form of magic and he seemed to know what he was doing. Either way, curse or not, it was probably best to inform his mother about it because she always knew what to do!

To the tiny figure standing at his feet, he was pleased as well as surprised that the rarely seen giant was very trusting and willing to even invite strangers into his home if it meant saving Elmore. There were a lot of good people in this crazy city and most of which are indeed very helpful. Rob could already feel his quest to destroy the Nephilim and cure both him and Rachel coming closer to completion, although he mustn't get too carried away in his excitement and lose all common sense. He still needed to talk to the sorceress who lives in the mountain cave and plus he needed to know _what_ exactly the new symbols were capable of.

Keeping his goals in a manageable, step by step process within his mindscape, he set his sights on the mountain path in front of him and begun marching up the trail. The sun was getting lower now, casting the sky in a light shade of red that was being eclipsed by the veil of blue that was drawing across the sky. Night will soon be here and it was going to get really cold on this mountainside, less he find shelter fast. The Jotenheim cave was just a forty five minute hike from where he was, so that should leave him with some time before he began developing frostbite.

While walking in the desired direction, he heard Hector speak up and he came to a full stop. He almost forgot to say goodbye and thank you to him and at first thought that's what Hector was about to ask him for, but instead got a different answer than he expected,

"Hey, um, I know for a person as small as yourself that it must take you a while to get to distant areas and I was wondering if you would like to hitch a ride on my shoulder? It's very safe and I can get from here to my home in less than two minutes, just to let you know." he offered, holding out a hand for him to stand on.

Once again, Rob seemed to have his mind blown again during this trip and most of the efforts being contributed to such a feat were surprisingly minimal. Also, while he knew he was small in comparison to the ginormous student, he was quite tall when compared to other kids his age and he took slight offense to being called small. With his personal issues regarding height being unceremoniously dumped into the back of his mind to be sorted out later, he carefully stepped on the palm of the colossus, feeling that the skin was quite rough and warm before nodding towards Hector, indicating that he was ready to be lifted up.

Doing so without even a monogram of difficulty, the hairy giant slowly lifted his hand up until it was level with his enormous shoulder, which to Rob seemed like a massive, furry balcony and allowed the grey-skinned, static filled cyclops to step onto his shoulder. Feeling his feet come in contact with the soft blanket of grass-like hairs on Hector's right shoulder, Rob quickly tested the sturdiness of the living surface he was on by stepping on various areas with his feet before finding it satisfactory. He whirled about and sat down once he was facing in the same direction Hector was. Even while Hector was squatting, Rob could already see a great deal of the forest from his heightened position and could even see through the various trees criss crossing his vision the path he was walking on and the craters Hector had created when standing up with better scale.

However, everything changed when Hector stood up and Rob found himself gazing at a new horizon!

With the simple act of stretching his legs and standing to his full height, the entire underside of the forest seemed to disappear entirely and was replaced with the endless emerald green and brownish orange sea that lay below an equally colorful sky. It was truly a sight to behold for the mad inventor as he was able to get a better perspective of what the giant got to see every day and all with the simple act of getting up in the morning! The many colors stretching before him left him completely breathless and he remained mesmerized by nature's beauty for but a little while.

He was broken from his trance when he heard Hector speaking to him, with his head and mouth being so close, he could feel the soundwave's vibrations through his shoulder and it felt kind of ticklish,

"What is your name by the way?" he asked, never once hearing the strange, little being introduce himself.

"Doctor Wre-. Rob. My name is Rob." he said, quickly stopping himself from using his villainous alias. Looks like he was still used to using it as his intro.

There was a moment of silence and then a chuckle could be felt rumbling from deep within the giant. It was so shaky that Rob had to grab handfuls of his fur in order to prevent himself from falling off his shoulder. After a jaw clenching twelve seconds, the earthquake that was Hector's laughter stopped and his shoulder was stable enough to sit on again. He wondered what that was all about and got his answer shortly after,

"Sorry about that, It just seems like there's not enough Bob's in the world, eh?" he said humorously.

Rob found himself laughing along nervously while unsure as to what he was going on about, did he mean Bobert the robot because his name could be shortened to Bob? It didn't really matter to him because all he wanted was to get moving before night fell completely. Urging the giant to begin their trip, Hector immediately began moving and with one single step, the towering mountain of a student cleared what had to be hundreds of feet worth of distance. Looks like they will be reaching his cave in the span of a few minutes and if he was willing to walk him back to his car, he could cut the trek home down an hour or two.

One thing he was upset about was the fact that the view he was getting was only going to be here for only a few minutes. He took back his earlier comment about the woods and decided that it was wonderful when you saw it from a different perspective. He really needed to get Rachel out here sometime because this place was simply wonderful from where he was.

 _-Watterson household, 6:40 PM-_

"GOSH DARN IT!"

If Gumball had a nickel for every time he uttered those three words after his eight bit character was blown into little squares by another eight bit sprite, he'd have enough money to download a less frustrating game on his computer and enough left over for bus fare.

He watched as the game over screen lit up before offering him a retry, which he took and began thinking about yesterday's events while he played. When the picnic ended yesterday, Gumball had gone home with Darwin and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening just goofing off with his little brother whilst hanging around the house for a bit. He had a rough time sleeping last night because of the horrific nightmares regarding the battle from yesterday constantly plaguing him and ended with him constantly rocketing from his slumber, drenched in sweat, tail fur poofed up, and eyes wide open with fear. Nightmares like these weren't uncommon, but with the encounter yesterday being so close while catching both him and Teri off guard, Gumball found himself fearing the worst for what lies ahead.

When he woke up this morning, he messaged Teri and asked her if she wanted to hang out today, but she had to decline since her parents wanted her to take care of some outdoor chores and that she was going to be staying over at Molly's new tree house with the other girls for the rest of the evening. This didn't come as a surprise to the feline preteen as he saw Teri talking with Molly and the other girls yesterday at the picnic and guessed that they made plans for the next day.

She also informed him about a schedule plan she came up with yesterday that allowed both of them to focus on school work and deal with the Nephilim in the evening. Basically it boiled down to Rob handling patrol in the daytime while they were in school and after she got done with cheerleading practice they would both head to the library to work on homework and study before heading home and taking over for the night shift. Not seeing a whole lot of flaws with this idea, Gumball decided to go along with it and after wishing her a good day, he asked his parents if he could stay after school and study with Teri, to which his mom said it wouldn't be a bad idea and his dad was just okay with it regardless. Though his mom did make him promise that he will actually get his work done and won't just use his spare time to just mess around.

Seeing as there was no school today and with a lot of time on his hands, Gumball finished the morning by watching some cartoons with Darwin and Anais, which actually got him to bring up the topic of one of his favorite shows, _Under the stethoscope_ , to his siblings. When asked for an opinion, Darwin said that he wasn't really into medical dramas and Anais simply said those kind of shows relied too much on dumb humor and cheesy romantic subplots to be of any interest to her. Looks like his favorite show containing wisecracking doctors and clumsy surgeons was something only he and Teri shared interest in.

Once the morning had stretched into noon, Gumball then decided to make good use of his time by working out and training. When he began working out in the basement, he didn't do very well and wound up doing a few basic routines like push-ups, sit-ups, and squats before he got bored and left the house with his book bag and scythe. The afternoon was slightly warm, but full of pleasant breezes that would make themselves present to the wandering kitten as he made his way to one of the nearby forests.

Unfortunately, while his training with the scythe went rather well, learning how to use the grey fire technique was a complete disaster! The first time he activated it, a feat that took him twenty seven minutes to figure out, he immediately lost control and burnt down a few trees. After putting out the flames using some clever crafting that involved several hollow logs, vines, and a nearby river, the cat boy moved to a clearing and tried again. Once again, he failed, but quickly discovered that if he allowed fear to enter his mind, the flames will extinguished themselves. The main issue was every time he used the ability, he would go completely mad with power and quickly lose control until he realized what he had done and panic. Either way, he spent four hours trying this over and over before he decided it was time to call it quits and head home.

His entire walk home was filled with nothing, but frustration and disappointment in himself. He knew that it was a useful ability to have under his belt because confronting the Nephilim one-on-one was always risky and usually lead to some serious injury every time he did so. He was also worried for Teri too because in order for both of them to successfully kill one of them they both had to get close and while he was used to getting injured himself, he was far more worried about Teri's safety than anything else. Maybe there was a better way to attack them without having to get close or even having to engage them all together?

Getting home at around four, the exhausted boy went straight upstairs, showered, and then to his room to take a nap. He slept soundly for a couple hours without dreaming about any Nephilim before he was woken up by his phone buzzing. Turns out it was Banana Joe telling him to go onto Elmore Plus to see the results for the picnic contest.

During the party yesterday, Carmen and Alan decided to hold a contest to see who had the best food and had all the participants taste each others offering to the party before casting their votes. Turns out Idaho's mom's homemade chili won the contest and was followed up by Molly's coleslaw (which took everyone by surprise because it was so mind blowingly good!), Bobert's various sandwiches, which were delightful and surprisingly edible for organic beings, and coming in fourth place was his and Teri's rainbow cake. Gumball wanted to call foul because he really wanted to win that contest, but even he had to admit that Idaho's mother seriously had some mad skills in the kitchen because he remembered specifically getting three bowls of that wonderful spicy bean soup!

After viewing the contest results, he read everyone else's comments on the party and shared his own thoughts on the matter before he saw that Teri was online. Quickly messaging her, he found that she was using the computer at Molly's place to check up on a few things and told him that she was having a good time with the girls. When asked how he was doing, he responded with a positive remark regarding his morning with his family and how his workout went, but left out the training he went through because Elmore Plus wasn't exactly private with messages. He then went on talk about the picnic contest yesterday and she informed him that she thought it was bogus that they didn't get second place, but was glad that they made it to the top five at least. Gumball then started throwing puns at her that were food related and when she threatened to make him bake her another cake at her place during the weekend as a form of apology, to which Gumball responded with "that's what I was going to do anyway, so egh!" and they both had a laugh before she said goodbye and signed off.

Which was why he was currently playing computer games after checking a few other things on Elmore Plus and deciding to just waste his time trying to beat a level he was sick to death of being stuck on. With no monsters appearing today, so far, and quite a few things being done, Gumball would have to say that this was a pretty okay day as far as day offs go. The best part to all of this was that tomorrow was Friday and even though school was in session tomorrow, at least it will be laid back… hopefully.

While making his way through the level he was on, he heard footsteps coming upstairs and towards his room. Seconds later, the door opened and he heard someone stepping into the domain that he shared amongst his siblings. Clicking the pause option, the monitor froze and Gumball swung around in his chair to see who was standing at the door.

Turns out it was Darwin, who looked like he was about to walk up to him to tap him on the shoulder, but stopped once he saw that his furry, older brother noticed him,

"Oh! Hey, dude!" Darwin greeted sounding somewhat startled himself.

Gumball returned with a simple wave of his hand along with a tug upwards at the corner of his lips,

"Hey man! What's up? Oh, did you know that I found out the strategy behind the boss's attacks on level 9!" he said, completely forgetting that he just asked him a question first.

Darwin's eyes widened with excitement,

"Really! Wait, what game are you playing?" he asked, temporarily forgetting the reason why he was here,

"Oh, and I'm doing good by the way." he quickly added as he hurried over to the computer desk.

Gumball scooted aside for his little brother to see while answering his question,

" _Horizontal Blaster 4_!" he said.

Finally getting a good look at the computer screen, Darwin immediately recognized what level Gumball was referring to and grimaced at all the bad memories that dreaded level brought him,

"Yeesh! That level is so annoying!" he exclaimed in frustration.

"I knoooowww! I've been stuck on it for nearly an hour now!" he groaned with frustration greater than that of his brother.

Before Darwin derailed into the subject of hard video game levels, he remembered what he came here for and put himself back on track,

"Oh, right! Mrs. mom sent me up here to tell you that dinner's ready!" he quickly mentioned.

Realizing that he was starving, Gumball smiled at the thought of food and quickly reached over to press the power button. He did so and the computer powered off, but then he was struck with the realization that he forgot to save his progress. Inwardly screaming in rage while sighing outwardly, the slightly irritated blue cat hopped off the chair and quickly marched out of his room with his little brother trailing behind him,

" _Stupid retro games and their no-automatic save points!"_ he raged internally because he knew it was going to take him ten minutes to get to where he was again.

Clambering downstairs the boys entered the living room and proceeded straight to the dining room where his mom and Anais were seated while his dad circled the table handing out dishes and silverware. Greeting his parents and little sister, Gumball took his spot next to Anais and began balancing his fork on his index finger while he waited for dinner to be served. While his father went to the kitchen to go grab the lasagna Nicole had prepared, the motherly cat glanced over at all three children seated at the table and smiled a little when she saw that they all looked content.

After another long, hard day at work Nicole just wanted to settle in and have a nice conversation with her family. Seeing as the boys were stuck at home today, she decided to start off with Anais since she still had to go to school today,

"So how was your day at school, Anais?" she asked, resting her gaze on the youngest and smallest member of the family.

The teeny pink rabbit glanced up from her empty plate and at her mother before shrugging a little,

"It was okay." she started out with a sigh,

"Macey was bullied by Justin and his thugs again, so I took her the principal's office and, well,... let's just say that the star of the Elmore high football team got off the hook again." she grumbled, glancing back at her plate again with an irate look on her little bunny face.

Hearing her story about her and Macey having to deal with that dimwitted Jock and his cronies brought a bit of a scowl Gumball's face and a slight frown to the other occupants of the table. Every one here knew that Macey Barnes had a history of being picked on by others because of her short size, she was actually just a few inches taller than Anais even though she's a high schooler, and ever since Anais befriended her, the two had since then become popular targets of the high school football team. They've become fast friends since the first day of school and despite the hardships they had to go through, they were pretty inseparable.

It still made Gumball and Darwin wish that they were both super geniuses like her so that way they could get into highschool and look out for her.

"Oh, honey. I'm sorry you had a rough day." Nicole said, feeling her ears droop in sadness. Anais kept telling her that she would think of some way to handle the bully, but it was getting to the point where she was really going to have to _talk_ to Justin's parents and then the principal too.

Anais glanced over and saw the concerned look covering her mother's features along with the two boys sitting beside her and quickly perked up,

"Oh no, everything else was okay though! Macey and I had a really good time today despite this morning's… little scuffle. We got an A+ on today's science project, despite the fact that Rachel wasn't there today and yesterday to help out. After that, nothing else was really happened, other than the one time I made Macey laugh so hard at lunch that she snorted milk up through her nose." she reminisced in the funny memory with a slight chuckle and hoped that this story would put everyone else at ease.

Unfortunately, this only worked on Darwin as Gumball immediately let out a snarky response that centered on EH's resident star football player and bully,

"Why don't you just put glue on his seat and watch him try to get around with a chair stuck to his butt? Show him not to mess with you." Gumball suggested, feeling as though his really smart little sister can come up with something to foil the bell head's plans or just make him really miserable.

Anais watched as her father, who matched her in appearance, minus the excess weight, slid a slice of steaming lasagna onto her plate before turning her head in Gumball's direction to give him a deadpan look,

"As much as I would like to publicly humiliate him, that won't really solve the problem Macey and I have to deal with because he still goes to the same school as us everyday." she explained, holding up a finger right as Gumball was just about to say something as a counter to her statement,

"And before you mention anything about rigging up a spring loaded boxing glove in his locker that will punch his lights out when he opens it, I'll have you know that violence doesn't prevent mean people from committing evil acts." she added in before digging into her lasagna.

Gumball frowned and propped his elbows on the table in order to rest his chin on his hands, scowling at the plate he was focusing on,

" _Oh I wish that were the case with what Teri, Rob, and I have to deal with. If I could just talk to the giant perps and get them to go away, I would have invited them over for tea!"_ he chuckled at the amusing thought of all these giant monsters gathered around a tiny table with tiny tea cups and biscuits while talking in a sophisticated manner like gentlefolk.

He continued to converse with his inner voices while his father finished dishing out the lasagna and sat down with the rest of the family. Soon the wattersons were all digging away at their meal and discussing today's events. Nicole promised Anais that she'll have a word with Justin's parents about their son's behavior before moving onto the boys who were seated next to each other,

"And how about you two? What have you guys been up to seeing as you didn't have school today?" she asked, perking up when she saw Darwin with a big smile on his face.

Seeing this as his cue, Darwin quickly swallowed his food and started off before Gumball could say anything, which was fine by him because he didn't really do much and all the really interesting things he did weren't up for discussion,

"Well today I decided to go for a walk after Gumball had gone off to the woods and actually found the weather to be quite pleasing today." he started off on a high note causing everyone around him to smile and listen in on his story,

"While I was out, I messaged Carrie and asked her how she was doing. She told me that she was still in Transylvania with her dad and was having such a good time that she and her dad decided to stay a little longer in order to explore the city and meet some old friends that her father knew." he explained with that high pitched voice of his and overall glowing personality that seemed to infect everyone with a case of the warm fuzzies. Seeing Darwin in such a happy mood was usually enough to put everyone at ease because there wasn't really much to bring him down thanks to his overall optimism and good nature towards most things.

Gumball thought about Carrie's trip to Transylvania, having remembered Darwin bringing it up yesterday at the picnic during their volleyball match against Sarah and Clayton. He was quite thrilled to hear about his little brother's girlfriend going out to a fascinating new place to spend time with her relatives and actually found himself a little envious of the spirit because he liked the idea of travelling too. Then again, he got enough of that with Teri and Rob, although it was usually around town and in order to save said town from invisible, ancient giants. He was also glad to hear that Carrie was getting along with her father, whom he hasn't really spoken to since the day they freed him from the mirror and reunited him with his daughter.

He thought about all of this and other things while Darwin continued retelling his activities this past afternoon,

"When I got to the park, I saw Carmen standing by one of the trees while shouting and frantically waving because it turns out Alan somehow drifted up into the tree and got his string tangled up in one of the branches. Carmen wasn't able to climb up and reach him because her arms and legs were too short, plus she was scared of accidentally popping him, so I went up there and helped him myself, although I did fall out of the tree and got this nasty bruise on my knee." he paused for a moment to raise his leg high enough so everyone could see the ugly, purple blotch that covered his scaly knee cap before putting back it down and continuing with his story,

"They were really thankful for what I did and invited me to go see a movie with them. It was really great, but there were these two biker dudes behind us that kept talking about someone or something breaking a lot of windows and destroying a couple walls in the Elmore industrial site yesterday. I always thought that place was full of hoodlums and troublemakers." he sighed, shoving another forkful of pasta in his mouth.

Gumball froze in place for a minute, which went unnoticed by the four other table occupants and he felt his brain start fizzle in fear. He could not believe that there were people nearby when Window Hopper attacked yesterday and they even heard the commotion that happened when they fought the bronze serpent. He was so glad that none of the biker dudes were hurt or saw him and Teri yesterday. They really had to do something about appearing in public to fight the Nephilim because people were gonna start noticing when a blue cat with a scythe and a paper bear with various origamis start dashing around and swinging at nothing, at least in their eyes.

Soon all the other Watterson family members began conversing about the strange things that have been happening around the already bizarre city,

"Yeah, I also heard that a section of the highway bridge was destroyed in some kind of explosion and the authorities can't figure out who did it!" Richard said, already standing up to get seconds,

"And I'm just thinking to myself, "wait a minute, why hasn't that bridge been completed yet?" because it's been seriously bugging me for a while now!" and with that, he disappeared into the kitchen.

Meanwhile, his smaller look-alike had already reached her own conclusion about what was going on and placed her thoughts into words,

"With all the weird power outages going on around here my only logical conclusion is to blame carpenter ants." she said.

Darwin turned to look at his sister with a quizzical expression after she reached her bizarre final verdict,

"Carpenter ants?" he repeated, looking completely baffled.

Without pausing in her routine, Anais offered an explanation,

"Some ants are known to get into spaces like power complexes and can sometimes cause damage by chewing through important things, like wires and whatnot. Could also be that something is wrong with the dam just outside of town." she explained while adding in another possibility,

"What I find most frustrating is that none of the authorities or governmental figures have done anything about these little catastrophes or have sent anyone in to investigate!" the highly intelligent five year old was ranting at this point because she hated not knowing what was going on.

Darwin seemed less perplexed by that answer and after a swift nod of acknowledgement, went back to eating. Gumball was slowly working through his food while listening in carefully to everyone's statements about all the consequences caused by the constant battles with the monsters no one else could see. He didn't offer his own theory into the mix because he already knew what was happening and also would rather not talk about the whole thing in general.

His silence did not go unnoticed though and Nicole looked over to see her eldest son silently picking away at his pasta. Curious as to what was on his mind, Nicole cleared her throat and motioned towards the child that matched her slightly in appearance,

"And you, Gumball? What were doing in the forest earlier today?" she asked, keeping her attention on his face in order to better read his emotions.

Already suspecting that someone was going to ask him about what he had been up to, the twelve year old kitten casually looked up to her and placed a fake smile on his face in order to appear cheerful,

"Nothing really, just the usual mischief." he replied casually before stabbing at his food again.

Raising an eyebrow, Nicole placed a hand on her chin and stroked it skeptically as she scrutinized his face,

"Hmm. Was your "usual mischief" the reason the fire department was called over to the forest not too long ago?" she asked, causing her first child to freeze up in response.

" _Crud! I knew those sirens were heading towards the woods!"_ Gumball thought as he began to sweat bullets and he temporarily turned his head towards the kitchen, away from the prying eyes of his mother, before looking back at her again. He couldn't dodge this one with a fib so he was just going to have to soften it up a little,

"I put it out and no one got hurt, apart from that one squirrel and those five trees. I sure hope that squirrel's tail fur grows back before the winter." he admitted, feeling shameful for his misdeeds.

Everyone sitting at the table let out a long winded sigh, except for Richard, who was just returning from the kitchen with two slices of Lasagna on his plate. It wasn't really that surprising to everyone that Gumball was back to causing more mischief and were already expecting more shenanigans to ensue in the not-too-distant future. Gumball felt the weight of everyone's disapproval and just slumped down in his chair, although he was secretly glad that no one was asking him as to how he caused the fire and was hoping that he would just get off with a light scolding rather than following up with more questions.

Luckily, Nicole just shook her head in disbelief and lightly glared at her first child,

"You should really work on controlling your destructive habits, dear." his mother sighed before perking up again and asking something else,

"So I heard you went on a picnic yesterday, how was that?" she leaned back in her chair as she awaited his answer.

Richard's eyes widened at a particular word being mentioned by his wife and he dropped his chunk of heated pasta onto his shirt after freezing up in shock,

"There was a picnic!" he shouted in surprise as he looked back and forth between Gumball and Nicole.

To his dismay both of the blue cats ignored him and carried on with their conversation.

Feeling the negativity from his earlier failed attempt to master his new power lifting, Gumball felt himself sit up straighter in his seat and began to spill out his thoughts on some of the events that happened the day before. He wanted to just share what happened at the picnic and at that event only, but he also wanted to tell everyone about his sleepover with Teri along with the time they spent together yesterday. He didn't know why, but just talking about her made him really happy,

"It was really great actually!" he started off with a kind of excitement that made everyone sitting at the table look on with intrigue, including Darwin who had been with him at the event,

"Teri and I baked a cake and brought that to the party. Everyone else there brought something interesting as well and we all just hung around talked about pretty much anything really." he was now gesturing with his hands while he explained what went on at the party.

Darwin then cut in and added in his own take on the party,

"Yeah, like he said, it was really fun and everyone just had a good time talking to one another. Then were a bunch of activities that we all participated in like a food contest, some dancing with Juke blasting some tunes, and then we played volleyball-!"

"We had to stop playing that one after Jamie threw the ball at Tobias' face and caused it to cave in." Gumball interrupted with a sour look on his face as he remembered what happened to the poor rainbow lad.

Darwin nodded in agreement and turned to Nicole with a somber look on his face,

"Yeah, Jamie was a little jealous that Tina made friends with Tobias while she was in the hospital and was worried her friendship with her was in danger." he said in a saddened tone. Tina and Tobias' friendship was off at a rocky start, seeing as it was very hard for the two of them to do something fun together without one of them getting hurt or being inconvenient to the other person, but with Jamie now causing slight problems for the colorful sports fanatic, it was just going to get trickier.

It was now Anais' turn to raise an eyebrow in suspicion regarding the tomboy's presence at the picnic,

"Wait, I thought Jamie was in the hospital after mysteriously being thrown out the window and into a truck loaded with explosive chemicals?" she questioned out loud.

Gumball swallowed the food he was working on and pointed a fork in her direction,

"Do you think something like being thrown several hundred feet into oncoming traffic and through a truck full of dangerous items is going to keep Jamie out for long? Sure she got dinged up a little, but I think the truck suffered more damage than her… and the three cars around it." he countered, feeling slightly guilty because Rob wanted to talk to him that day, but felt that throwing the bully out the window was the only way to do so.

Richard, wanting to be involved in the conversation as long as possible, folded his arms and allowed his face to twist into a grumpy pout,

"I still can't believe that you guys had a picnic and didn't invite me, especially when there was cake involved!" he grumbled angrily.

"And German chocolates." Darwin added in.

"WHAT!" Richard shouted in disbelief as he stared at his adopted son as though he just shot him in the heart.

Having heard enough about the food part and accidents involving horned individuals, Nicole decided to ask Gumball about something else,

"Oh that's right! You spent the night at Teri's house last night!" she exclaimed in surprise,

"So you two baked a cake together then? What else did you guys do? Also is she the daughter of the Pepakumas? I swear I met her father when they had to remove that cookie jar lid from Richard's stomach because he believed it was an actual cookie and I think I saw her mother once at the grocery store a couple weeks ago." Nicole was peppering Gumball with questions seeing as she's seen Teri a few times and heard a lot about her from Gumball, but not a whole lot of details regarding her parents and some of the things the two kids do together.

Not even hesitating to answer, Gumball tackled the subject and described what happened the day prior,

"Well yeah, we wanted to bring something awesome to the party and as for everything that occured before that, we spent some time gathering supplies for baking, which was actually really fun, especially when we both spooked Banana Joe's mom in the pickle aisle, and then while we waited for the cake to bake, we took a really long walk through… the neighborhood. After that we watched some action films in her bedroom before we went to the park." he listed off while making sure to avoid talking about their "fantastic" trip through the abandoned warehouse section of Elmore,

"She's actually really fun to be around sometimes and a great person to just chill out with. I had a lot of fun yesterday with her." he finished with a satisfied expression on his face before he finished up his first serving of dinner.

Nicole was definitely pleased to hear that Gumball had a wonderful time with Teri yesterday. It never would have occurred to her that out of all the people Gumball would choose to hang out with, he would choose to hang out with Teri because last year whenever the paper girl was brought up in a conversation, she would usually be described as obnoxious and a bit of a attention seeker. Now within the span of a few weeks it appears as though the two of them have formed quite a bond and if she were to go off of how Gumball reacted whenever he talked about her or whenever she was brought up in a conversation, she could guess that Gumball felt more than just friendly feelings towards her.

With a warm smile playing across her lips, Nicole set her sights on the remaining few shreds of pasta resting on her plate while commenting on Gumball's interactions with Teri,

"Well I'm glad both of you are getting along well. I'm also pleased to hear that your grades have been improving as of lately and that you're taking your studying habits seriously. I think Teri has been a good influence on you, both academically and emotionally." she said while making sure to point out his improved emotional state.

Gumball felt himself warming up a little inside after considering what his mother had said. It was no surprise that everyone was starting to notice the considerable changes he was displaying, even some of the teachers were starting to become tolerable of him because of how well he was doing in class, except for a certain missing link, who still saw him and Darwin as nothing but troublemakers. Pushing aside all the teasing about him and Teri being in a relationship, he noticed that most of his classmates were starting to get along with him as well, although it wasn't anything spectacular or intimate because he usually hung out with a select few people. They may tolerate him and his better mood, but trusting him was still a whole new matter to delve into.

And speaking of lightly teasing, Darwin decided that now was a good time to start poking fun at Gumball over a certain someone, just for fun of course. Without even looking up from his plate, the walking goldfish spoke to Nicole,

"He's just trying to impress her because he likes her and doesn't know how to express it." he quietly said before casually looking up to see how his brother would react.

As soon as Darwin's statement reached Gumball's ears, his eyes widened while his pupils shrank and was followed up by a quick gasp that unfortunately resulted in some of his food getting lodged in his throat. Feeling his airway being blocked, the blue cat coughed violently as he he tried to dislodge the chewed up piece of lasagna and held his own chest with one hand in order to steady himself. Thankfully, there wasn't any danger as he managed to clear his blocked windpipe after a few forceful coughs and the offending material slid down with the rest of his dinner.

He then turned to glare at Darwin with tear filled eyes, quickly getting over the fact that he could have potentially suffocated and aimed straight for shutting down th remark about his feelings towards a certain paper girl,

"That… (cough!)... is so not true!" he seethed, feeling pretty glad that his face was already red from his near-death-experience with the killer chunk of his mom's dinner and was covering up his embarrassment.

However, Darwin was ready with his rebuttal and folded his flippers across his chest with a sly look already appearing on his face,

"Really now? You spend an awful lot of time with her, especially on the bus, you've been working out a whole lot ever since you two started hanging out, you like some of the things she likes and lastly, you made her breakfast, twice!" he exclaimed with a smug grin and eyes that flashed knowingly.

Anais chuckled a little from the otherside of Gumball, causing said boy child to cast a suspicious glance in her direction and saw that she was using a hand to cover her mouth while she continued to snicker,

"That definitely sounds like someone who wants to be noticed!" she giggled before covering her mouth up again in a poor attempt to hide her amusement.

" _Whelp, I guess I should have seen this coming."_ Gumball's inner voice groaned as he placed both hands on his face in order to hide his already increasing mortification. This didn't help much because his large head and face made it difficult for his tiny paws to cover them entirely. He knew that because they didn't know what was really going on that they were going to start jumping to their own conclusions, but that didn't stop him from wanting to jump up from his seat and scurry up to his room so he could hide forever.

He then heard both his mom and dad joining in on the laughter and he felt his face burn a darker shade of red forcing him to turn away for fear of them seeing this change. Richard was the first to speak up and threw in some advice for Gumball to follow on picking up girls,

"Aw, no need to feel ashamed, kiddo! Remember! Talking to girls is easy and if you bake me another rainbow cake I will give you another secret that the Watterson men have held in the field of snaring dates!" he said assuringly while rushing over to his side in order to whisper the last part in his ear.

Well, it was advice, just not helpful advice and it still didn't stop the blue male kitten from feeling every fiber of his being shrivel up in response to the humiliation he was feeling at the moment.

"All right, all right! No need to further embarrass him even though it is cute that he has a crush on Teri-!" Nicole started trying to get the other three laughing members of the Watterson household to cease their playful jeering before getting cut off by a frantic-looking Gumball,

"I don't have a crush on her!" he shouted defensively, already scooting his seat out from the table in order to begin his escape.

"-but in all seriousness, Gumball if you're into getting fit then you need to remember to eat properly and also to shower more because I don't want you coming home smelling like a jungle gym." she continued on as though she never heard his last remark and Gumball felt his ears droop as his head lowered to the table. The Teri teasing was already bad enough, but getting work out and hygiene tips kind of reminded him a certain neat-freak/germaphobe which didn't help with the aforementioned predicament.

Nicole looked up as if reminded of something and the middle-aged, hard working, cat mother felt her face light up as she remembered what it was she was going to say,

"Oh, right! Speaking of cleaning, Gumball, could you vacuum the living room before you go to bed and if you wanna earn a little money with your chores, would you also mind sweeping and scrubbing the bathroom too?" she asked, leaning forward in anticipation to her kid's answer.

At the prospect of earning money, Gumball's eyes lit up with a greedy sparkle and he quickly sat up until he was straight as a board,

"Sure thing, mom! Can I earn extra by doing the dishes as well?" he asked, hoping to get a bigger score on an easy task since the only dishes that he'd have to clean would be the plates, silverware, and baking pan for the lasagna dish the family used.

The taller cat placed a finger on her chin while she pondered the thought for a moment before returning her attention to Gumball with a cheeky grin on her face,

"Nope, but since you were so kind to point that out, you can do that as well! Thank you sweetie!" she chirped before going back to eating.

As though his mom had the power to suck any joy out of anything, Gumball could feel his face contort into a scowl as he growled angrily and his pointy ears flattened against his head. So much for getting some extra loot. At least now he understood his mom's frustrations when it came to working overtime without pay and would be sure to pick his words carefully next time.

Pushing himself away from the table, he got up and proceeded to the kitchen to get seconds. Using the spatula to pull out another slice of warm, cheesy, meat filled goodness to load onto his messy plate, Gumball hopped down from the stool the younger members of the Watterson household used to get to the stove due to their short stature and headed back to the dining room. Before he got to his seat, Gumball heard Darwin turned to their mom and pop a question,

"And how was your lunch break with Yuki, Mrs. mom?" he asked while finishing his first serving.

With the topic of Nicole's two hour long break at a local cafe with her former rival and wife of her boss, Mr. Yoshida being brought up, the hard working manager of the Rainbow Factory's complaint department began discussing in great detail what she and her best friend discussed while they were out. Gumball and the rest of the family were really happy at Nicole's growing friendship with Yuki because it lead to several great developments for their otherwise overlooked and overworked mother including her manager promotion after Yuki suggested to her husband to let Nicole handle a client that the Rainbow Factory has been working very hard to win over. To everyone's surprise the Watterson actually landed the deal and the company began prospering under a new partnership with _Patterson Printing Press_ and Nicole gained a new appreciation from Mr. Yoshida, causing the slightly misogynistic cloud man to reconsider her potential as an employee.

All in all, things kept getting better from there. With more income, the family was able to afford a few more luxuries such as actual compliances for the house that weren't Frankensteined together from various bits of machinery, their mom was more relaxed with her shorter work hours and most importantly was able to see her family more often _while_ being able to put good food on the table. It just went to show that things were starting to look up for the otherwise poor residents of this wacky house and everyone was feeling better because of it, if you count out all the other little downs that came with the ups of course.

Whilst listening to his mother talk about her wonderful afternoon, Gumball felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, causing him to pull the device out and peek at it from under the table because of his mother's strict 'no phones at the table' policy.

To his surprise, it was Teri who had messaged him and this alone caused him to panic a little for fear of what may be possibly going on. He pressed the messages window with his thumb and the message popped up to full view. It read:

 _Gumball, a massive Nephilim is going to appear over the northern mountain range in less than twenty minutes from now! I'm heading over to your house right now, meet me outside when I arrive and I'll take us over to where the monster is._

It was exactly what he feared and he quickly wrote back a message saying he'll be right out before shoving the phone back into his pocket. With his mom still telling the other three about her coffee break with Yuki, Gumball practically inhaled what was left of his food before grabbing his plate and fork and dashing off to the kitchen. Depositing the dirty dishes in the sink, Gumball rushed to the stairway, but managed to get only as far as the dining room when he heard his mom call his name,

"Gumball! Where are you off to in such a hurry?" she asked sounding both confused and concerned as to what would drive the kid to practically dry his plate of food and rush off to his room, presumably.

Thinking on his toes, Gumball decided to go with the first excuse that took substance in his brain space. Turning around to face the baffled faces of his family members, he snapped both his fingers and pointed to the top of the stairs,

"I'm gonna go grab my jacket and go for a walk, just need some of that fresh air, ya' know!" he quickly spurted out before continuing with his mad dash up to his room. He knew it was rude of him not to wait for an answer, but when Teri described the Nephilim as "massive", he didn't want to waste a single moment trying to resolve one problem when he could be dealing with the real issue.

After reaching the top of the stairs, the preteen quickly darted into his bedroom grabbed his bag with the scythe folded up inside, a jacket, and before he left, a bow with a quiver of suction cup arrows from his closet. He then made his way downstairs again, nearly tripping because he was in such a hurry, and then out the door before his family could stop him and ask more questions. Once again, he felt sorry for being rude, but he'll have to apologize later once he's assured that he will have a family to get back to.

After hearing the front door slam shut, the astonished Watterson family sat in silence for what seemed like eternity before Darwin broke the ice,

"Do you think he was mad at us for teasing him about Teri?" he asked, worriedly looking towards the faces of the other three sitting around the table for confirmation.

Anais just stared with her mouth agape before reaching up to scratch her noggin,

"I'm not sure, but why did he leave with his backpack and what looked like a bow and arrows?" she pondered out loud, having seen the unusual items her mischievous sibling was carrying.

"And he still hasn't answered to whether or not he was going to bake me a cake?" Richard's frustrated, one track remark reached no one in particular.

While her two kids spoke amongst themselves, Nicole just remained silent as she stared at the door where Gumball had just stormed out of in a hurry. She too had seen the items he brought with him, but was more confused as to who was texting him, having caught him staring at his phone underneath the table. Clearly whoever was messaging him had to have some reason for his needing to dash off like that.

She thought about going after to him, but decided to just question him as soon as he got back and went back to eating with a sigh.

Meanwhile, outside of the house, Gumball rushed over to the garbage bin at the end of the driveway, ducked behind it and out of sight. If Teri was on her way now, then it shouldn't take her too long to get here and find him. He was going to have to work on his excuses once he got out of this mess because he knew there was no way he left the house without some of his family members seeing him with his backpack and bow.

He wasn't looking forward to fighting the Nephilim Teri vaguely described in her rushed text and wondered if they should enlist the help of Rob for this encounter. Then again maybe they shouldn't because it was nighttime and they did promise that they'll handle said shifts as long as he did his part. Perhaps they could do a little reconnaissance before deciding what to do from there and not to mention that they also promised him that they would come to his aid if he was struggling against a particular opponent, so the same should apply to them, right?

From his position behind the Watterson's trash barrel, Gumball could see that there weren't that many people out, with the road lacking in any cars and the sidewalks vacant of people. The evening air was really cool, albeit slightly frigid thanks to the Fall weather and even though it was already dark out, most of the streetlights haven't turned on yet. Quickly glancing up at the sky, Gumball could already see Mars glowing in the vast purple covering the ceiling that was the heavens: such a beautiful sight!

It was then when he spotted an object on the horizon heading towards him at an incredible rate and was getting bigger every passing second. Standing up on his feet again, no longer concealing himself behind the garbage bin, Gumball watched as an origami F-16 no bigger than a mattress with a familiar paper bear sitting atop the nose of the aircraft make its way down his street before slowing down and coming to a stop in front of his house. Having spotted the blue cat before she landed, she waved at him in a friendly manner before gesturing towards the back of the plane and silently indicating for him to get on. Gumball smiled at the paper girl and rushed over to mount the fragile imitation of a fighter craft,

" _Speaking of beautiful sights."_ Gumball thought to himself, feeling glad that the evening was concealing the slight blush on his face.

Turning back towards him, Teri quickly checked to see if her furry passenger was safely aboard and secure,

"You ready?" she asked, wanting to hear his confirmation just to be extra sure.

Gumball gave her a salute using only two fingers and grinned at her,

"Take us away, captain Pepakuma!" he said with assurance.

With that being said, Teri turned to face forward and without a spoken command, the jet lurched forward, picking up speed before gaining enough lift and taking off into the darkening sky. It happened a bit too fast for Gumball and he found himself grabbing onto the paper plane's single tail rudder in order to keep from falling backwards. Meanwhile, the pilot of said aircraft was watching the city grow smaller as they climbed in altitude and changed course until they were facing northwards,

" _Captain Pepakuma."_ she thought to herself, actually kind of liking the name,

" _That dork is just a never ending well of silly nicknames and bad puns. I'm actually glad that of all the people who can be helping me through all this, this is the one I ended up with."_ she took another glance back at him, only to laugh a little when she saw him holding his tongue out and letting it flap with the wind. There was no ending to his silliness.

Within a minute, the fast-travelling aircraft flew past the city limits and was flying over one of the forests that sat at the edge of a line of mountains. Taking in the view from where he was at, Gumball felt a sense of awe strike him as he saw the massive swathe of forest stretch out from underneath him and admired the sheer scope of what he was seeing. The trees were dark in color thanks to the fading light and stuck up out of the ground like a bed of dark, menacing spikes, he could even see a road winding through this creepy sight like a greyish black snake.

After seeing what he could below him, he looked ahead and saw the thin wall of jagged rocks getting larger as they continued making their way towards it,

"So what did the Nephilim look like?" Gumball shouted up to Teri, his voice battling against the wind.

While Teri was at Molly's treehouse along with the other girls, minus Carrie, who was at Transylvania with her dad today, she fell asleep after Molly began telling the girls a story about a time when she came back to her house only to find it to be completely dark because the lights were off and her folks weren't home. It was a really long, boring story and Teri remembered seeing Sarah pass out from boredom before she eventually did so herself.

As for the dream that soon followed, she didn't get any good looks at the monster because all she saw was a massive shadow covering one of the mountains nestled deep within the northern mountain range. The fact that she could see its looming shadow, but not the actual body was enough to send her mind reeling in horror and quickly found herself wishing that she could escape the nightmare. She caught a lucky break when she was woken up by Carmen, who had noticed her sleeping, but she was so horrified by what she saw that she grabbed her bag and dashed out the door while giving a poorly thought out explanation to the rest of the girls.

Shaking her head and shrugging, she turned her flat head sideways a bit so she could see both Gumball and the mountain,

"I'm not sure what it looked like, to be honest." she replied bitterly, feeling angry at herself for not being able to see what it looked like in its entirety,

"All I know is that it appeared above one the mountains deep within the mountain range and that it was big enough to cast a shadow over it." she was now starting to worry.

Gumball felt a sense of dread wash over him when he heard her description of their newest opponent. _It's_ _ **shadow**_ _covered the mountain!_ He knew that the Nephilim were getting stronger every time they came to Elmore, but all he could think about now was _can we even fight that?_ He could even hear the fear in Teri's voice when she briefly described it, so he knew this thing was not to be taken lightly. A Nephilim that can overshadow a mountain could very well be the end of Elmore.

He heard Teri call back to him and he raised his head in order to better hear her over the rushing air,

"I'm sorry for having to come and get you in such a rush. Were you doing anything important with your family?" she asked with hints of more sorrow in her voice.

Well, he was having dinner with his family, but when he left, it wasn't like he was doing anything wrong, well, except for rushing off with a half baked explanation. Not to worry though, this was an easy fix and he could always apologize when he got back. That is if he ever did come back.

"We were having dinner, but I'm glad you came anyway. It's not like it's the end of the world or anything, right?" he chuckled a little at the irony of the last statement, but quickly found that there was no humor in it, given the seriousness of the situation.

"I'm sorry." Teri apologized again, hanging her head low.

Understanding her guilt, Gumball said nothing and leaned forward a bit, not too much as he didn't want to offset the plane's balance, before patting her shoulder gently. Feeling his paw on her shoulder, the origami user could feel herself being slightly lifted in both mind and spirit, but felt the need to ask something because it was bothering her,

"Do you think we can beat something that big?" she asked, not feeling so sure herself, but wanting to confirm it with her best fighting teammate.

He wasn't sure how to answer that question for her himself. On the one hand, the Nephilim have always been ginormous and unfathomably strong, but they were always small enough to deal with while they worked together. His thoughts turned once again to Rob, and he remembered how he had assisted them in the battle of the desert. Come to think of it, the fight against Toxic Pill probably would have been very different had he not been there. If this Nephilim was something he and Teri couldn't handle, then Rob should be able to provide some great assistance in taking it down.

Should all three of them fail to do so however, well, not much to write there. They tried their best and then Elmore and its people are destroyed, simple as that. Thinking about it now, not much has changed, they were up against a mysterious entity with nothing but a vague image of what they were facing.

After one full minute of thinking this through, he conjured up what he was going to say to her in his mind and put his thoughts into words,

"Honestly, I don't know if we can." he started with his honest opinion on the matter.

He watched Teri's shoulders sag in despair, but said nothing as she continued to steer the plane in the direction of the mountains. They passed by Hector's home and were now entering the actual mountain range itself. The air became even colder as they increased their altitude and made their way into the rocky terrain covered in snow and ice.

Gumball shivered, despite wearing a jacket, and continued to give his deduction on the matter at hand,

"But it was like that for the other Nephilim too. Every single time one would appear, sometimes I just feel so unsure as to whether or not we can defeat it. Yesterday's fight was even worse because it literally came out of nowhere and there were times I thought we were going to die." he could still feel the terror buried deep within his subconscious from the battle before, but he also knew what drove him to face against such odds. He was also aware that Teri was just like him in that she feared the things they faced, but pushed on through anyway.

He continued to give Teri the push she needed,

"Yes, this one is more intimidating because of what we do and don't know about it, but we should at least face it so that all those uncertainties no longer become uncertain. Even if it is too much for the both of us, we can go get Rob and hope that him being there helps even the odds a little. If it's still not enough and we're defeated…" he paused because he never liked imagining defeat, but they both knew the stakes if something of such were to happen,

"... then at least we tried. We knew we were going to defend Elmore to the end and… and… (sigh) we both knew that it was a possibility anyway because nothing lasts forever." that last part actually stemmed from something else that was triggered in his mind. A certain shape-shifting fairy with antlers that left him for what seemed like eons ago. Thinking about defending Elmore against hopeless odds must have somehow reminded him of his former girlfriend and how he thought that their love would last forever, but inevitably crashed and burned in the end.

Sensing the sudden change of volume in his voice, Teri, who was feeling her spirits being lifted by Gumball's arousing speech, suddenly felt something when she heard that slight difference in tone. It was pain, loneliness, and disappointment. Casting another glance behind her, she saw it written all over his face and after careful scrutiny, she knew after all the time she spent with him that he wasn't thinking about something, but instead someone.

And she knew who that someone was.

Thinking about him and Penny, Teri understood that such a close relationship between the two would cause disastrous consequences were it to ever end. And then it did. During the Summer, she found out from Masami that Penny had moved away with her family to Japan after the cheerleader's father was released from his job due to the business failing and having to cut loose all of its workers. When she heard how devastated Gumball was, it honestly made her sad when she thought about him because, while she wasn't really fond of the obnoxious cat boy and didn't understand what Penny ever saw in him, she did feel some sympathy towards him due to her own loneliness and how she felt when others decided to ditch her. She wrote him a letter and mailed it to him in order to share her condolences, but didn't really see him much during the Summer and just kept the matter in the back of her mind.

Now having been with him for about a month, all the battles they took part in, all the fun activities they shared together, and even with all the silly fights they got into, made her better understand Gumball as a person and vice versa. She couldn't quite explain it, but even with the short amount of time given, she felt as though she understood him very well and she even daresay that she trusted him more than some of her friends. That's why right now, despite not knowing what was really going on in his head, how he felt about Penny, and all the baggage he carried with him, Teri felt his pain even more and it hurt her too. It hurt her just to see him like this, to see him try to lift her own spirits up only to have his own demons drag him down.

That is why she needed him to be strong again because he gave her strength even when she was wrought with weakness. She was going to bring him back up, just like he did with her,

"You're right!" she shouted back to him, causing the blue feline to lift his monumental head up to meet her gaze.

With the brightness returning to his eyes despite his confusion, Teri knew she had him where she wanted him and pushed to lift his spirits just like he did with her earlier,

"We've been outmatched many times before by these things, but we've always pulled through. We still have time, we still have Rob, I have three runes I have yet to figure out and you have your scythe, a… a bow and arrows (why did you bring those?), and probably a set of crazy ideas that will work anyway. You're also right about the fear because even now I can't help, but picture what it is we're going up against and how it scares me. But that doesn't mean it's already over!" she declared confidently, but with a smile so wobbly, Gumball was sure any second she was going to break down and turn the plane around so that they could disappear somewhere where the Nephilim will never find them.

Still, her speech was effective and Gumball felt himself slowly getting over his grief about his past failures and his overall defeated mindset. Returning his gratitude with a stronger, more confident smile, he disregarded the downed look entirely and embraced the upcoming challenge,

"Yeah! You're right and thanks for that! I was feeling a little down because of something I messed up on earlier and I was worried that it was all going to come back to me eventually." he replied with a stronger grin,

"Heh! Here I am trying to be encouraging and then I'm the one who puts myself in a bad mood." he chuckled, reminding himself that they both needed to keep their chins up when confronting this giant issue.

The aircraft shot forward through the freezing skies above the numerous mountains that rose and fell like stone waves in a white/grey sea. They couldn't stay too long in this place, not just for the fear of freezing to death, but for the very real threat of the plane's paper wings gathering frost and eventually becoming too heavy to fly. They obviously weren't planning to dawdle for long when facing the Nephilim, they could either attack it right away or retreat once they've recovered enough data on the colossal monstrosity.

The sun had long since set and the light that spread across the sky earlier has scattered and was replaced with a transparent ceiling that peered up into a white speckled, starry sky. Once again both Teri and Gumball found themselves captivated by such a wondrous sight and were astounded that such a view existed without either of them ever trying to reach it. Even the moon looked beautiful as it hung like a pale christmas ornament amongst the dazzling celestial display and cast its brilliant silver light over the snow capped mountain tops.

The mood was ruined though, when Teri and Gumball spotted something in the distant horizon, a shadow of sorts that hovered over one particular mountain and contrasted the snowscape like an inkblot on paper. Even though they were ways away, the paper girl and cat boy could make out the mysterious form in front of them and could see that it was a black storm cloud that hovered several hundred feet over the mountain. The weirdest thing about this particular storm cloud was that it was _pulling_ snow up from the mountainside in a watery mist and into the center of the dark mass. The cloud was so large that it dwarfed the mountain it was hovering over along with four more on either side. If such a thing were to reach Elmore, the entire city could be swallowed up in the inky darkness as well as the forests that surround it.

This was the Nephilim they were facing.

Gumball felt his heart sink like a stone in a sea of despair and his eyes remained locked on the gigantic storm that loomed ominously in front of them. Forget all that confidence he was trying to pull up earlier, if he had a choice he'd pick fighting five Window Hoppers over trying to approach this thing. Would any of their weapons even put a scratch on the beast of biblical proportions? Does it even have a physical body to begin with?

Gumball swallowed a lump that was forming in his throat and chuckled nervously,

"Um, you know what? I say we double back and get out of here?" Gumball squeaked, his pupils shrinking in terror,

"I mean we've seen enough at this point, right?" he was gripping the paper F-16's vertical stabilizer so tightly that the surface was already crumpling under his vice-like grip.

Teri, who was equally, if not more, terrified of the Nephilim that was looming in front of him, slowly nodded her head as if agreeing with him and uttered in a shaky voice,

"U-uh, yeah sure. You know what? How about I do us one better and take us to some remote location that's far, far away from all of this. I hear Antarctica is nice this time of year!" She kept her gaze locked on the enemy and tried desperately to calm her rapid heartbeat.

They both considered running, but the plane kept traveling in a straight line towards the darkness that overshadowed the mountains. They both knew deep down inside that they could not just flee from this threat, not when everyone else would be helpless to stop it. Besides, where would they really go when the apocalypse was nearing?

The two remained silent as they closed the distance between them and the coming storm.

 _-Hector's home, 7:00 PM-_

Closing the comic in his hands, Rob wondered to himself how the giant managed to stay sane when given such boring forms of entertainment. He wasn't really one for comics in the first place, given that they are practically rehashed stories that depict men and women dressed in ridiculous outfits that society deems as "heroes" while they fight off one dimensional figures known as "Villains", and honestly, Rob didn't see any appeal in the matter mainly because he can't relate with any of the characters due to their lack of personality, especially the villains. Given the mundane nature of Hector's bedroom despite being located in a magical cave of sorts, Rob was forced to make due with the time he had and read over whatever the hairy giant had to offer.

"Well that was… painfully boring." Rob groaned, making no attempt to hide his disdain as he placed the revised _Punch-man_ comic back on the nightstand that sat next to the normal sized bed Rob found himself sitting on.

Hector, who was just standing quietly in the corner the whole time, merely shrugged and sat down in his spot seeing as his neck was starting to hurt from hunching down the whole time,

"Yeah… I didn't figure it would suit your tastes that much, but my mom likes to make sure that whatever I read is okay so that nothing bad ever happens to me." Hector explained in a brass, emotionless voice.

" _Not that I like comics or anything similar to such, but I kinda feel as though Hector's mom is sucking all the joy out of his life."_ he thought to himself, though he knew that he shouldn't judge Ms. Jotenheim's parenting because there was most definitely a reason why she goes through all of this. Then again, Hector was known for being accidentally destructive and the more Rob thought about it, the more he realized that it was probably for the best that Hector remained in a calm state of mind, less his uncontrollable emotions causes him to damage something or someone…

As Hector had promised, the journey to the mysterious cave took no longer than two minutes, but to their surprise and disappointment, the tiny troll witch was nowhere to be seen. The only explanation given by Hector was that she may be out running some kind of errand or meeting up with other sorcerers and people who possess magical qualities, like the Awesome Store owner. With that being said, their only option was to wait, but as Rob had already figured out by this point, Hector wasn't really the most liveliest people to be around.

And after half an hour of boring small talk and conversations that went nowhere, Rob was just trying to find some way to keep himself from slipping into insanity. He was also worried that if Hector's mom didn't get here soon than he was going to have to reschedule the meeting for tomorrow and for someone who wanted answers, that was definitely something he wasn't looking forward to. Especially since he went through all the trouble of getting here and having to endure a seemingly long wait. Slightly bothered by Mrs. Jotenheim's absence, he looked back up at Hector and stared at the silent giant,

"So how long is she usually out?" he asked, his one eye shooting towards the cave's opening and back at the ape-like figure.

Hector simply shrugged again and kept his focus on the tiny cyclops sitting on his bed,

"Usually depends on what she's doing, sometimes she won't be gone for long, but other times she can be gone for up to five hours or more. The good news is she's never gone for long." he explained, sounding slightly happier at the final line,

"I'm glad I have my pet hamster to keep me company though. I think it would get pretty lonely here without him." he pointed towards a cage holding the skeletal remains of his beloved pet that seems to be stuck on its wheel.

Rob felt his jaw drop in shock at the gruesome sight and felt a wave of surprise and genuine pity wash over him,

" _Does he even know that it's… poor guy, he really needs someone to talk to while his mom is gone."_ his thoughts were silenced when he stood up and walked over to the cage in order to further inspect it.

When he got close enough to the dwelling place of the deceased family pet, he could see that the creature's bones were yellow, indicating that it had been dead for quite some time. The wood shavings that littered the floor of the hamster's container were fresh and the food bowl was overflowing with dried up hamster food, this told him that either Hector was doing this himself while being completely unaware of the state his personal animal was in or his mother was doing this herself in order to prevent him from figuring it out himself. Either way, it was a sad truth to know and Rob finished scrutinizing the dead hamster's cage before pivoting on his heel to face the orange/purple colossus,

"Well, I'm glad you have something to keep you company, but I really think you should find someone to talk to, preferably someone who isn't stiff and absent minded." he suggested, not having the heart to tell him the truth.

For a moment Hector was silent, which actually wasn't that abnormal for the gentle giant, before letting out a sigh that nearly blew Rob and some of the items in the room to the other side of the cave,

"I really wish I did, but most people think I'm boring." his tone was heavier now, almost like he wish he didn't know, but could tell by the way most people acted around him. He'd gotten over that fact a while ago and accepted it as the truth, but still didn't help him with the loneliness he felt ever so often. Though he was happy at times like when he participates in football with the EJH ducks team or whenever his mother was at home for the whole day and they talked about a lot of things like what the world was like, given each others unique perspective or about what they did in their busy days.

Rob felt as though he could slightly relate to the silent behemoth of a student, he wouldn't say his life was dull in the slightest, but his odd appearance and lack of social skills made it difficult to hold conversations with regular folk, despite the odd nature of this place. However, he did know that there were people out there who appreciated different kinds of individuals based on how well they knew them or what common interest they held. With Rachel and him, they had very different personalities, with him mostly keeping to himself and her being outgoing and extroverted. It would seem like the two would never get along and sometimes that was the case: sometimes they found their values conflicting and this would force them to butt heads every once and awhile. On the other hand, with them both experiencing the horrors of the void and losing their place in the world, they had some common ground to stand on and the amount of time they spent together helped both of them understand and get along with one another.

If he were to say it himself, he would have to say that Rachel was his best friend and the greatest person he ever had the joy of spending time with.

Taking all this into consideration, the disfigured cyclops decided to offer some advice to the giant, a choice he rarely acted upon given his villainous nature,

"You know, there are actually a lot of people who would probably appreciate your company all on its own." he said, making his way towards the gentle figure that easily dwarfed a house, even when sitting.

Said giant's hairy head perked up a little when he heard the stranger he invited into his home telling him something he wished were true, but felt that it was an undeniable part of life,

"Really? What makes you think so?" he asked, raising a hand to his head in order to scratch the top of his massive cranium.

Propping himself against the rocky wall Hector was also resting against, Rob folded his arms and began to open himself up to the giant,

"Uhhh, call it personal experience, but basically one thing I know is that if you can find someone with similar interests or traits even, then making friends will come naturally." he explained feeling somewhat skittish since he wasn't use to talking to others like this. Still, he had more to add,

"After having everything taken from me, I was simply a nobody with no one to talk to or even relate with. No family, no friends, nothing really, although I did make a few enemies that provided me with something to do, but even that wasn't completely fulfilling. It did leave me with a unique set of skills that helped me skate by, which was great, I guess. Anyway, all that changed after I met Rachel." he continued with a slight smile carving its way into his blocky features,

"Just like me, she was a nobody with nothing except a name and a broken mind. After I brought her into my life and settled in with her, we both quickly discovered how polarized our personalities were and that more or less lead to a few "difficult" situations, but all in all, we still manage to pull through together because of all the things we've been through. She's by far my closest friend and greatest companion. I wouldn't trade our time together for anything." he finished with his smile increasing in width as he came to realize how much he actually appreciated his time with her.

The entire time he spoke, Hector was listening very carefully and was taking in everything the mad inventor had said. Underneath all his facial fur, his lips curved upwards and he found himself feeling a bit more relaxed after hearing all that. For the longest of times he feared that his size difference to everyone around him, plus his overly mundane lifestyle were going to forever be a hindrance to making friends or any meaningful social connections with others. His mom often told him that knowing his differences was something he would have to grow into and while he did appreciate all the things that set him apart from the others, he did want to find ways to overcome the barriers that sat between him and the people he knew.

Was this stranger the one to give him the necessary push to help pass all the issues that blocked the path even a giant as mighty as him struggled to overcome?

Curious enough to find out, Hector questioned Rob about some of the issues that constantly plagued his mind,

"That was a very touching story. I'm glad you and your friend are able to have what you have despite all the difficulties you two must face daily." he complimented, causing the brilliant middle schooler to blush a little and turn his face to the side,

"I'm still concerned about one thing though: excitement. If I get too excited then I lose control and I don't want to destroy anything or accidentally hurt anyone. How do I overcome this problem?" he asked, using his hand to brush the light purple fur covering covering his ape-like face so that he could look Rob directly in the eye.

Interesting question for a giant problem, if you don't mind the pun. Rob scratched the blocky brown hair that hovered a few inches above his grey, static head and he looked down at his mismatched feet for the briefest of moments as he tackled the problem within his inner world. After discarding a few solutions that could only lead to harmful outcomes, he settled on an answer that seemed like a positive one for his hairy accompalice,

"Well, that may take some time to figure out, if we're being honest here. I would try to find activities that don't elicit too much of an emotional response, I mean for example, you like hiking through the mountains, yes? I'm pretty sure someone in school would like to join you on a little sight-seeing trip, especially with the view you could provide them with. Also just simply being outdoors and talking to someone is a good way to pass the time. I can think of a lot of good activities that are quiet and peaceful, although you should also keep what the other person enjoys in mind too. One of the most difficult things to do in a friendship is learning to compromise." He said, mentally recalling all the fights he and Rachel would have over what to do in their spare time.

This seem to do it in for Hector, as he showed it by grinning in satisfaction and letting his hair fall back down across his face. He let out a happy sigh of relief that caused the stalactites to tremble a bit, raining down dirt and dust that came loose from the disturbance, and he leaned his back against the wall. Even though this person was someone Rob wouldn't ever consider hanging out with on a daily basis, seeing him look content made the problematic cyclops feel slightly better after talking to him. Making others miserable was one way for him to let off steam, but he had to admit, helping out others with their own problems struck him as wonderful.

"Hmm. I never really thought about that before. There's plenty I can do with others that isn't dangerous!" he said, sounding excited, but keeping himself in check before his mind lost itself again.

He twisted his head until he was staring at Rob one more time,

"Thank you, Rob! I will try your way tomorrow when school starts." he said gratefully, causing Rob to once again feel happy for helping out someone with similar issues to his own.

Telling him that it was no big deal, he made his way back to the room's only bed and pulled out his phone to see if he'd gotten any messages from Rachel, also to go over a few schematics for his newest projects. The room became increasing quiet except for the heavy, rhythmic sound of Hector's breathing that filled the whole cave like a constant breeze blowing in and around the place. The place also had a noticeable stench to it which Rob could guess came from the giant and from the various potions and things the witch would cook up. Speaking of, the first time he snuck in this place, he found that her mail was signed _Mrs. Jotenheim_ , yet he'd never seen or ever heard any mentioning of a husband. While going over the blueprints to his most highly anticipated project, _Leviathan Book,_ he found himself wondering who Hector's father is and whether or not he was a giant too or a sage, similar to his mother? If he was the latter than what did that mean for Hector himself?

Tapping the exit button on his phone, the window displaying the drawings and sketches detailing the unbuilt device quickly reduced itself and Rob turned the phone off with a click of a button before sliding the device back into his pocket. Turning back towards the colossal son of the troll witch, Rob opened his mouth to ask him the question he had on his mind, but was cut off after Hector looked sharply in the direction of the cave's entrance as if he heard something,

"Oh! Hey mom!" he boomed.

Rob immediately turned to see a familiar-looking lady who was short in stature, haggard looking in appearance, adorned with a purple robe and golden bangles on her wrists, riding a broom into the cave and dismounting once she was close to the ground. Dusting herself off, the green skinned troll hobbled over into the living room where her cauldron and other magical supplies rested all the while shouting to her ginormous son in that raspy voice of hers,

"Hector! What did I say about staying up late! You know how cranky you get when you don't get enough-?" she froze when she peered into her child's bedroom and saw that it held a second occupant.

Seeing her hesitation, Rob simply waved at her and stood up on his own two feet before making his way towards her, his pace was slow though, for he did not wish to alarm her,

"Mrs. Jotenheim, my name is Rob and I'm here because I need your help in deciph-!"

"I don't care who you are or why you're here! Who said you could come into my home without my permission?" she shouted with ferocity that seemed surprisingly unnatural for a person of her size.

Her beady, mismatched eyes glared into Rob's single ocular organ and he seemed to freeze up on the spot. It wasn't like she was terrifying or did anything Rob didn't expect her to, he actually figured she would react like this thanks to her overprotective nature, plus he did come in without actually notifying her, but that couldn't be helped because she was busy. What actually caused Rob to park his feet was the intensity of her stare, one of her eyes was bigger than the other one which caused most people who looked upon her face to react in discomfort, but her eyes just had this weird effect that rendered Rob's once confident mind into a doubtful mess and he still couldn't figure out why this was.

While he fumbled for his words, wanting to say anything that will break the growing, uncomfortable silence, when Hector stepped in and saved him from saying something foolish,

"Um, mom. I let him in." Hector chimed in, moving in from his room to the living room.

There was another brief period of silence before she shifted her glare towards her approaching offspring. Her eyes had softened a bit, but still seemed rather vexed at what she had heard,

"What do you mean, _you let him in_? Is he a friend of yours from school? You know you're not allowed to have friends over when I'm not home, or aware, or even when it's close to your bedtime!" she growled, sounding more frustrated rather than angry.

Regardless, Hector didn't seem too put off by her demanding question and simply pointed at the lanky twelve year old as he explained himself,

"I know, mom." he replied calmly,

"I met him not too far from here and he was looking for you because he wanted you to decipher some ancient symbols he found in order to rid Elmore of a curse." with a single truck-sized finger, he nudged Rob forward, indicating that it was time for him to speak up and further clarify the point to him being here.

Gathering up his courage, Rob set his mind on the task at hand and pulled the book out of his bag. He knew that he'd come this far and while he had expected some objections from the tiny troll woman (even failure was more than likely here.), he still knew he had to try to get her to at least listen to him. Hector had given him a chance and he didn't want to waste it by fumbling in his confidence to speak up to her… or down to her, in his case.

While he continued to make his way towards her, Mrs. Jotenheim continued to bicker with her son,

"Magic symbols? Curse? Are you playing those ridiculous card games ag-? Huh? Are those…" having trailed off in the middle of her sentence, Mrs. Jotenheim paused to look at the runes sprawled over the pages that Rob had on full display right in front of her.

Her eyes shot back and forth as she studied every symbol with the utmost scrutiny, the scene reminiscent of an archeologist making a massive discovery and studying the very artifact displayed in front of her. With a quick swipe of her hands, she pried the leather book out of Rob's claws and began flipping through the pages like a crazed bookworm, much to Rob's chagrin. Her look melted from a scowl to astonishment and then finally settling on confusion as she reached the final page that contained the symbols.

Satisfying her curiosity, but with more questions welling up from within her psyche, she closed the book and proceeded to hand it back to the villainous resident of Elmore,

"Where did you get this?" she asked simply, although her tone was heavy with suspicion.

At first Rob was unsure how he was supposed to answer that, quickly shutting his mouth and turning away as to think on it with some peace of mind. He knew that her knowledge of the mystic arts and some forms of the unknown had to be vast, so talking to her about the void shouldn't be too out of the ordinary. Then there was the barrier that he encountered in the void, how it blocked him off from the portion of history that predates human/bizarro civilization and how it was placed there for a reason while only giving him a small amount of knowledge in exchange for a bit of magic. What would she think of him if she learned that he'd breached a barrier he knew little about? Does she know about the barrier, its overall nature, and who put it there? Could she be trusted?

Feeling indecisive, Rob decided to go with the safest answer he knew and turned to her with a stoic mask placed upon his distorted features,

"I picked it up from an occult store somewhere in Norway." he lied through his teeth and shrugged in order to add some authenticity to the lie.

Having seen the contents of the book herself, Mrs. Jotenheim had a distinct feeling that those symbols were far too dangerous for some seller of cheap knockoffs to have possessed without incident. Then again, if the seller was unaware of what it was he or she had gotten ahold of, it could have been possible that he or she didn't pay it much attention to read into it and sold it as a means to gain a quick buck. Such things were possible and Mrs. Jotenheim considered reporting tonights findings to Central Twelve of the Supernatural Commission tomorrow after dropping Hector off to school. They'll probably know what to make of the situation and make sure to launch an investigation of certain underground magic shops within the Norwegian country.

For now though, she might as well get whatever she could out of this. Forget tossing the kid out of her home, the cyclopean monstrosity brought her something interesting and she was determined to learn what else she could about him and this supposed "curse of Elmore." that her son had brought up. Speaking of her son…

"Hmm, interesting." she mumbled to herself before turning to Hector and snapping her fingers, quickly gaining the giant's attention,

"Hector, Mama's gotta discuss something important with this young man, so why don't you head off to bed and don't forget to play your music." she instructed without a ton of strictness, but enough to get her point across.

Surprisingly, Hector did as he was told without uttering a single word and left the two alone in the living room. The orange/purple ape-like giant crept back into his room, lay down beside his bed (this caused Rob to wonder why he kept such a thing if he didn't even sleep on it. Was it possible that he could fit in it when he was younger and didn't want to part with it? So many questions.) picked up a decorated wooden music box from underneath the pillow, twisted the dial and began dozing off as soon as the short, but enchanting melody began playing. Soon the heavy, thunderous sounds of his snoring could be heard coming from the sleeping furry mass and echoed around the cave like a lawn mower stuck in a enclosed space.

With both of them covering their ears, Mrs. Jotenheim ushered Rob to follow him outside where there was less noise to deter their conversation and Rob followed the grey haired, cleaning lady out through the entrance. Once they were both standing on the ledge at the mouth of the cave, they were both treated to a nighttime spectacle with the moon slowly rising in the distance, providing a pale glow to the surrounding area and the air once again becoming frigid when compared to the cozy interior of the Jotenheim's mountainside home. With the change of scenery also came a significant change in noise quality and the two were better able to hear one another.

Staring back into the cave where Hector slept, Rob hiked a thumb in said direction and remarked in a flat voice to Mrs. Jotenheim,

"He's such a nice kid, too bad he snores like an Indie 600 motor race." he commented with a slight tease.

Turning her head once to check up on her sleeping child before returning her attention to him once again, she shrugged her tiny, hunched shoulders,

"Eh, it's not so bad once you get used to it and my hearing is not what it used to be. Besides, he sounded and smelled a lot worse after I took him to a bean farm down in New Mexico. Last time that'll ever happen." she said, her nose already wrinkling from the repulsive memory.

Rob didn't even need to ask for more details, seeing as he knew how bad _his_ room would smell after one night at Elmore's top Mexican restaurant, _Burrito Farm_. Thanks to Rachel, he was forever banned from eating there less he wishes to spend the night outside and that never sat well for him, so he agreed of course. He'd hate to see how bad a giant's night out at any Mexican restaurant would get and the effects that followed afterwards.

Putting those disturbing thoughts aside, Rob jumped back on track and held his book out to her,

"Right. Is there any way you can translate these runes for me? I'd experiment with them if I could, but time is not on my side and there are few opportunities to do so." he pleaded, keeping the book where it was for her to take.

He actually fought two Nephilim on his own once, the first time was at the Elmore mall prior to meeting Gumball and Teri and another time in the landfill following their battle on the bridge. It was there where he tested all five runes he had in his arsenal and found out their true capabilities. The problem was, he now had thirteen pages worth of power and he didn't think he could test all of them on the next Nephilim that showed up. He wondered if he could activate them on his own like Gumball could, but he hadn't tried that yet and was reluctant to do so because of the runes deadly effects.

He needed a faster option that didn't require deadly experiments that could cause severe injury, collateral damage and possibly death too.

Having heard his request a second time now, Mrs. Jotenheim was far more collected than she was when she first saw him and eyed the book once more before casting one more suspicious glance,

"Short answer: yes I can, BUT!" she held a single, gnarled, green finger up in the air in front of him,

"You first have to tell me why you want to know the contents of those runes because when I looked through them, I could tell those were no ordinary spells you can find in some hokey pokey occult store. Also, I want to know the nature of this so called "curse" that is plaguing Elmore." her voice was commanding and full of authority, making her even more intimidating to the former void wanderer.

And with that, the troll witch snapped her fingers and a glowing white orb formed above her hand, casting a bright light across both of their faces,

"And don't even think about trying to lie to me! This orb will flash red when it detects a lie and if it does so even once while you're explaining then I won't help you and I will turn you into a leech!" she warned ominously.

The orb suddenly flashed from white to crimson, causing the haggardly woman to sweat a little,

"Um, okay, I can't exactly turn you into a leech because we have rules against full body transformations, but you get the gist." Mrs. Jotenheim sheepishly grumbled. Rob couldn't tell if her face was red in embarrassment or if it was due to the light the orb was giving off.

Rob quietly accepted her terms with a swift rock of his head and the orb went from red to white and got straight to answering her questions,

"Well there are quite a few reasons as to why I want to learn about those runes and it actually ties in well with the curse that is looming over Elmore." he started, not even faltering once.

The glowing remained the same color and Mrs. Jotenheim nodded for him to continue,

"For starters, the curse of Elmore I refer to is actually an invasion set out by monsters, unseen by regular folk with the acception of me and my two absent companions, Teri Pepakuma and Gumball Watterson, called the Nephilim." he put the book back in his backpack and clasped his hands behind him while he spoke, feeling more comfortable this way.

As soon as the name "Nephilim" was mentioned, Mrs. Jotenheim's eyes widened in alarm for the briefest of moments before she regained her composure and focused her thoughts on the mysterious giants. While she thought this over, she indicated for him to continue with yet another simple nod and grunt. With a small appreciative smile and a grateful look for not freaking out about the Nephilim, Rob continued,

"The invasion started roughly two weeks ago, with Gumball and Teri being the first to encounter the beasts and after learning about them myself, I set forth to find a solution and I rummaged through your cave earlier (sorry about that by the way, I was afraid you weren't going to help me the first time around and well, I went with my first instinct.) and found five symbols that I thought would be useful. Sure enough it worked and then I decided to take a trip to…" he was silent for a moment because every time the void was brought up in a conversation he'd try to just reroute the topic elsewhere in order to avoid the painful memories. Rachel never brought it up either, it was too unbearable for the both of them and they often avoided using that name at all.

Sucking in a deep breath, Rob pushed aside his anxieties and let the conversation run its course,

"I went into the void and discovered the book of spells. The truth is I want the power to eradicate the Nephilim and prevent Elmore's destruction." he finally said, his single eye shining brightly.

The lie detecting orb flashed another color, but not red, instead a warm pink color had replaced the radiatiant, white glow. At first Rob jumped in surprise because he believed himself to be telling the truth, but quickly slowed himself down after he noticed the strange new color the magical lie detector was showing. Such an odd color peeked Rob's curiosity and he pointed at the orb before asking the person responsible for its creation,

"What's that color mean?" he asked in surprise.

Without hesitating to answer, the miniature troll witch pointed first at said magical device then at him,

"You told the truth, so don't be alarmed, but the trust orb sees that you are hiding something else." she cocked a bushy white eyebrow and placed a gnarled hand on her hip,

"I'm guessing there's more for you to gain than just victory over your opponents, if I'm not mistaken?" she had the air of someone who knew more than she was letting on and that frightened the sneaky fellow a tad bit.

Letting out an exhausted sigh, knowing that he was going to have to spill everything if he was to get what he was really after, Rob cleared his throat and kept a straight face as he spoke,

"The other reasons I crave power is because I want to save myself and someone close to me, who also suffers from the curse of the void and I wish to use what powers I gain from this conflict to destroy Gumball after I vanquish the Nephilim!" he declared.

Following his declaration, the orb switched from rosy pink to a light red and Rob felt his jaw drop at the sudden change of color. _How could that have been a lie! I was telling the truth! This is what I want!_ These thoughts and many others cycled through his head as he continued to stare at the light and felt the air around him get colder. Did this mean that their deal was off? Will Mrs. Jotenheim choose not to help him now seeing as he evidently lied?

He quickly pivoted his blocky head in order to see what expression the magical cleaning lady was making and hoped to offer some kind of explanation to her. To his surprise though, she wasn't glaring at him or hurling accusations, rather she seemed bemused by the color change and a chuckle found its way through her crooked mouth. Now was the time for Rob to be perplexed, given everything that's been happening. _What could she be possibly be laughing about?_ was the only question on his mind when he noticed the trivial action played by the witch before she finally began talking,

"You definitely want to save yourself and your special one, but is being Gumball's nemesis really all you want to do? What could you possibly do with such powers? Surely more than settling a petty squabble that was predetermined by someone else. You can lie to me and you can certainly lie to yourself, but I think we both know that once you are whole, then there will be nothing holding you back from gaining whatever else the world has to offer." she was cracking a wide, toothy grin that Rob swore must have been painful for her because he was certain that this lady rarely smiled.

Still confused, Rob eyed the troll and threw his arms up until they were somewhat level with his shoulders, kind of as though he were shrugging, but also displaying his shock,

"If that's the case, then what is it that I really want then! Does that orb also tell you another person's deepest desires too?!" he hissed in frustration.

The green lady stood there in silence for the briefest of moments before letting out another cackle and with a snap of her fingers, she extinguished the lie detector,

"How am I supposed to know that? You're the one who decides what you want and also, I think I have everything I need from you now, so I'll definitely help you." she replied, before hobbling back to the cave where Hector's snores wrought the interior with thunderous growls.

Baffled and shaken by the realization that he didn't want to fight his arch-nemesis forever, Rob wracked his brain while his feet began to drag themselves and his body in after the witch. Okay, he knew that he had once said that he never wanted to be the bad guy, but he thought he and Gumball had made up that day and promised to keep being problematic for each other. Then again, as soon as Penny moved away and Gumball became depressed, he too became less motivated to destroy his mortal enemy and when Rachel came into the mix, his will to carry out his evil plans dropped significantly. The only time he felt a spark was when he saw Gumball and his paper classmate flying across the sky on an origami F-18 and when he followed them to the park, he saw the Nephilim for the first time. After that his plans switched from trying to take down Gumball to trying to destroy the Nephilim that have been appearing more often in their weird little corner of California.

The more these points and realizations made themselves abundantly clear to Rob, the more he understood that his focus no longer rested solely on Gumball for that matter. If that's the case then what was he to do once this conflict had ceased? He supposed there was finding away to rid the void out of his and Rachel's lives and get things back to normal for the both of them. Thinking about it now, if he got things back to normal for himself too, then he could have a shot at being a normal citizen of Elmore and get an actual life here or he could do something with all his magic and his mighty intellect as well.

Rob made his way into the cave, allowing the shadows to hide positivity spreading across his face and wondered how the universe just kept blessing him more and more possibilities.

 _-Location: unknown. Time: unknown-_

Sand. When Gumball came to he could feel the coarse and grainy substance beneath his fingers and pressing up against his cheek. It felt very warm and for a moment he thought he was lying down on a beach somewhere in paradise. He just wanted to lay down for a bit and let the warmth ease him back into a peaceful slumber.

That's when he remembered something and his eyes snapped open, revealing to him a world covered in red sand and bright lights. Quickly getting up, Gumball surveyed the area around him and quickly spotted Teri laying face first down on the ground no more than five feet away, right next to her was the origami F-16 they flew in on with its right wing burnt off. Moving in to get a closer look, the blue kitten could see that Teri was still breathing and he let out the breath he was unconsciously holding the entire time. She was okay at least, Gumball felt very relieved and sat down next to her while he tried to recall what happened to the two of them.

It all finally came back to him and he remembered how they both got here… wherever here is. They were both flying over the northern mountain range when they spotted the Nephilim cloud and moved in to investigate. When they got close enough to get a good look at the shadowy entity, they could see that it was actually pulling snow and ice off of the mountain it was hovering over towards its center.

Curious, they both decided to fly in until they could get a visual as to where all the snow was going. When they were nearing the edge of the storm, a bolt of red lightning shot out from the inky, black cloud and tore their right wing off, sending both of them spiraling into the cloud. The last thing Gumball could recall was both him and Teri screaming as they were completely engulfed in darkness, then something large and reflective looming up ahead that was getting closer and then nothing after that.

Taking a good look around him, it became quite evident that wherever he and Teri were right now, it was not the snowy mountains they were flying over. The landscape was a bizarre setting with red sand covering the ground as previously noted by the Watterson child and a forest of crystalline trees with bands of glowing, white light moving through their trunks and branches like animal veins. The sky above was anything but bright, instead being nothing more than an abyss of darkness. Thankfully with the glowing, transparent, crystal trees surrounding the two of them, the whole forest was lit up like a stadium.

" _Where did we just land?"_ Gumball asked himself from within the confines of his own head,

" _We were flying towards the storm, we were struck by lightning, we fell towards… something large and reflective, and now we're here?"_ he looked around again and still nothing familiar about this place.

More confusing thoughts ran through his head as he tried to rationalize every possible reason for them being here when he heard something rustle right beside him and he was broken from his thoughts. Shifting his focus to the cause of the noise, he noticed that Teri was starting to stir and he quickly reached over to grab her shoulder,

"Teri! Teri! Get up!" he whispered while he shook her.

After a few moments of lightly shaking and whispering her name, the paper girl finally pushed herself off the ground and sat up. She first blinked her eyes a couple of times before glancing around at the unusual environment they were in and taking it all in. She looked visibly confused as she just continued to stare for a bit with her lips tightly pursed and then finally pulled her attention away from the surrounding glowing trees to look at Gumball,

"Wha-er-where are we?" she asked, her voice unusually quiet.

 _As if I knew_ , Gumball thought to himself as he shrugged and answered her question with some casual sarcasm,

"We're in the land of people who worry too much about cleanliness and hygiene! A land where paranoid hypochondriacs are chased and tormented by sarcastic classmates and vile dise- OUCH!" he shouted as Teri pulled off her backpack and swung it at his head, knocking him to the side.

She scowled at the cynical kitten and pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration,

"A simple 'I don't know' would have sufficed, you overly sarcastic dunderhead!" she growled, strapping her bag on her shoulders once more.

Gumball recovered from the blunt attack to his head and stood back up, dusting himself off,

"Glad to see that you're doing well enough to attack me for my killer comebacks." he remarked with a roll of his eyes. He checked his supplies and found that his bag was still on him along with his bow, but when he checked his quiver of suction cup arrows, he discovered that only nine remained of the original twenty he came with. Must have fallen out when they were struck by that lightning bolt, it was annoying, but at least he still had everything he needed and plus they were still alive so that counted.

Another thing he noticed was that it was eerily quiet in this place, with no animals or insects or really anything living here making so much as a peep. Despite the lively look of this crystalline forest, the world was actually quite dead and reminded Gumball of some abstract art he'd seen while browsing the internet. Teri too was caught by the overall vacancy of this place and felt slightly uncomfortable at the prospect of a forest, as weird as this one may be, being dead and quiet.

She drew herself closer to Gumball and remained by his side as she tried to get a handle on what was happening all around them,

"This makes no sense! Weren't we heading towards the Nephilim and shot down earlier? So why are we here? Were we teleported or something?" she asked, not really sure if he could answer that question.

The moment she mentioned the word 'teleported' Gumball felt a sense of unease and dread wash over him. They fell towards what was probably the Nephilim's body, but then they wound up here, wherever _here_ was. Given the unusual nature of the Nephilim, the storm-like covering, the transportation of several tons of snow from the mountain top, and the sudden appearance of this place, could this mean…

"What if this is the Nephilim's world?" Gumball said, his voice flat and filled with absolute despair.

At first Teri didn't catch what he said and felt a momentary pause as she tried to process what she had heard. He said the Nephilim's world, right? This made little sense to the only Pepakuma child as she surveyed her surroundings once again and tried to wrap her mind around everything. Yes, this place was alien and definitely not of Earth, but why would the Nephilim send a portal, through a portal, and into the northern mountain range in order to collect water. It didn't make a lot of sense to the anthropomorphic paper girl and after thinking hard on the subject, she came up with a theory.

Turning to Gumball, she tapped his shoulder and got the cat to look at her, using her calming presence to ease his worry. It worked and her blue middle school friend stopped looking dreadful, allowing her to address what she deduced from the gathered evidence,

"I don't think so." she started, pulling him over to the the wrecked plane to sit down,

"First off, they're gathering water from the mountains, which is a pretty good spot because there aren't that many people out here, so they're not interested in attacking the city, at least not at the moment. Second, we both saw that it had a body of sorts after we entered the storm and it wouldn't make any sense for them to send a portal through a portal." she noted while using her finger to draw some depictions in the sand for Gumball to easily understand,

"We spun out of control and sailed right into the body before we blacked out." she drew a large circle and a line spiralling towards it, representing their path towards the Nephilim,

"In conclusion, I think we may actually be _inside_ the body, perhaps in a pocket dimension of sorts." she finally stated, drawing another circle within the larger circle.

Gumball sat in silence for a short period in order to process everything Teri had pointed out to him and thought about the given circumstances. It would actually make sense that this wasn't the Nephilim's world because wouldn't there be a lot more Nephilim waiting for them if this was, in fact, a gateway. Besides, if this were a portal leading directly to them, why not position it over Elmore, seeing as that would be the fastest and easiest way to kill all of them. In hindsight, it was pretty reckless of him to jump to conclusions like that and he should have probably pieced everything together with some logic. He was glad Teri was very observant because a few moments ago and he would have expected dozens of giants hellbent on their destruction to come charging through those trees.

Giving her a look that showed he understood what she was talking about, they both calmed down and began to evaluate their next strategy,

"Right! Good thinking, Teri! I was really worried there for a few seconds because I thought we were trapped on some other world that was filled with the evil monsters." he remarked while he wiped his brow in relief,

"Okay, so we're inside the storm's 'body', correct? That should make it easier for us to kill it then, since it doesn't know we're here." he exclaimed, looking to his only companion to confirm his suspicions.

Teri was slow to nod, but was more or less worried about unknown variables,

"Theoretically, yes, but we should also keep in mind that we don't know what's going on here! For all we know, it could have some defenses planted throughout this place, meaning we should proceed with caution and be on the lookout for anything suspicious." she warned, giving her fuzzy companion a serious look.

Shrugging, Gumball pulled the bow off of his shoulder and notched an arrow he drew from his quiver before speaking to Teri once again,

"Sounds like a plan. I brought this along just so I can hit them from a distance in case they decide to show up." he mentioned, as he held it up for Teri to see.

Looking at the archaic device Teri saw him use during one of their plays last year, she thought that it was a smart move for him to bring such a weapon to aid in their fight, but she was still confused about several things,

"Hmm. that's impressive and all, but why would you use that instead of your scythe? I mean I get that it has more range and doesn't produce as much noise as a gun would, but your scythe has more power and doesn't use ammunition. Also, how do plan on damaging, much less killing any Nephilim with a suction cup arrow?" she asked, eyes alight with concern.

After practicing his aim with the string weapon, Gumball loosened his hold and allowed the string to relax while he spoke to Teri,

"To answer your question about its effectiveness against the Nephilim, I plan on attaching pieces of paper with runes drawn onto to them before I fire at the enemy. As for the reason behind using this weapon instead, it's because I still haven't gotten any better with using the scythe's powers and I don't want to put either of us in jeopardy due to my inability to control the flames it produces." he explained with a seriousness he rarely showed and when he meant "we", he was mostly referring to Teri. He was especially afraid for her because he didn't want any of his flames reducing her to a pile of ashes.

There was a moment of silence as Teri noticed her friend's way of referring to the scythe's strange properties and saw that he was most certainly troubled by this aspect. Like her own runes, she was well aware of the danger they posed and was still trying to find better, more effective ways to utilize them and Gumball's scythe was no different. He could definitely use it to their own advantage and it proved very useful to them for the many fights they've been in, but he lacked any sense of control. She understood that what he was really worrying about was her own safety, seeing as she was made of paper and could burn as easily as dried leaves. It must be absolutely terrifying to him, knowing that one slip up could either leave him helpless or worse, with one less companion.

All in all, it made sense why he would seek out an alternative to fighting the Nephilim as opposed to using an unstable weapon that might do them both more harm than good,

"I see…" Teri said glumly, turning her head so he couldn't see the sorry expression on her face,

"That's not a bad way of thinking, but you shouldn't be too scared to try to use it when absolutely necessary. I'm well aware of the risks it poses and I'm willing to help you get around that." she said, her eyes back on him now,

"When this is over, we're gonna get together sometime and help you master that ability." she promised.

There was just something about this girl that always got him fired up and Gumball wasn't sure when and where she started becoming such an encouraging teammate. Either way, what she said was exactly what he needed to hear and now he felt less afraid of the power he wielded. He was still cautious when regarding the scythe's powerful silver flames, but at least it no longer felt like a burden that was weighing him down.

Feeling better already, Gumball placed the arrow back into its quiver, slung the bow over his shoulder, and got up while holding a hand out for Teri to grab,

"Alrighty then, I look forward to when we defeat this thing and head home." he said with his trademark grin flashing.

Teri smiled back and took his hand, allowing Gumball to pull her back up. Her attention was drawn back to the damaged origami plane sitting behind them with its remaining wing pointed up at the sky (ceiling maybe?) and thought about whether it was good idea to grab it or not, seeing as it was mostly burnt. Before she could make up her mind, Gumball's ear twitched as he picked up some noises nearby and approaching, and he quickly pulled Teri down to a crouch behind the plane. She was about to say something in protest, but was silenced when the jacket-wearing cat boy placed a finger to his lips; something was coming and he needed her to be quiet.

After half a minute had passed, the sound of footsteps could be heard, large heavy footfalls made by enormous feet, along with the voices of two people conversing, drawing closer to their position,

"...you should quit dragging your arms, Torax, you're gonna knock over one of the plasma containers and this whole place is gonna go up in one big, white, fiery explosion!" one voice, a masculine one that was quite high in pitch shouted harshly at some unknown figure.

Teri looked at all the crystal trees with glowing energy spreading through them and rubbed her chin,

" _Plasma? Is that what the white substance in the trees is?"_ she mused and continued listening to the conversation between the two unknown figures.

There was an angry grunt followed by a series of furious curses being directed at the figure who spoke,

"You do realize that I have small legs, right!?" a much gruffer voice, presumably Torax, snarled distastefully.

The other voice could be heard snorting in annoyance and continued on with his rant,

"That does not excuse your recklessness! You know fully well that Leliel worked hard to gather all this water to convert into plasma and I don't want it all to go to waste. We need it if we're going to wipe out those Earth vermin that have been resisting us along with their ugly nest." he scoffed as though he were scolding a petulant child.

Teri could tell they were getting closer by the way their footsteps and voices were getting louder and was starting to feel a sense of panic well up from within her. The two were Nephilim without a doubt and while they were arguing like two siblings, she knew very well that both she and Gumball could not take them both on. She was about alert Gumball to the ever present danger when said cat tapped her shoulder and leaned in closer in order to whisper to her,

"Okay, before we hide, I need you to draw a big explosion rune on the wing of the plane." he whispered softly to her while hiking a thumb in the direction of said aircraft,

"Once that's done, we'll go hide behind one of those trees and we'll ambush which ever one is left standing. I want you to create an origami that can hover so that way you can attack from above in case my attack fails, okay? Let's move it!" he ordered and with a shake of his head he peeked over the side the of the plane in order to keep a lookout.

Springing into action, Teri understood what Gumball was planning to do and began fishing out her pencil. She got to work on crafting the deadly rune trap and wondered to herself if the Nephilim would notice such a thing when they arrived? She kept on drawing, believing that Gumball's plan will work and also planned on making a few petrification runes once they got behind the tree in order to better prepare for the second phase of the plan. While she thought about this, Torax continued to whine to his Nephilim companion,

"Oh yeah, I know very well about your perfect plans, Raph, and you wanna know something, I don't really care! Heck, why are we even out here in the mountains, scheming against some backwater, garbage city when we should be out there fighting that pathetic Earth children organization, the NEA or whatever it is the vermin decide to call themselves!" Torax snapped back, giving Gumball and Teri the impression that whoever this Nephilim obviously didn't sign up to be here.

So does that mean they were run like an actual military or something? Also what was this NEA he spoke of? Some sort of resistance group that's been fighting the Nephilim? Many questions like this spun through the minds of both Teri and Gumball, as the paper girl finished her task, tugged on Gumball's sleeve and indicated for the preteen cat to head out. They both quickly darted behind one of the nearby trees about forty feet away from the damaged origami fighter craft and waited for the Nephilim to make their appearance. By the sound of their voices, they were closing in now and the duo should be able to get a visual within a few moments from their hiding spot.

They waited while the voice grew louder along with their footsteps and the two could here Raph continuing his conversation with Torax,

"President Nimrod wants Elmore wiped off the surface of this planet and has given the six of us, the Se'arot (storm) squad, direct orders to do so! I would like to accomplish this task and make our grand leader pleased!" Raph countered, much to his gruffer companion's annoyance as the two finally stepped into the clearing where Teri's aircraft was sitting.

As far as Nephilim went, the pair that had been approaching were probably by far one of the most intimidating monsters both Gumball and Teri ever had the displeasure of resting their eyes on and the two froze up at the sight of them. Both of them stood around the same height, with their heads barely brushing the tops of the leafless, crystal trees which Teri estimated to be at least fifty feet in height and easily made the paper airplane appear like a toy when compared to them. The two children collectively felt a chill run down their backs as they peered at the monsters from their hiding place.

The most threatening of the pair was a massive gorilla-like monster, with bulky forearms that extended all the way to the ground to which its knuckles rested on and a husky torso to match. Also like a gorilla, his hind legs were rather short in comparison to the Nephilim's main body and had three toed feet that helped support his hind quarters, which was odd seeing as his hands had four fingers and two thumbs on either side, emphasizing that he relied heavily on his forearms for support and probably for combat too. The weirdest aspect of this one was his head, which was shaped like spade, round and wide towards the neck with a tapered, pointed nose at the front with two red serpentine eyes placed on either side, providing the giant with an excellent field of vision. Like some of the other Nephilim they faced, this one had silver, reflective skin although there were a couple of black markings that covered the creature's arms and gave him a tribalistic appearance.

He glanced about the clearing with his sharp eyes and grunted when he saw nothing of interest,

"Well, he's an idiot for wasting time and resources trying to wipe out an insignificant smudge because he's an emotional wind bag. There's a reason he never got my vote!" Torax sneered as came to a stop on his ape-like arms.

His comrade, Raph, the one with the higher pitched voice, was a interesting sight to behold. Humanoid in structure, he looked like a cross between a bird and a praying mantis. He was slender, in contrast to his heavy set companion, with long, scythe-like arms that ended in three fingered talons and several spines that stuck out in various sections of his body like his elbows and back. He walked on two, narrow legs joined by two knees, the upper one facing forward and the lower bending backwards, possibly allowing for swift movement. Where his head was concerned, it appeared to match up well with the rest of his body, being streamlined and angular with five spikes protruding from the back of the cranium. For facial features, he had a short, pointy beak, a single nostril near the base of his upper mandible, and five eyes: two large, globular ones that flashed various colors (kind of like Silver Twelve's wings.) and three smaller ones arranged in a triangular pattern on his forehead. To top it off, he looked agile, fast, and deadly.

Ignoring Torax's political comment regarding their apparent leader in a negative light, Raph hungrily scanned the sight before him with his many eyes, causing both Teri and Gumball to duck behind the brightly lit tree before he spotted them. Luckily he didn't see them and Gumball pulled a pad of blue sticky notes out from his backpack and started drawing stone runes on nine of them. He remembered what Teri had shown him and drew the symbols to the best of his ability. Once he was finished, he placed each piece of paper on the suction cup tip of each arrow and looked to see that Teri was already creating a few runes herself along with another origami.

If one of them notices the plane they left out there, then hopefully one of them will go over to investigate and set off the trap they so kindly left them. Once that happens they were going to have to clean up the rest while they maintained the element of surprise. Hopefully this goes smoothly and they don't wind up causing too much of a ruckus, if there were four others like Raph had mentioned then they wouldn't want to stick around for too long when that bomb goes off.

While notching an arrow on the bowstring, Gumball heard one of them let out a surprised gasp and he felt his fur stand on end when he heard one of them speak,

"HA! There! You see, they are here! Leliel said she sensed something enter her dimension and she was right! That means I was too! Forget luring them into the trap we were planning on setting, they came right to us!" an excited Raph shouted with glee.

Swallowing a lump that had formed in his throat, Gumball first looked at a now frozen Teri, whose eyes were already wide with fright and her mouth pursed in order to contain her scream, and then, with perspiration already collecting on his brow, he slowly and carefully craned his neck over until he could just barely see the other side of the plasma column coursing through the tree's transparent trunk. To his relief, the Nephilim didn't spot them and was actually seen pointing at the downed aircraft, he and Teri arrived in. Guess he didn't quite understand that the aircraft wasn't big enough to hold any passengers, but was already marching towards it without any caution whatsoever.

He quickly signalled to Teri that everything was alright and that she should get ready to fly. Once her fear had subsided and she got back to work on her current paper craft which appeared to be a pair of bird wings and a tail fitted with straps so she could wear them. Clever. Gumball kept an eye on the monsters as they drew in closer to the paper plane and held his breath while he waited. Raph appeared rather eager while closing the distance to the origami, despite not having any facial expressions, while Torax hung back a little while eyeing the object suspiciously and refusing to get too close. Gumball noted his cautious nature and figured that he was going to be a tough one to deal with,

"Raph! Are you stupid? Stay away from that thing. What if it's a trap? The Earth children may be weak and primitive, but they are resourceful and cunning." he shouted in a cautionary tone, reaching out to grab his companion by the shoulder.

Raph paused in his tracks and Gumball felt his blood run cold, then it got even worse when he saw the spindly giant turn away from the trap they set up in order to face his companion,

"Hmm, perhaps you're right." he thought out loud and Gumball nearly felt his heart stop,

"If they left their aircraft here then they're either foolish or clever. I think they might have left it here to throw us off our game a bit, I mean after all, it has been ten minutes since Leliel detected something enter her storm sphere and they could have been long gone by this point!" he concluded.

With that he turned back to the aircraft and began reaching towards it. Torax caught this and realized that Raph completely missed his point and arrogantly assumed that the occupants of the vehicle had fled and left the vehicle behind as a distraction. He quickly reached out with his clawed, six fingered hand and shouted,

"Wait, Raph! That's not what I-!"

"Not too worry! Little do they know that once I catch their scent, there will be nowhere they can hide! We will find them and destroy them!" he declared, his three fingered talon plucking up the frail, ruined plane.

Gumball quickly crouched down and plugged his ears while Teri, having seen the scene unfold right before her crouched down close to Gumball and did the same. Meanwhile, a clearly enthusiastic and naive Raph brought the plane up close to his face and the bird-insect creature found his beak gaping when he saw something flashing on one of the wings. He didn't even have time to ask Torax what the glowing symbol was and felt a rough hand clasp his shoulder when it went off.

BOOM!

A sound louder than a lightning strike, a blinding light and a shock wave that followed swept through the immediate area, forcing some of the pointy branches on the glowing trees to sway a little with the changing air pressure and a vibration traveled through the ground that rocked both Teri and Gumball. With the explosion being set off at point blank range, Raph never stood a chance and his head along with the hand that held the improvised explosive was blown clean off his body, leaving behind a blackening husk that burned purple. Soon there was nothing left of the amateur Nephilim and the residing effects of the bomb faded, along with his life.

Sadly there was one thing left behind: a confused, enraged, and grieving Torax who just witnessed one of his closest friends disappear right before his very eyes. When the bomb detonated, he drew his mighty paw back and used it to shield his face, allowing the shockwave to knock him back a little and he quickly felt the surface of his marked arm increase dramatically in temperature. Once the immense blast subsided and the world was once again quiet, the spade-headed gorilla lowered his arm and saw the remains of his comrade fade away into smoke.

For a moment, the Nephilim remained where he was, replaying the image over and over in head and wondering what just happened, despite it happening right before his very eyes. His friend had just died, right in front of him, he was in arms reach and was too late to stop him. He saw right through the trap and still couldn't prevent him from foolishly taking his own life. He knew it wasn't his fault, Raph had always been an arrogant hot head who thought he was smarter than his bigger companion and always found trouble wherever he went, but that didn't matter to him right now. He was gone.

Meanwhile, from his hiding place, Gumball felt the explosion fade, uncovered his ears, and listened for anything in particular. With the attack being loud enough to pierce his protected ears, Gumball could hear a slight ringing in both of them and waited for it to gradually fade. He was more than nervous now, he saw the one named Raph pick up their rigged airplane and he was forced to look away at the last moment. There was a particular set of fears that dragged themselves through his mind as uncertainty gripped him, _was he killed by the blast? Were both of them wiped out? Did they see right through it? Are they coming here right now? Are there others nearby?_

He knew none of these questions were going to be answered if he didn't check it out himself and so, he gathered up his courage to do what needed to be done. His first action was to alert Teri, who was still next to him, curled up in a fetal position with her flimsy hands pressing against her ears (she must be so scared now.) and even had her eyes screwed shut as tightly as they could. With a quiet and gentle nudge from his shoulder, the paper girl jumped a little before looking up at him with a mix of fear and curiosity. Placing a finger to his lips, he first pointed at his bow and arrow, then in the direction of the clearing and then, finally, to the origami wings she constructed. Getting the gist of the message, Teri gathered her weaponized papers and crawled over to where her wings were resting without a word being uttered.

Next, Gumball needed to check and see the status of the two enemy combatants before either of them could take action. If both were alive then they would have to lure them into the forest, where they had very little room to move and pick them off there. If there was only one left, then same plan, but with less trouble, hopefully. He heard the sound of Teri's wings flapping and took that as his cue to peek around the tree.

Drawing back the arrow, the tiny blue cat took a deep breath, held it and slowly sidled along the smooth, glassy surface of the bizarre flora/container until his head was clear of the entire tree. Ever since the trap had fired off, it was deathly quiet and even though the ringing in his ears had left him shortly after, it still felt very uncomfortable for the Watterson child. Turning his head until it was facing the clearing, Gumball got his first look at the site.

Standing alone in the large space he and Teri arrived in was the Nephilim, Torax. The other was nowhere to be seen and Gumball could feel his hopes rising with every passing moment he was staring at the lonesome giant. The silver monster hadn't moved from his spot and was just staring at a particular area as if transfixed by that small space, he was so quiet and still that it was slightly unsettling for the young Watterson. If he didn't know better, he would say that the Nephilim was… _In shock!?_

This caused him to pause for just a moment, as he processed what he was witnessing, his entire perceptive began shifting and he could he feel it. He and Teri both just set a trap for two monsters that have been long since threatening his home, his family, and his friends and would probably kill them on sight had they spotted them. Yet, they destroyed one of them and now this one was just standing there as though he were just trying wrap his mind around what just transpired before his very eyes. Being no stranger to loss, it all came crashing down to Gumball like a ton of bricks and he realized what he had done:

He and Teri just killed this one's comrade, possibly a friend even.

Gumball was about to let himself freeze up on the spot and go over what he had done, even considering whether or not to just let the giant grieve when something snapped him back to reality. He had been peeking out from his hiding spot for so long that it completely slipped his mind and he watched as the enemy soldier's reptilian eye suddenly flick in his direction. His carelessness had gotten him spotted and in an instant, Gumball was no longer staring at a soldier he felt sympathy towards, but a monster that wished for his and everyone else's demise.

There was a brief moment where absolutely nothing happened, no one moved, nor breathed, nor put any thought into their heads. Then that all changed when Gumball jumped out from his hiding place, snapped the bow into a firing position, selected an easy target and released the bowstring. The arrow was sent flying with a _Twang!_ And the once tense bowstring snapped back into its relaxed position, vibrating ever so slightly.

As for the rune tipped projectile itself, the magically enhanced weapon arced through the space between the bow it was fired from and the towering behemoth, quickly sticking onto the beast's upper bicep: right on target! The moment the sticky note was stuck on the Nephilim's arm, the area around it became gray and hardened in an instant, but to Gumball's surprise, it didn't cover a large area like he'd hope and instead, remained there like granite birthmark on his upper left arm.

Torax, now fully enraged, let out a roar directed at the attacking Elmore citizen and his arm markings began to glow a dark red, much like the sand they were standing on. Within seconds, intense heat dispersed throughout his bulky body, burning the arrow that was stuck to him and melting the rubber at the tip, and his pointed nose began to glow the same color as well. Being that he was fired up now, the gorilla-like Nephilim lowered its head like a bull, with his nose pointed directly at the trembling kitten and began to paw at the red sand. Gumball took it as Torax's preparation to charge and found himself reaching for another arrow.

With another roar, the hulking Nephilim used both of its arms to pull itself forward, the force of which kicked up a tremendous cloud of sand and the red hot monstrosity began closing in on its target. Gumball, startled at its ferocity and speed, quickly took aim and fired, but felt hopeless when Torax simply batted the arrow away and continued racing forward. Twenty feet and closing, desperation clawed at Gumball as he fired three more arrows in rapid succession, only to end with them being swatted away or burnt up before they even reached his body.

And within the span of a few moments, Torax was upon him, eyes filled with a hatred that Gumball could only explain as blind and pained. He stopped dead in his tracks when he reached the blue cat and raised his pointed head until hovering directly above his frightened adversary, ready to come straight down with red, hot fury. With only four arrows left and not a lot of time to act, Gumball had no time to think and found his body moving before his brain did.

He dashed forward and dove right between the Nephilim's tiny legs, just as Torax's head came crashing down with the striking force of an artillery shell, creating an impact crater ten feet in diameter. Up above the two, Teri looked down upon the skirmish with a deep concern for Gumball's safety and used her folded bird wings to launch herself at Torax's back, which was facing her. With Gumball being behind the ferocious beast and away from it's thick head, he had an opportunity to strike it in one of his weakest areas: his legs!

Drawing out another arrow and stringing it, Gumball whipped around with the simplistic weapon raised in a firing position. Having sensed that he was outflanked, Torax quickly whipped around when something caught his eye: A small, flying object was diving for his head and he instantly recognized it as another Earth child. With a quick swipe of his massive paw, he struck at Teri and despite missing Teri by a few inches, her light body was swept away by the resulting air current. She tumbled into the crystal tree she was hiding behind, tangling her bird wings up in the branches and receiving a few small cuts from the sharp edges. She groaned as unfamiliar pain surged through her and she tried to untangle her wings from the tree before Torax could attack Gumball again.

Luckily, since the fifty foot Nephilim's attention had been averted, Gumball was given an ample opportunity to counter and after releasing his grip on the string, an arrow sprouted from the Nephilim's hip joint.

Torax's attention was immediately captivated by the odd sensation coursing through his right leg and when he peered down at the stiff appendage, he could see that one of the vermin's arrows had reduced it to stone from the pelvic area all the way to the knee. Like all his Nephilim brethren, he felt no pain, but when he tried to move the frozen limb, he found that it was impossible and felt a surge of panic racing through his already chaotic mind. Without his right leg, the only way he was going anywhere was if he used his arms to drag himself and the humiliation of going about like that was enough to further drive the monstrous entity into a hate filled frenzy.

With another bellow escaping him, he raised his left hand, spotted the little creature that had killed his comrade, and brought it down just as he loaded another arrow and fired. With the intention to hit his shoulder, Gumball hoped that it would be enough to immobilize him, but Torax's hand moved too quickly and intercepted the rune tipped projectile, knocking it aside once again. With no time to stop the entity's incoming strike, Gumball's only move was to back away while raising the only thing that he had in his hands in a desperate attempt to defend himself. He squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the end to come.

KRUSH! SNAP!

The six fingered car-sized paw slammed down into the red ground several inches in front of the anthropomorphic cat boy and sent the poor lad flying backwards. Striking the ground hard, Gumball let out a grunt as his head stuck and rocked forward, straining his neck a little and making his teeth click. White hot pain filled his body as something on his face and his chest burned, not realizing that the Nephilim's red hot claw had managed to graze him as it came down. Opening his eyes once again, Gumball could see that his vision was swimming and the tree that was in his lower, left vision kept moving in a semicircle. Realizing that his paws were each clutching something, he carefully lifted them to his face and saw to to his dismay that his bow had been snapped cleanly in two.

"YOU… YOU… YOOOUUUU!" a voice so loud and filled with so much hatred, disgust, and fury rocked Gumball backed to his senses and he stopped looking at his broken weapon in order to check on the brute that sent him flying.

Looking at him now, Gumball could see that he was already raising his other hand for another strike and his scary red eyes were filled with a hungering for revenge. He hadn't moved from his spot, that being hard to do, but Gumball was still within reach of the silver skinned monster so that he could crush him if he stretched his hand out far enough. Gumball didn't see how he was going to get out of this one, once again he had been reckless and underestimated his opponent, now he was going to pay for it.

Torax continued to scream at him,

"YOU COWARDLY, VILE, LITTLE… LITTLE… RAUUUGHH! DIE!" he roared, putting all his grief and vengeance into both his words and his strike.

Out of the corner of his eye, Gumball saw something white and small zip by overhead and right behind the giants head. Torax never noticed, blinded by his own grief over the loss of his friend, which wounded up costing him his life as well. With a sound that sounded like a gasp and a cough, Torax's eyes widened in absolute horror as his spade-shaped head was quickly converted from the silvery, armored hide to a granite like substance that spread like a virus through it. Eventually his body blackened and disappeared within a brilliant burst of purple fire; like his arrogant comrade before, his ignorance had left him exposed to a trap that he simply overlooked.

Watching the massive creature die, Gumball exhaled and rested his head back onto the ground, allowing himself to catch his breath once again. He felt a pang of guilt and frustration erupt within him and he felt his fingers rubbing at his temples while he groaned. Once again, he just barely escaped death and it was all due to his incompetence and recklessness. If he hadn't hesitated and just shot Torax in the neck or in a joint then this battle would have been easier.

Instead, he hesitated because he felt the soldier's pain and completely forgot where he was. It should have been obvious that they could feel certain things like grief and inner turmoil, he should have known that whatever these things are, that they were soldiers carrying out orders and it was his and his two other companion's jobs to stop them. Failure to do otherwise would result in everything ending and he nearly let that happen because of his foolishness.

He needed to do better and realizing that helped build his resolve to do so.

Following the monster's death, Teri set herself down and allowed the wings she strapped to herself to fall to the ground. She spotted Gumball lying on his back some distance away and rushed over to him, worried that he may have been hurt. She skidded to a halt once she reached him and knelt down in order to get a closer look. He appeared to be fine, except there was a large, black, burn mark running down the center of his face and continued down to where his sternum ended, easily ripping through his clothes and exposing his chest. She also saw that his bow was broken and that he was down to only two arrows, not they were going to much use anyway.

He wasn't looking at her and instead was glaring up at the sky as if he were angry about something. Aside from the physical marks, if he was too busy being angry about something then Teri could say that he was probably fine, but asked just to be sure,

"Are you okay? You look like someone was trying to cleave you in two with a branding iron?" she tilted her flat, bear-like head and arced an eyebrow.

Gumball just rolled his eyes and let out a little dipleasured grunt,

"I broke my bow… no wait, scratch that, he did!" he said in a bittersweet tone as he crossed his arms.

Teri nodded solemnly before smiling a little,

"Was that another pun? Because you know, scratching?" she asked.

Still maintaining his grumpy expression, but cracking a smile, he quickly glanced at her then back at the sky once more,

"Maybe." he said, trying to sound apathetic, but failed after a snicker escaped him.

She punched him in the shoulder and shook her head as she stood up, offering out a hand for him. Taking it, he hoisted himself back up and glanced his companion up and down before noticing a few slight tears along her arms and sides. Eyes widening in concern, Gumball stepped forward and took her arm in his hands as he closely examined the wounds,

"You're hurt!" Gumball gasped.

Having forgotten about being flung into the tree-like, plasma container, Teri looked herself over and held back the anxiety that was already starting to present itself to the germaphobic paper doll. She didn't want to freak out because if she did then Gumball probably would too and that was the last thing they needed. Swallowing her fear, Teri put all her focus into shrugging it off and moving on,

"I-It's fine! Just a f-few scratches is all! No need to worry about it or the fact that millions of germs are probably culminating into the open areas now and- AAAUGH! WHERE'S MY DISINFECTANT!"

So much for keeping it cool.

Watching his paper classmate scramble to retrieve her bag from the base of the tree, she left it there in order to reduce weight during their earlier ambush, Gumball shrugged and pulled the scythe out of his bag. He didn't unfold it, but there was no point in keeping in there either seeing as his other weapon was just broken. He locked his gaze onto the smooth, dull grey surface of the handle and then looked at Teri for a moment,

" _Even with a safer weapon, I was unable to keep her from getting hurt."_ he saw her pull out a tube containing bacteria killing chemicals and began squeezing it into her hands,

" _I gotta keep her safe. She's the best when it comes to killing the Nephilim, way better than I am at least, but she's so frail. I don't trust myself with this weapon when I'm around her, but right now it's the only thing I have at the moment."_ it was a sad truth. He knew that whenever he fought against the Nephilim, he would always get hurt in the process, but the majority of the time, he was protecting Teri so she could deal a killing blow or assist him in doing so. He never wanted to see her hurt or be responsible for her pain, that's why he wanted to get better,

He looked down at the scythe again and clenched the terrifying weapon tightly within his palms,

" _Looks like all I have right now is my wit and a very destructive weapon that I fear more than the Nephilim. I will not let anything bad happen to her from here on out! Even if I have to keep these flames extinguished, I will do so and give my best so that way we can both win and get back home safely."_ he thought with resolve and his face scrunched up with determination.

He was then broken out of his funk when Teri returned, looking all patched up with tape and disinfected. Looking down, Gumball saw her germ killing chemicals in hand and how she was looking at him like she was going to use them. Remembering his injuries, Gumball immediately took a step back whilst waving his arms in front of his face. He knew what she was about to do and it was something he wasn't interested in the slightest,

"Teri, no! I'm fine! You don't have to treat me, especially since I only got slightly singed!" he shouted defensively as he continued to back up.

Teri continued to approach him with a determined look on her face and squeezed some bluish-white ooze into her hand. The look she gave him was like that of a mother getting ready to scold her child,

"Gumball, you lost a layer of skin and I'm not even going to tell you how that can lead to some complications later. Now get over here and sit down! This won't take long, I promise!" there was an edge to her voice that warned Gumball that resistance is futile.

Realizing where this was going, Gumball knew there was no arguing his way out of this, less he face the wrath of the paper cut-out and Gumball knew he wouldn't be able to get away from her thanks to all the speed and flexibility cheerleading practice has given her. Stopping and sighing, the cat boy who was the counter to his paper companion stopped dead in his tracks,

"Okay fine, but let me do it myself!" he groaned while stretching out a paw to grab the tube from Teri.

Of course, this forced the germaphobe to halt in her advance as well and a perplexed look spread across her face. She wanted to argue that she could do it and wouldn't mind doing so because she believed herself to be more sensitive and careful when applying this kind of treatment. However, she knew that Gumball was capable of treating himself and that one of the other reasons she wanted to help him, a tiny part of her at least, was because she kind of admired treating up close, but knew that she shouldn't let her personal feelings get in the way when it came to helping out a friend.

With a nod, she handed over the disinfectant and remained quiet for a few moments while Gumball squeezed some into his hand and began rubbing it carefully into the seared areas, wincing and growling as the pain tore through his body at the sudden contact. While he did this, Teri thought over what happened during their skirmish with Torax and recounted something odd that had went down before the fight began. While she was up in the air, waiting for Gumball's attack to lure Torax in, she remembered being above the tree and seeing Gumball hesitate when he saw the spade headed gorilla staring at the spot where Raph once stood. It wasn't until Torax spotted Gumball, did the kitten act and the real fight actually began between the two.

It was yet another close battle that left neither of them unscathed and when Teri saw what Torax was doing before the fight, she kind of had an understanding as to why Gumball may have hesitated. Still wanting to be sure, she looked up at the blue cat boy who was finishing up with his self treatment and asked him about it,

"I assume you hesitated before shooting the Nephilim because you saw him grieving for his friend?" she asked gently, not wanting to sound like she was accusing him of anything.

Gumball was silent when the question was asked, but Teri could tell by the sudden glare that was present on his face that this was the case. She understood why he probably did it, from all their past interactions, she knew Gumball to be sympathetic and soft at times when he wasn't being completely self-absorbed. He was actually showing more of this side in light of recent events and probably felt bad when he saw that both he and herself had caused pain to the monster, causing him to stop and think about his actions before being reawakened to the situation at hand. To be honest, Teri also felt bad for Torax when she saw the sorry state he was in and thought about just going down to Gumball and having them both leave the area before he noticed either of them.

Handing back her specialized medical substance, Gumball explained his actions while taking a good look at the area around him. Curious, he spotted a new crystal tree starting to sprout from the ground not too far away in the clearing they were in and deduced that the flora of this place grew very much like trees do on Earth, but at an accelerated rate and with the glowing fourth state of matter being present. Such a strange place,

"Yeah…" he breathed out when he started, still feeling guilty for his careless inability to act,

"Thanks for saving me again, by the way. Honestly, sometimes I feel like out of the two of us, you're the best fighter because you're level headed, observant, and all your origamis are beautiful, elegant, and match your flexibility. The only thing I can do is clumsily swing around my scythe and fire a few arrows before managing to break the bow because I panic or hesitate too much." he said with a nervous chuckle that poorly hid his low self-confidence.

Getting that Gumball was feeling doubtful again, the paper bear raised her eyebrows in shock and shook her head in disbelief. Sure, he fumbled a lot and got himself knocked around a bit more than she did, but one thing she knew for genuine fact was that she felt that _she_ relied more on him than he did her. He was always willing to take the brunt of the Nephilim's attacks just so she could swoop in and score them both a victory and usually, the first one to act was also him.

He obviously still felt like a screw up from all his past misdeeds that left him with nothing at the end, but the fact that he was still doing all this showed just how strong he really was,

"Oh come on now, you know that I'm not one hundred percent level headed, I panic too from time to time and honestly, I feel like out of the both of us, you're the bravest. Since the first time we fought these things, you were always ready to spring into action against them and even take a few hits just to assure that we both win. You're also resourceful, crafty, trusting, obedient, skilled, and you always have a funny pun on hand when the situation seems dire. In fact, I'd say you're kitty amazing!" she commented, feeling clever with her use of wordplay.

Gumball chuckled once again and his eyes were once again shining with that same mischievousness that Teri had come to both enjoy and detest at times,

"Oh! Compliments and puns, I see! Bear-y nice! No wait, Teri nice!" he countered and waited for the backlash.

Luckily, the only piece of criticism he received from his flat, snarky, slightly aggressive, animated paper companion was just a simple roll of the eyes and a smirk that said, _oh boy…_ before she came to her conclusion,

"Also, just because you can empathize with someone doesn't make you weak, it means you have humanity and that's a good thing!" she spoke as though she understood and knew this from her own experiences. And she did, she visited her parent's hospital very often and saw/met many types of patients there and regardless of who they were and where they came from, she always felt something for these poor people regarding what kind of situation they got into. She was glad to see that Gumball could see some things the way she did and once again, could not ask for a better person to be with,

"But, please remember next time that we're kind of in the middle of a war and I don't want anything to happen to you… and everyone else because there is only so much I can do to help." she added in as a warning.

Treating this as a learning experience, Gumball gave a silent, yet affirmative answer to Teri and mentally promised to never hesitate again. She was right, there was too much at risk here and while it was okay to feel sorry for someone else, he couldn't just stop everything because he felt bad. On another note, everytime he was left alone with Teri, Mr. Pepakuma made him promise to take care of her and he intended to follow through on that promise for many reasons, mostly personal.

Looking up at her, he took the initiative and rested the folded weapon he had over his shoulder,

"Right! I will definitely do better next time! Let's go hunt down Leliel! I feel as though this place is the biggest threat to Elmore and the other three Nephilim can be easily dealt with later." he declared, although he knew that all the Nephilim were difficult and fighting four of them was going to require a lot of caution and careful planning. They both no longer held the advantage in numbers, but their element of surprise, plus their overall versatility gave them an edge against these overwhelming odds.

Looking around the alien environment, Teri noticed that she couldn't actually see anything past the trees and realized that finding the Nephilim was going to be more difficult than they realized. She agreed with Gumball that this place needed to be taken down quickly before it reached Elmore, but the overall size of this place made it feel as though looking for a certain giant would be like trying to locate a blade of grass in the great plains. This was also coupled with the fact that they didn't even know what they were searching for, the Nephilim came in all shapes and sizes and for all they knew, Leliel could literally _be_ the dimension they were in.

They could definitely deal with any of the others lurking about the forest, given that they were careful, but how could they fight something that could create an entire world, or at least a section of it, that could harvest water and convert it to plasma for uses that most likely involved damage. Come to think of it, it made sense why it would be harvesting water, it could separate the hydrogen from the oxygen atoms and convert said hydrogen into plasma and use the oxygen for something else, perhaps to help the trees grow? Teri remembered hearing about it in chemistry class and she also remembered that plasma was highly explosive and was what the sun was made of.

Suddenly, something went off in her head and she figured out a possible way to track down Leliel,

"Gumball!" she announced with a brilliant gleam in her eyes that caused the cat to straighten up in surprise,

"Remember when Raph said they were going to lure us out in a trap? I think I know why they are growing these plasma trees! They are harvesting them to make bombs so they can hit certain areas in Elmore in order to draw us out to fight them!" she was on a roll and Gumball was honestly surprised at how she was able to get all this just from a few simple observations.

Shrugging, he asked her what she meant while he extended his scythe's handle, used it as a support to lean on and continued to listen to her spin her theory,

"Well, I was thinking, what if they're gathering the plasma somewhere and that somewhere is where Leliel is? I know it's a stretch, but I feel as though it's the best lead we can go off of!" she exclaimed, shaking both fists in front of her in pure excitement.

This did sound like a promising lead to Gumball and while he figured that he shouldn't just blindly follow along with what everyone says, he knew for a fact that Teri is usually spot on with her observations and thus, had no reason to doubt her. She was truly a remarkable person and Gumball was more than certain that following her course of action was the smartest choice for the both of them. With his enthusiasm clearly written all over his face, Gumball twirled his weapon a few times with a flick of his wrist before resting the magical item on his shoulder again and began walking past her in order to get a better look at the forest of light surrounding them,

"So we seek out a Nephilim, possibly and preferably a harvester, and we follow him back to a base of operations or something like that? Sounds sneaky, non-violent, and a better alternative then what I had in mind, which was just flying around until we spotted something." he stated before twirling around on a single heel to face his clever companion,

"Sounds like a plan! Take the lead, captain Pepakuma!" he said with another two fingered salute similar to the one he gave her before they took off from his house.

"Right, but first we actually are going to need to fly, that way we can better scale our surroundings!" she explained as she began unzipping her bag, which was jam-packed with papers,

" _He called me captain Pepakuma again! I really like that title, maybe I should have him call me that more often. Although, I will never let him name our kids because he really is ridiculous when… wait a minute! Kids? With him!? What is wrong with me? When did I start thinking of such stupid things in the first place? There must be something wrong with this place and its making me go crazy!"_ she rationalized, although she couldn't explain the sudden red hue that was flooding her cheeks while she continued to search for a certain black piece of paper.

Eventually finding what she was looking for, Teri began folding the blanket-sized object while Gumball kept a lookout for anything suspicious like he normally did and wondered what the other Nephilim would look like. Thinking about Raoh and Torax again, Gumball felt that the two were like guards or scouts who were sent out to patrol certain sections of this place and took orders from another Nephilim. He heard them also mention that they were part of a squad, with a name that he didn't quite pick up on and he wondered if the squad was comprised of specialized units with special tasks given to them based on their forms and abilities.

If that were the case then, maybe there were harvesting units too and thus, one of them could lead them straight to their leader. If that wasn't the case, then they must have a gathering spot regardless and observing them would be beneficial. Either way, time is of the essence and they needed to find Leliel fast before they decide to carry on with their attacks and wipe out many unsuspecting people.

When gumball turned his attention to Teri, he saw that she was finished with her newest creation: a black origami made in the semblance of a bat, with sharp, angular wings that rose and fell in narrow slopes that gave it the appearance of the flying mammal's jagged wing design and a pair of wide, leaf shaped ears that rose prominently from its tiny head. Once again, Teri had outdone herself with her practical design and attention to detail that left Gumball completely amazed by her skill. When staring at Teri and the bat, Gumball noticed that the two contrasted beautifully, with Teri being brighter in color, very cute and simple looking and her crafted animal being darker, sharper, and more dangerous looking. All in all, the two looked well together and Gumball stood by his earlier statement that everything she created had an elegance to it.

Resting on her knees, Teri mired over her work and with a satisfactory grin, she turned to Gumball and told him to hop on. He did as he was told, complimenting her work which she accepted gratefully before she joined him and sent them both up in the darkened sky above. With the two of them blending in perfectly with the starless ceiling, they were free to survey the entire area without fear of being spotted.

They were both treated to a spectacular view once they reached the prefered altitude, seeing the numerous glowing tree crystals shining like stars against a wavy sea of red set in contrast to the blackened sky gave a wonderful sense of beauty and awe for the two airborne children. They could also see that this space stretched for miles without any visible ending, implying that the space within the Nephilim storm was bigger than the outside. With the land brightly lit below, the cat and bear continued to survey for certain creatures and/or structures that may clue them in on something.

They stayed up there for a few minutes, quietly looking when Gumball peered down at the bat he was riding on and felt a question arising from within his grey matter,

"Hey Teri, just out of curiosity, I notice that you like to make animals and jets from paper, but how come you don't make other things like cars, or an extra set of limbs, or a weapon even?" he asked.

An odd question to ask, but Teri understood where he was coming from and already knew the answer to his quirie,

"I can do those things, but sometimes it just depends on the situation. I prefer to make animals because they can traverse multiple environments and have a lot of good uses when it comes to combat and utility. As for why I make military jets, simply because they are fast and very maneuverable, plus they are especially handy when fighting the Nephilim. I actually found that most of them are poorly equipped to handle aerial attacks and I think we should use that to our advantage more often." she replied, having learned this throughout most of their experiences.

" _That makes sense."_ Gumball said to himself using his internal monologue and continued to ask Teri questions about her power,

"So, do you think you can also make long ranged weapons like paper throwing stars with runes written on them? Maybe we get a rubber band and you can fire enchanted paper wasps at the Nephilim. It would be a great help if one of us could hit them at a distance like Rob can." he said, although he was still a little salty about his bow being broken.

Hearing his questions regarding her ability to create throwing and projectile weapons, Teri found herself struck dumb by the realization that she could have been fighting the Nephilim wrong this whole time! Here it was, a solution right under her nose and she had completely missed it! It was so obviously simple that she actually felt ashamed that she didn't even consider the possibility of such innovative weapons and Gumball, with his mile-long imagination, simply brought it up like it was a mere suggestion.

Feeling a little too prideful to be shown up in such a way, Teri gave back a very sly response to her furry companion,

"Why Gumball! Are you implying that I, captain Teri Pepakuma, master of origami and paper crafting would not know of the art of shuriken making!" she huffed, feigning offense while turning back to give a sneaky look.

Not too soon after, Gumball found himself already applying a sly smile greater than that of his paper companion's and he allowed his face to morph into that of some chubby, middle aged nerd with a neck beard and rectangular glasses with thick black rims as he scoffed at her,

"Akchyually, I wasn't implying anything about your skills as a paper magician, so technically speaking, you have nothing to get offended about! I'm also offended that you're offended, so egh!" he shot back through buck teeth and a nasally voice that would most defifintely get him punched in the face by Julius Oppenheimer.

The two shared a laugh and continued to soar through the vacant sky in search of any Nephilim. They liked making small talk like this because it seemed to just lift the ominous mood right from the two middle schoolers and made them feel less terrified of the possible outcomes that the situation might bring. With shining optimism, the two shot through the sky on their winged steed and soon found a particular object looming on the horizon ahead of them.

Several miles away, in contrast with the with the vibrant colors of the pocket dimension, was a colossal wall of sorts, that seemed to stretch both ways as far as the eye could see. Once they got closer, they could see it was a fortification similar to the ones used by the feudal kingdoms of medieval Europe, except this one was massive and was comprised of large stone bricks that shown like cooling lava, mostly black with splotches of hot orange and red speckling the surface. Peeking over which, was a lone tower that stuck out of the ground like a spear. It was very long and narrow with no visible windows or any external decorations. The fact that it was so large and located so deep within the forest of light, Gumball and Teri could tell right away that this had to be a place of importance: never mind the plan to track down the Nephilim, the place to go was staring boldly at them!

With such a sight to behold, Gumball remained in silence for a moment while Teri spotted something else nearby hovering above the wall and realized all at once that it was a flying Nephilim. She quickly sent the bat into a nosedive straight into the forest below and all the while managed to catch a glimpse of the flying creature that was guarding the walls. Much like Toxic Pill, this one was not shaped like an animal, but was rather simple instead. It had metallic, reflective skin much like the other two Nephilim they fought before and was resembled a saucer with six spikes protruding out from the sides, making it look like a snowflake was dipped in liquid silver.

Taking them down until they were at least a hundred yards away from the wall, which now towered above them like a ninety degree cliff of hardening magma, Teri set the bat down gently and hopped off, followed closely by Gumball. Peering up at the structure of titanic proportions, Gumball pondered why they stopped, seeing as scaling the massive fortification was going to be incredibly difficult and flying was just way easier. Seeing as the only one who could possibly answer his question was also the pilot of the origami, Gumball shot the paper manipulator the question,

"Um, why did we land? You think Leliel is on the other side of that wall?" he asked, sounding a bit impatient.

Without saying a word, Teri pointed at a circular object that was floating above the wall and Gumball recognized it as a Nephilim guard, seeing as it couldn't really be anything else. He felt his tail droop along with his ears and he remained rooted where he was,

"Oh." was the only word he uttered as he watched the floating Nephilim with its ring of spikes glide right by from its position high above the wall.

Packing away the origami, Teri set off towards the stony barricade with Gumball just now noticing and sprinting to catch up with his silent and now dead serious teammate. In front of him, the Pepakuma child felt the wall with her hands and verbally listed their options while walking, making sure Gumball heard her,

"Obviously flying over the wall is not an option, although we could just wait it for to pass by, but that could take some time and we also don't know what its senses are capable of. We could also just walk around until we find an entrance, but that could take a while too and it could be guarded. We can try climbing, but the walls are very smooth and I don't think any of my origami insects can clasp onto something with very few ridges..." she kept on thinking about possible ways to get past the barrier, but kept finding issues.

Meanwhile, Gumball studied the wall for a moment and focused mostly on the glassy surface that seemed rather polished despite its scary appearance. He thought about Teri's abilities as well, but just like her, he also kept running into dead ends. He checked his own inventory and found that he only had a few school items that were definitely not going help them here, along with his scythe and two suction cup arrows that he hadn't used yet.

He looked at the wall and back at his supplies and an idea came to him.

As usual, it was crazy and possibly far more dangerous than some spiritual giants of old, but it was well worth mentioning. Dashing forward, he circled around Teri until he was right next to her with his long, blue tail swishing side-to-side and with both arrows clutched in his hands. Just looking at him, Teri could tell he had something crazy figured out, but was sure it was bound to work,

"Teri, I have an idea that just may stick!" he proclaimed.

Without much of a choice, Teri listened in on the brilliant schemer's idea and already found it to be a combination of her worst fears and some brilliant enginuity. Little did they know that two Nephilim had already been sent away on an important mission within the Northern mountain range and that only half their total force remains. The two absent Nephilim had been sent off on a mission to investigate a mysterious magical anomaly that had recently sprung up in one of the mountain's caves and were given direct orders to destroy anyone there.

 _-Jotenheim cave, 8:10 PM-_

The wind continued to nip at Rob's exposed flesh as he stood out in the evening air, furiously rubbing his arms with his hands in a desperate attempt to stay warm while his teeth chattered and clicked as he felt another chill sweep through his body. He thought that the translation process was going to take place inside the cave, but Mrs. Jotenheim insisted that they work out on the front ledge, that way the chance of waking Hector up was minimized even though Rob was certain that with the way the Giant slept, nothing short of the apocalypse could even stir the giant. The only good thing about the situation was thanks to her slow and easy to follow steps, Rob pretty much had the whole process memorized in his head and wouldn't have to do stuff like this every time he discovered something new.

For the past twenty minutes while the troll witch stood on a wooden stool and prepared a mysterious concoction within a black cauldron sitting over a roaring fire pit. Rob had been acting as her assistant throughout the whole procedure and was handing her every ingredient she sent him off to fetch. To be fair, if it were any other part of the day, Rob would have been fine with this, but being as late as it was in the evening was slowly starting to wear away at the cyclop's will to stay here. Mrs. Jotenheim also taught him a few things about the runes he didn't know and a few of things about the Nephilim that managed to evade him because he never knew about these things,

"Listen here, Rob, there's something about the runes you should know. They're not your typical form of magic that involves a few chants that grant you some powers over the laws of nature." she had first said when she started the fire using the exact process she described by chanting a latin verse and causing fire to appear, surprising Rob in the process,

"The runes act as gateways that channels the spirit's energy into specific spells, anyone can use them as long as they have a powerful spirit and can afford to expend a little energy." she explained.

This fascinated Rob the first time he heard it, but it had left him with a few questions that he was rather eager to ask,

"Spirit energy?" he restated out loud while raising his monobrow in a way that indicated his confused state of mind,

"So what you're saying is that in order to actually activate the runes, one must have a lot of spiritual force to cause a reaction from the symbols? So do I have a lot of spirit energy or have I been using very small amounts of it when I use my rune bullets against the Nephilim?" he asked, not entirely sure how the process worked seeing as he originally thought that they were activated in the presence of the evil giants.

Placing the massive pot over the cackling fire pit, the miniature woman had answered him to the best of her abilities,

"The moment you draw or carve a rune into something, it does start drawing small amounts of force from your spirit, however, more of it is used when you put actual thought behind your actions. You see the mind and the spirit are connected in more ways than you realize and when you have a strong desire to take action, that resolve is then added into that rune, so the moment you use it, those thoughts become your actions and your action becomes magic. Could you please grab me a jar of frog eyes? They're in the back right next to the fridge." she commanded and pointed out the general direction of the desired item with her finger.

Rob quickly rushed off and found the needed items with relative ease, although the cave was pretty dark which caused a bit of a restriction for the preteen. This task, like many others would be repeated until the present and Rob will ask all sorts of important questions in the meantime,

"Okay, so how come it doesn't misread my actions when i'm thinking of something negative and detonate prematurely?" he asked while handing her the jar of disembodied amphibian eyes, a sight he didn't find all that appealing.

The witch pulled out three eyeballs and plopped them within the cauldron and quickly answered before she started a chant,

"Like I said, it all depends on your resolve, when you usually jump into a fight, I bet your only thoughts are, _gotta defeat this thing or else everyone dies_ , it all reads into the magic and once you set your sights on a goal, the magic won't activate until it's within close proximity to your enemy. There are other runes that don't require you to be close to a Nephilim and there are even some that can benefit you just by activating them." she quickly chanted her latin verses again and the contents of the cauldron burst into blue flames before being replaced with a green tub of goo.

This brought Rob's attention to Gumball's scythe and he remembered how he was not only able to create a spell that stayed on his blade, but actually gave him the ability to deflect the Nephilim's doom blast, something he's seen both of them struggle against in the past. So Gumball's weapon of choice had an enhancement type rune on it that activated by some kind of need by the user, but used up a lot energy when used, as was evident by Gumball's drained state after using it twice. Then again, there were two other runes that Gumball hasn't used yet and this struck Rob as interesting.

Once Mrs. Jotenheim had finished reducing the frog eyes to frog soup, Rob quickly asked another question while keeping a stoic expression,

"Mmm, okay, but what about weapons that have been engraved with multiple runes? How does one activate the right one?" he surveyed the troll's asymmetric face as she thought up the next ingredient for the translation magic.

She told him to hand over thirteen blank papers, if he had any. and he did so after tearing some out of his notebook, she then told him how such things were achieved,

"First of all, it helps if you understand the rune and its power. The Nephilim, back when they reigned over the planet, had developed a better understanding of magic and created the runes in order to help simplify it for easier use. Once you have a better grasp on how the symbols work, you can use them any way you choose!" she allowed every individual sheet to slip into the cauldron and ordered him to fetch some human teeth.

Once again he did as he was told, and when he got back, he tried to bolster himself against the cold by keeping close to the fire, although his back was left unprotected. Mrs. Jotenheim seemed unaffected by the cold and the purple cloaked sorceress continued to add to her mix with another chant and pulled out a spoon to start stirring the contents of the magical brew. She continued with this simple task all the while asking Rob a question this time,

"I'm guessing one of your comrades has an enchanted weapon in their arsenal?" she glanced up at him once, seeing his surprised expression through the green glow of the enchanted concoction.

Rob was surprised at this lady's astute perception and found that she could read him like a book. Without hiding anything from her, Rob retold her how he saw Gumball taking the Nephilim on with a simple-looking scythe that had the ability to cut through the Nephilim with relative ease and even recalled what he saw during the battle near the chemical treatment plant. The whole time he spoke, the normally skeptical sorceress seemed quite intrigued by his retelling of the events and Rob even remembered seeing her look genuinely surprised when he mentioned the miraculous counterattack utilized by Gumball's silver flames that saved both the cat's life and his own that day.

She kept on stirring, but it seemed all automatic at this point,

"That's… perplexing. Where did Gumball gain such a weapon, if you don't mind me asking?" the expert on sorcery and magical items was very interested in the all the possible places that Gumball's Nephilim killing weapon could have come from.

Seeing no harm in answering, Rob inched closer to the fire until the former void wanderer was basking in the warmth of the flames that were licking the bottom of the boiling cauldron and he spoke,

"If I heard right from one of the few times I was spying on them, he claims to have gotten it from Carrie Krueger a while back and probably when he was still moping like an idiot over miss perfect-cheerleading-captain-shapeshifting-super-girlfriend." he said, not knowing much about the circumstances surrounding where his nemesis got the ancient weapon in the first place, although he was curious about the overly destructive farming tool Gumball was using.

Finished with stirring, the troll mother of Hector was letting the pot sit for a bit while she explained why she was concerned for Gumball's safety,

"So he's used a few times and wound up nearly passing out from it's effects. Doesn't surprise me one bit, he needs to be more careful when using enhancement type runes-!"

Rob interjected when he felt like he knew where this was going and decided to express his own thoughts on the matter,

"Let me guess! It drains a lot of spiritual energy? Yeah, kind of figured that when he looked completely winded from his double attack on Toxic Pill. He doesn't seem in danger as long as he gets a good nap in!" he said with an apathetic wave of his pink hand.

Feeling disrespected, a tick mark formed on the grumpy cleaning lady's forehead and she swat the arrogant cyclops on the head with her wooden spoon, causing him to screech in pain as he grabbed the top of his head and felt a stinging welt starting to form under his hair blocks,

"Maybe you should show a little respect for your elders when they're telling you something important by not running your mouth when i'm talking!" she shouted before cooling her jets and quickly getting back on track less she wants to lose her temper and cause some real damage,

"Anyway, enhancement type runes are incredibly dangerous because controlling them is a real nightmare! If anyone loses focus of their true objective while using such spells then the power will corrupt their very mind!" she sounded very hysterical when spewing off this new info.

"Does he train with the scythe?" she quickly asked, worried about the potential danger someone as reckless and untrained as Gumball could pose on those around him and himself.

Getting over his smack on the head and for getting yelled at, Rob once again didn't have a solid answer for her, seeing as he was spending less time watching Gumball in order to modify his machines. Shrugging, the cyclops walked about the place as though he were pacing,

"Well, I wouldn't know that exactly, but Teri did mention yesterday that he works out, so perhaps he manages to wrestle weapons training in there somewhere. Maybe, he trains with Teri as well, those two do make a good team and they hang out a lot." he noted, giving the troll witch some reassurance.

She let out a gasp of air and felt herself becoming less tense, if what Rob says is true then Gumball should be able to overcome the powerful drawbacks of the ancient scythe, given time and patience of course. From what Rob had told her before they were all a pretty determined team set on protecting Elmore and if the blue cat was as determined as Rob says he is, then maybe Gumball would prove to be one of their greatest assets. Then there was one other thing that Mrs. Jotenheim felt like asking,

"Does Gumball have any strong feelings towards Teri that you know of?" she asked, not because she was curious about the cat boy's social life, she could care less who he liked and disliked, but more for a reason regarding his powers.

Rob felt like this should be an obvious one to him because if he were to go off of how many times he's seen the two EJH students constantly getting into fights and laughing at each others lame jokes while being completely interested in the other person, then Rob could definitely say that one of them had a thing for the other. Heck, it was so sickeningly obvious that he was sure the two were just playing a game of who could last the longest without admitting their actual feelings. He didn't like discussing the topic of personal feelings and romance in general, but he decided to humor the haggard cleaning lady,

"Dude, it's so obvious that a psychic monkey could pick up on it, like Bobo, the fortune teller at Joyful Burger, for example. I think we all know that Gumball is just a wuss when it comes to asking girls out, but yeah they seem to have a thing for each other." he answered in a very sarcastic and exaggerated manner.

Feeling positive about her perspective on the matter, Mrs. Jotenheim was glad to hear that Gumball had strong feelings for Teri, even though she didn't ask to know if they were in love or not, and with a snap of her fingers, the green broth within the cursed pot turned orange and she began stirring once again,

"That's good to know. If Gumball has someone he feels strongly towards constantly with him then it should help him concentrate on containing his power or it could have the opposite effect and distract him." she replied, understanding the pros and cons that came with strong attachments to people,

"Now, I require one more ingredient before the translating process can begin, bring me one of those Orangutan toenails in that box next to Hector's doorway." she pointed in the direction of the cave once more.

Peering into the cave, the power hungry madman saw Hector's giant, sleeping form in the pale light from within his room before he looked towards the left and spotted a box matching Mrs. Jotenheim's description. Walking over to it, Rob entered the warm cave and read the label that was painted on the side. He frowned and pointed at the box while calling out to Hector's mom,

"Is it the one labeled, 'OLD PLOT DEVICES'?" he turned his head so he could see her more clearly.

Mrs. Jotenheim looked up from her potion, her mouth twisted in a frown and her mismatching eyes settled on the young lad's form and then on the crate,

"Agh! Stupid paint fading, that originally read 'OLD BLOT DEVICES' because I used them to blot out the memories of people who had witnessed my magic, but yeah, that's the one! Now hurry up and get those toenails over here!" she shouted rather gruffly.

They both continued to work on the spell all the way up to the present while occasionally bringing up rune subjects and seeing how the potion was doing. Rob was still cold and uncomfortable being here, but he was glad the translation spell was almost complete and he could go home soon. Hopefully, this will be the last time he ever needed to come here for anything magic related and considered the Awesome Store for his next paranormal visit.

"Once the broth turns purple I'm going to need your rune book so that way we can begin with the interpretation. Sorry for taking so long by the way, I know you must be cold." she was showing a softer side of her that Rob was completely caught off guard by and wondered if she had somehow gotten possessed by a demon.

He looked around for a few moments while he moved in closer to the fire and allowed his hands to warm up on their own. In the background, Rob could hear thunder from far away and figured a storm must be approaching, which he thought was odd since they were supposed to get overcast by noon tomorrow, not by this evening. Well, things never went as expected and Rob was one to understand that even the greatest of scientific minds can come up short when trying to predict the unpredictable,

"Meh, it's no big deal! The fire is warm and once the spell is done the trek back down the mountain shouldn't be too much of a hassle." he explained, although he knew that it probably was going to be a dangerous trip back to his car seeing as it was already dark and some of the night creatures have probably come back out seeing as Hector was sleeping.

"I could teleport you back down to your car, if you want?" she offered, once again creeping Rob out with her kindness,

"I mean I'd feel bad if I sent a kid down in the forest all on his own and he somehow got hurt when I could have done something about it." she gazed into her green glowing sludge, her face far more sympathetic and her shoulders were even slumped downwards.

Touched by her kind offer, Rob decided that it was best to allow for some help down to his car seeing as the journey would probably be perilous and since she _was_ offering. He also noticed that the idea of helping others seemed to bring her down a little and he wondered what could have brought about such a reaction. Keeping his eye on her, he rubbed his hands together in order to spread the warmth and he cleared his throat in order to catch her attention,

"What's got you so down? Was there a time when you needed help, but it was refused to you?" he guessed, going off his observations.

At first Mrs. Jotenheim was about to berate him for butting into business that wasn't his, but she quickly stopped herself, seeing as she was the one who made the face and he wasn't doing anything wrong really. Sure he was a bit nosy, had gotten himself in a terrible situation and chose some dark paths, but she could see that he was just here for answers and while this wasn't what he initially came here for, it seemed as though the kid had a natural curiosity in everything. He kind of reminded her of herself when she was about his age, except she made many bad choices that cost her dearly…

Sighing, she continued to wait for the glowing potion to change color, which could be any minute now, and she retold one of her most well kept secrets she held not within dungeons and chains, but within the dark confines of her mind,

"Back when I was a kid, probably around your age, I too had a fascination with everything that was unknown to me and others. My family and fellow classmates were not ones to dwell on such matters, but i was always interested in the occult and magic. I got my first taste of it when I was twelve, after I had purchased a creepy old book of spells from the Awesome Store, which back then, was just simply known as Mr. smither's shop of the mystical wonders." she smiled at the memory before she continued,

"After learning my first few spells, I became further invested and soon began amassing quite the collection of spell books, magic charms, and all sorts of powerful items. I even had a special necklace once called the shroud stone that allowed me and another person to hide from the watchful eyes of society for a short period of time. Eventually, during one of my studies, I came across a spell that could teleport individuals to a place beneath the Earth, unknown to both Humans and Bizarros, a place where a powerful giant lived and could give secrets that no man on Earth could ever hope to grasp. So naturally, I tried the spell and after a few tries it worked, I found myself in a cavern far below the Earth's surface and face-to-face with one of the oldest and friendliest giants to ever exist." she turned to look back towards a certain someone back in the cave and Rob followed her gaze until his single yellow eye rested on Hector.

Shocked, Rob turned back to her with his jaw agape and a thumb hiked in Hector's direction, he gasped,

"Hector's dad!" his mind was relatively blown, for he too had heard the legend of the powerful Earth giant while he was studying up on Nephilim and was absolutely shocked that the tiny troll witch was able to meet with a god-like entity that could cause the fiercest of storms, crack even the mightiest of mountains, and shake the Earth with just his laughter alone. That giant was rumored to be a titan from a long forgotten age and it never would have occurred to him that he was Hector's dad.

Still smiling as if fond of the memory, Mrs. Jotenheim's tone shifted to warm while she continued retelling what happened, this time using her magic to form pictures within the potion,

"Fjel Jotenheim." she announced his name with such passion, as if it were something she cherished deeply,

"Despite being in a cave for thousands of years, he was quite charming and patient. I will admit, I was quite intimidated by him at first, but all that subsided after we just talked and got to know each other more. It was actually rather easy for us because we were both outcasts." she said, showing a picture of a little troll woman, Mrs. Jotenheim obviously, standing at the edge of a ledge of sorts while the silhouette of a giant loomed over her.

" _So two very different people were able to find one another and accept each other through mutual understanding."_ Rob mused as she told the story, feeling as though it sounded familiar.

The storm coming in from behind them made itself ever more present when several more thunder strikes could be heard echoing across the rocky terrain all around them and Rob wondered if he could make it home before it reached Elmore. Meanwhile Mrs. Jotenheim continued to retell her life story as though the storm wasn't even a concern,

"We spent a few years together, I told him about the upper world and he told me amazing things about his experiences in the past and all kinds of secrets about magic. I used to skip whole school days just to visit him and talk. Eventually, we both fell in love and when I was sixteen, Hector came into the picture." she turned once again to Hector's room before looking back at the pot with a pained expression on her face and she found herself slumping again,

"Unfortunately, when news of my pregnancy reached my folks and everyone at my school, things went downhill from there. My parents were furious and they kicked me out from their house underneath a bridge in San Francisco, I was forced to constantly live with any friends I still had, and eventually dropped out of high school all together. Sadly, Fjel was unable to help me in caring for our son and I soon found a job as a cleaning lady at Chanax and eventually moved to Elmore." she let out a sigh and took a moment to reflect on those events.

Rob, who had been listening the entire time, found himself feeling quite surprised and sympathetic towards this overprotective, hard working and somewhat mysterious woman's story. He knew what it was like to have no home, but having to take care of a child too, was just something he couldn't even fathom. How many hard choices and sacrifices did this person have to make in order to make it where she was? It was definitely tragic when he thought about it and he found himself asking about Fjel,

"Why couldn't Fjel help you? Surely if he was as powerful and wise as he was depicted in the books then he could have provided you with a better way of living, right?" he asked, sounding rather confused about the old giant's lack of help to his family.

Her next answer surprised him,

"Fjel was helpful. Whenever I needed a place to stay, he would provide me with food, shelter, clothing, and company whenever my friends or even I couldn't. The problem was though, his reach couldn't extend very far outside his cave, and if he tried leaving, his mere presence would have caused mass destruction to any civilized areas. Even as great and wise as he was, he couldn't do much outside his domain and what's worse was his five year waking period was coming to an end and he was about to drip into his five year sleep." she said, not sounding too bitter about it all, but Rob could tell it was rather difficult for her to accept.

"Why did he need to sleep for five years?" Rob asked.

"He uses a lot of magical energy when he's awake, so he can only stay conscious for five years and needs five years of sleep in order to recharge. We wedded a year after Hector was born and shortly before he went to sleep, which fell a little after my seventeenth birthday. He was lucky to see his son before he drifted off on the fifth year. Looking back on it now, it was probably the best and worst five years of my life. I met an incredible being that I got to know very well, was given a son that I still love to this day, and all in all, was given a simple life that I can enjoy. It was my impulsive decisions that got me here in the first place and lead to a lot of horrible things happening to me, but looking at it all now, I'm happy with what I have. Keep that in mind by the way, I know you think you've lost so much and you did, but you have so much more now." this obviously went way beyond the answer he wanted, but Mrs. Jotenheim was happy to give off any kind of life advice she could to strangers.

Having taken all that in, Rob now had a better understanding of the witch troll and realized that she seemed a lot less like the overbearing and obnoxious parent he made her out to be and more like a person who had seen and been through some hard times and was using that experience to do her best for herself and for her son. Take away all the wacky things about her and Rob could understand that she was just a normal person who had to go through the drags of life like everyone else. Suddenly, he felt as though his own issues seemed so trivial and that maybe he had been focusing on his own loneliness for so long that he kind of missed out on everything else.

There was something else that caught his attention though, something that had been building up in the back of his mind and he realized that it was a concern that regarded Mrs. Jotenheim's husband. First off, his reluctance to come close to human and bizarro civilization due to his mere presence being enough to cause catastrophe was a bit striking. Another thing that hit the disfigured polygon being was that Mrs. Jotenheim had mentioned that Fjel was thousands of years old and knew many secrets regarding early civilization and magic. Couple that with the fact that Mrs. Jotenheim possessed runes in her own library and even had working knowledge of the ancient symbols, Rob was very suspicious of this Fjel character.

Before he could ask though, something caught his attention, causing him to look up into the sky as something began descending towards them and what he saw made his pupil slit in terror. Shooting towards them at a hundred feet above the cave entrance was a wasp like entity with glossy, black, armored skin, four pairs of gossamer wings with a wingspan twice that of a Cessna 172 (a small, four seat, single engine, propeller plane commonly used by private pilots in general aviation.) that beat rapidly in order to maintain lift, six red eyes lining the sides of its narrow little head, and its most striking feature, a translucent lower abdomen filled with small, cylindrical, glass (or maybe crystal?) containers containing what appeared to be white plasma. There was no doubt about it, it was a Nephilim and it had found him!

Taking immediate action, Rob's first step was to protect Mrs. Jotenheim, who was still watching the potion resting within the cauldron, seeing as the thing could easily swoop down and kill the little woman with just a single touch. Lunging forward and leaning over the boiling pot, he grabbed the miniature troll and quickly tossed her towards the cave like a mere pillow. The poor woman in her late twenties was caught completely by surprise and could only utter a pained grunt as she struck the ground at an odd angle with her right shoulder. Rob noticed how she landed and mentally prayed that she was alright and wouldn't be too mad at him once this was over: better to have a broken shoulder than to be killed off unsuspectedly.

With her safely out of the way, Rob quickly jumped back from the boiling pot, pulling his modified RPCG out of his bag and aiming the bulky gun at the Nephilim wasp. He already had an explosive carve onto the copper pellet and all he had to do was aim and wait five seconds for the electric coils to charge up before firing. Landing a safe distance away from the translation potion, Rob pressed down on the trigger and pointed at the largest target he could find, which so happened to be the wasp's lower abdomen. There was a light hum and the coils lining the interior barrel charged with electrical energy. With his target locked on, Rob felt a slight kick and heard a loud snap as the enchanted pellet was propelled from the weapon at high speeds thanks to the guns electromagnetic field.

However, victory did not come easily for Rob, as the Nephilim was faster than he and was already using a countermeasure. Tracking his firing arc, the winged Nephilim arched its stinger forward and fired one of the plasma cylinders from its tail. The plasma container, being as long as an adult human forearm, easily collided with the explosive pellet before it even reached the Nephilim, triggering a massive, white explosion that died out quickly. The shockwave from the projectiles colliding had little effect on the Nephilim, as its armor only absorbed the shock, but Rob felt it and was knocked off his feet.

Landing hard on his rear, Rob was completely shocked and confused at what just happened. The monster had calculated where he was going to shoot and quickly countered with a long ranged attack of its own. With him being knocked over and the Nephilim fast approaching, Rob was going to need to get up and run for cover in order to avoid being hit by whatever explosive weapon that thing carried. He tried getting up, but was stopped when he saw that the wasp had already fired at him, sending a plasma shell his direction before the Nephilim itself pulled away and back into the sky again.

He wasn't going to make it!

Mrs. Jotenheim, who had recovered from her unwarranted flight, had gotten up and dusted herself off before seeing Rob with a gun, unlike any she had seen before, pointing at something as he leapt away from the cauldron. At first she thought Rob had gone insane and was preparing to shoot her with something, but she stopped when she saw that his focus was on something else. Realizing that the block headed kid wasn't after her, her head snapped in the direction he was pointing at and she flinched when she saw the world's most ugliest wasp was swooping down towards him.

Seeing that he had tossed her out of the way in order to protect her, she immediately got the idea that whatever this thing was, it was dangerous for both of them and the not-so-old witch immediately raised her arms, closed her eyes and began concentrating on a spell used for protecting people. She heard a deafening explosion and quickly shouted a chant in Latin,

" _Insolubili muro (unbreakable wall.)!"_ she shouted and snapped her hands back down to her sides.

Rob shield his face with one arm as the deadly projectile spiralled towards him, only to be surprised when a solid wall of what appeared to be iron curved out of the ground in front of him and deflected the plasma canister. The explosion resulting from the highly explosive projectile did little to hurt the marksman, minus the aching eardrums, and quickly faded away into nothing. It didn't take a genius to figure out who saved him and Rob scrambled to his feet before dashing off to where the sorceress was, not wanting to stick around when the monster makes another pass.

Reaching the cave, Rob skidded to a halt in order to catch his breath and quickly glanced down at the little witch who was eyeing the sky for the creature's inevitable return. Rob was about to thank her for saving him at the last moment, but paused when he realized something,

"Wait! You can see it!?" he was so baffled that he dropped his gun as a result.

The green skinned troll mother grunted in response and eyed him with the eye that was bigger than the other,

"I'm guessing that was a Nephilim, no doubt." she said simply, not really asking it as a question because she kind of got the answer from the flabbergasted kid's reaction.

Pulling himself together, the staticy anti-hero picked up his fallen weapon and raised his head towards the sky, his orb carefully scanning the darkened celestial ceiling for the creature. He spotted it within no time thanks to the glow of the plasma it carried and spoke to Mrs. Jotenheim without taking his eye off the now-approaching Nephilim,

"Okay, that's good because you can help me take it down then. Is there a spell you can use to grab it or at least prevent it from going anywhere?" he asked, watching as the glowing white dot increased in size. They probably had about thirty seconds until it got to where they were and Rob needed to prevent it from moving around so he could get an easy shot.

Already on it, Mrs. Jotenheim rose her hands and placed the chant within her mind so she could say out loud,

"I have a trick or two that may work. Can you keep it occupied long enough?" she asked back.

Rob needn't answer that question as the next rune had already been selected and carved into the bullet that he was going to be firing at the oversized bug. He dashed forward out in the open again and began waving his free hand in order to get the Nephilim's attention. Taking that as her cue, Mrs. Jotenheim closed her eyes and began muttering the next spell in Latin, hoping that the monster would be close by when she finished.

Up above them, the wasp Nephilim raced forward like a speeding bullet towards the ledge, its wings buzzing and working hard in order to achieve the speed it was travelling at as it zeroed in on one lone figure standing out in the open. Rob watching the beast become as large as a quarter from where he was standing, raised the barrel of the protected electronic weapon and peered through the digital scope, watching as the Nephilim filled in the little glass window. He had thirteen rounds left in the magazine, each time he fired he'd have to put in a command for which rune to carve into the pellets and the carving process usually took between ten to twenty five seconds depending on which rune he selected. With all that time factored in, plus the time it took to select a rune, load the chamber, and aim the weapon, the whole process could take up to a minute in order to fire so Rob couldn't afford to miss. Good news was, the rune he selected was very good at hitting targets despite their distance.

Placing one knee on the ground and keeping his body lowered so that he could appear as less of a target, Rob kept his aim steady and waited until he could hear the rapid buzz of the Nephilim's eight massive wings getting louder. Being roughly two hundred feet away from the ledge and closing, the Nephilim's powerful eyes locked on to Rob and with a quick twitch of its tail, fired a single canister at the waiting boy. Rob anticipated this and held his ground, waiting until the explosive shell was close enough.

Once it was merely a few feet from the polygonal inventor and Nephilim fighter, Rob quickly catapulted himself backwards using his lanky, yet powerful legs to push him away and roll twice before he came to a stop, just as the plasma shell smashed into the ground in front of him, spewing the extremely hot gas-like substance everywhere in a certain radius, burning the grass and scorching the dirt. The smell of sulfur filled the air as the atmosphere around the blast zone burned. Luckily, the worst Rob received was the intense wave of heat that spread from the white mushroom cloud and left his bare face, arms, and legs feeling as though they were on fire.

Thankfully, the explosion served as a great momentary source of cover and Rob was able to fire at the Nephilim as it began to make its pass. There was another sharp snap and the copper sphere leapt from the bulky gun's barrel along with a stream of electricity towards the flying monstrosity. With its vision being obscured by the blinding explosion, the bug-like Nephilim did not see the copper pellet narrowly miss its head and flew right into the path of its massive wings.

KRA-KOOM!

A bolt of lightning materialized from thin air and struck the rune tipped copper pellet and obliterated anything in between, which just so happened to be two of the Nephilim's left wings. The Nephilim screeched as it lost control and began to plummet down to the ledge it was attacking. Rob quickly jumped up from his crouched position and bolted away the moment the bus-sized insect from the world beyond came crashing down in front of him. The impact of the horrifying beast left a massive trench in the dirt that covered the rocks beneath as it continued to slide towards the cliffside next to the cave entrance before slamming into it with the force of a speeding pick-up truck. After that it lay still and didn't make any noise.

Making it to the cave just after the monster slammed into the wall next to the entrance, Rob stopped dead in his tracks and kept a scrutinizing eye on the beast while he punched in a command on his smartphone to start carving explosive runes into two pellets. With about forty seconds to wait until the boxy gun's internal machinery completed its task, Rob decided to keep an eye on the Nephilim since it hadn't faded and burned away, a sure sign that it wasn't dead yet. Behind him, he could still hear Mrs. Jotenheim muttering away as she continued her enchantment and Rob was impressed that she hadn't broken her concentration yet. Curious to see what condition the Nephilim was in, Rob raised his gun (wanting to be ready when the runes were done being carved, in case the monster decided to do anything.), sucked in a breath, and began to quietly creep towards the plasma bomb carrier, which lay still.

Being at a range of around eleven feet, Rob could make out quite a lot of details on the wasp Nephilim. He first noticed that it didn't actually have six eyes, rather it had two large ones with six individual pupils that glowed red (the thing must have incredible vision, probably out of the visible spectrum even!), a triangular head covered in fine hairs, but no antennae, a circular mouth at the front with rows of pointy teeth lining the interior and pointing inwards. Its midsection was rather large (probably five feet in length, maybe more), and was the base where its eight massive wings connected and actually housed six legs much like an insects that were tucked away. And lastly, it gargantuan lower abdomen which was nothing more than a storage space for its ammunition and was clear as glass, holding hundreds of brightly lit containers which were used against him three times. At the end was a stinger that rivaled most broadswords with a hole located directly beneath, presumably the exit hole for the plasma shells.

Once again, Rob found himself awed by this creature, the Nephilim always came in different forms that either looked so terrifyingly beautiful or just straight up alien and bizarre. It made Rob curious as to what life was like on the Nephilim's world, did they all have different forms like the Bizarros of Earth? Do their forms change when they come through their portals? Due to their bizarre biology, were all the Nephilim sent here highly advanced drones piloted from far away? If so, was Earth unsafe for them? Was their intention to wipe out all the natives here so they could terraform the place and make it livable to them? Intriguing questions that one could only speculate on and Rob was so wrapped in them that he almost failed to take notice of the Nephilim's stinger twitching and raising itself.

He saw it at the corner of his vision and when he did, his fight or flight instincts told him to move, forcing him to leap backwards and away from the gargantuan insect of death. It was right then and there, the monstrous tail of the spirit bug cut through the air and impaled the rocky cliffside. Had he been standing there just a second ago, his head would have been skewered and his body would have been dragged to the wall like a bloody puppet. Landing not too far away, his mind a hectic mess of instincts at this point, the survivor of the void was already preparing to shoot the monster when he stopped himself just in time and realized that if he shot the tail, then all the plasma will erupt all at once.

He saw his wrist mounted phone screen flash green, meaning the gun was done carving the runes, and he kept his sights on the monster just as the thing unlatched its tail from the face of the mountain. The Nephilim then rose up on its six legs and its head twisted until it was looking directly him. If something like that were capable of burning its victims alive with its hateful gaze, Rob would have been nothing more than a pile of ashes.

He quickly took aim, but the monster still proved too fast and had he realized where he was standing now, he would have gotten off the creatures wing before it slipped it out from underneath him. Rob was sent flying and his back connected with the dirt, his head already swimming and his vision was filled with stars. In front of him, the Nephilim raised a taloned leg and prepared to squash the mad scientist like a bug… as ironic as that may have seemed.

" _Suffocans corrumpam vineameius (suffocating vines)!_ "

As soon as those words concluded her long chant, Mrs. Jotenheim's eyes snapped open and she curled her claw-like fingers together as if to crush something within her palms. All around the Nephilim, black vines covered in prickly thorns erupted from the ground with a shattering roar and the snake-like plants began to wrap themselves around the Nephilim's middle body and raised appendage. The winged monstrosity let out an hiss that sounded like air being let out of a tire as it thrashed about, trying to rid itself of the tangled, sharp, and suffocating plants before it decided to use its stinger: only to discover that when it stabbed at the plants, they wrapped around the pointed aft weapon and snapped it off after squeezing it tightly. Eventually, the beast was brought down and the vines continued to coil and constrict the poor beast as it still continued to struggle and let out unpleasant noises.

Recovering from his little slip up, Rob shook his head and brought himself back onto his feet before checking his surroundings. He was well beyond amazed when he saw that the clever devil that had nearly killed him several times within the span of a few minutes, completely entangled within a cluster of magic vines, if there wasn't a doubt. Once again, he was in the witch's favor and was gonna have to thank her for saving his behind.

He approached the oversized bug with more confidence than before and made his way towards its colossal head. Upon reaching it, the Nephilim violently hissed at him as he planted one foot on the hard surface right between the eyes and raised the RPCG until the barrel was practically touching it. Without a moment's hesitation, he pulled the trigger twice and put two rounds into the monster's head. He quickly dashed away just as the Nephilim's head was reduced to a fiery ball and the rest faded to nothing.

And so the beast was no more and Rob was feeling pretty good about himself.

It wasn't his best win by any means, but then again fighting these things was never easy and he aimed to change that when he gained even more power. He owed his thanks to Mrs. Jotenheim for making the fight easier and for saving his skin, her magic was definitely incredible. He walked up to the aforementioned little witch with a smug look on his face and his gun pointing at the ground,

"Thanks for the help!" he said, showing his gratitude.

The grey haired cleaning lady looked up at him with her grumpy expression, but held a kind look in her eyes,

"Eh, don't mention it. At least no one was hurt and my home was saved thanks to you, but could you please tone it down with the explosions next time! You're gonna wake my kid and I don't wanna send him off to school tomorrow in a cranky mood!" she shouted while waving her arms up and down in frustration and another tick mark formed on her head.

Rob quickly glanced into the cave and was surprised to see Hector still snoring away like a baby, in spite of all that happened,

"Yeah, I don't think that will be an issue." he mentioned out loud and a sweatdrop appeared on the back of his head,

"By the way, what kind of magic did you use back there? You said that the rune magic was ancient Nephilim magic and I didn't see you use any runes." he questioned after seeing her using it during the fight.

The woman garbed in purple robes did not even hesitate when answering, having already sensed the question coming her direction,

"Light and dark magic. Like Nephilim magic, it uses the power of the soul, but is more based on concentration and memorization of certain enchantments. Also, runes can usually only activate one or more kinds of spells that last for a short period of time while light and dark magic can create spells and curses that last for a while, but take many years of practice to master. Do not fret though, some runes have been rumored to change the state of beings and there is possibly one for you and your special one that can reverse the effect of the void. Unfortunately, I know not of any spells that can do that and so I wish you luck on your search." she replied with earnest intentions to help the cyclops.

While Rob shuddered when he heard the way she referred to Rachel as his "special one", he was indeed grateful for all the information she had given him and his hope for his and Rachel's betterment was higher. While Hector's mother proved a great source of information when it came to magic, one that he definitely wouldn't mind visiting in the future, he now knew of other figures to turn to when he needed more insight into these matters and was now caught up in his own research while possibly searching for these wise individuals in order to further his own quest. There was definitely more out there that he could use to his own benefit and Rob felt as though he was just getting started.

He was about to ask her if she could elaborate more on some of the people she had mentioned during her explanations to him, like Fjel for example, but soon felt that something wasn't right. He couldn't tell why, but he felt as though something was wrong and it had something to do with how quiet the surrounding area had become, plus the overwhelming feeling that he was being watched. He was about to shake it off as just a feeling when he noticed that Mrs. Jotenheim too seemed rather disturbed, as she was twisting her head every which way as if something was nearby. This definitely seemed bad and Rob could feel himself starting to sweat in response with this overwhelming feeling of dread that was increasing by the second.

Suddenly, both he and Mrs. Jotenheim were pressed down to the ground by a powerful force that Rob could most certainly recognize and his despair only increased when he figured out what it was. Mrs. Jotenheim, on the other hand, was completely unaware of what was happening and was struggling to speak, but couldn't because whatever was pressing down on her was preventing her from doing so. While Rob struggled to lift himself up, he heard something large and heavy land not too far away from them and he didn't need to see it to know that it was another Nephilim,

" _Darn it! I let my guard down, but how can there be another one! Every single one that came before only came alone. Are they sending more now or is this an actual invasion?"_ Rob's panicked thoughts speculated, but proved useless in light of the given situation as right now he should be focusing on trying to free himself and not wasting energy trying to answer pointless questions on his head.

His blood ran cold when a familiar hum reached his ears and the sky began to light up in a crimson red while the air around them began to heat up, he knew what was coming and he desperately needed to move now and get Mrs. Jotenheim to safety. He then heard a harsh laugh coming from the malevolent entity itself and he could surprisingly move his head just enough so he could see the Nephilim before him. The one he saw was very different from the one that came before and was probably more powerful too.

Standing at a height of twenty feet or so, was a humanoid Nephilim that resembled a Hindu or Buddhist deity Rob had seen in many cultural books and sites on the internet. Charcoal in color, the beast had three human faces all joined side by side on one head with glaring eyes and sharp teeth within its many mouths, four arms protruded from its torso, the upper two of which were raised above its head in order to form the doom blast, and its body was covered in markings that glowed different colors. It also appeared quite feminine and the voice that came from its three mouths also sounded like that of a middle aged woman, although it was harsh and full of malice whenever it spoke,

"I commend you for defeating Thundero, truly that had to be quite a feat on both your parts seeing as he was one of our most formidable warriors." she congratulated the two of them, even though they both could hear the distaste in her tone towards her former comrade and made Rob wonder Rob wonder if the two possibly didn't get along or had some kind of rivalry going on.

Regardless he continued on with his efforts to free himself and could actually hear Mrs. Jotenheim next to him muttering something intangible. Was she trying to cast another spell? While they both continued with their individual tasks, the monster kept on speaking to them as her doom blast increased in strength,

"So in turn, I, Brahka, will bring a swift end to the likes of both of you vermin as a well suited reward for-!"

And so came the most anti-climatic end for the Nephilim, as she was cut off in the middle of her monologue after being crushed by a massive purple/blue hand connected to an arm covered in a fine layer of orange and maroon fur. With the four armed giant being reduced to purple flames under the massive palm, her spell wore off and Rob, along with his mini companion were able to stand up once again. After removing the dirt from his clothes and his mouth (he had his mouth open when he was slammed into the dirt and thus he got some on his yellow tongue.), the glitchy preteen turned to see that Hector, who had been sleeping just a minute ago, was somehow woken up, crept all the way over to the cave entrance without anyone noticing and crushed the Nephilim giant.

So he was able to see them as well and was also somehow able to kill one without magic.

However, this was disproved when he saw the giant lift his hand from the ground and on his palm, Rob could see a glowing green symbol that resembled a pentagon with five smaller symbols placed in each corner. It was a rune, no doubt, and Rob watched it fade as Hector drew his hand back and stood up straight again. Looks like Rob was wrong about Hector being boring after all and was at a loss for how strange this family really was.

While he remained in his complex stupor, Mrs. Jotenheim marched right up to her son's feet, completely undisturbed by the fact that Hector just smashed another giant like a cockroach and proceeded to scold him,

"Hector! What are you doing out of bed? You know you have school in the morning and you shouldn't be up this late!" she shouted, leaving Rob's already shocked mind scrambling even more at just how casual she was acting.

Hector didn't seem all that embarrassed and just seemed to shrug it off while he responded to her in his usual boring way,

"Sorry mom, but I woke up when I heard fireworks and then I eventually looked over and saw that one lady standing at the doorway. I couldn't quite hear what she was saying, but she sounded like another one of those soulless door-to-door salesmen trying to scam you with another promise of eternal power and seeing as you and Rob looked so tired, I decided to help you get rid of her." he explained while reaching up to scratch the back of his head.

Rob's jaw dropped to the floor, he could not believe what he was hearing,

" _Did the boring brute seriously just assume that whole thing was a simple affair regarding fireworks and a demonic salesman?!"_ his mind frantically spun,

" _Also, does he just deal with people who annoy him by squishing them? Not that I don't appreciate him for stepping in to help, but isn't that rather gruesome for a supposed gentle giant?"_

And he thought the witch was the wacky one of the family! Such a revelation made him shudder to think what Fjel was actually like when he was awake. Thinking about it now, he didn't know whether or not the giant was awake right now. She must be twenty eight or twenty nine right now if he factored in her age when Hector was born, which was sixteen and Hector was twelve now, so all he had to do was add her age back then and Hector's age now in order to get her approximate age. Next he had to figure out when Fjel went to sleep which she said was when she was seventeen, so that would mean she was twenty two when he woke up again and twenty seven when he fell back to sleep. Meaning that he was still sleeping right now. Bummer.

Sighing in discontempt, Rob decided to further review his options in regards to help while Mrs. Jotenheim continued to talk to her son,

"Well, thank you very much, sweetie, for helping me get rid of the nasty saleswoman and for looking out for your dear mother. I'm also sorry that Rob was too loud, he was trying to help out with a pest problem, but it got a little out hand." she said in a coddling voice before levitating a broom to her and flying up to his face in order to give him a kiss on the cheek,

"Now go back to bed and let me deal with anyone who decides to drop by in the middle of the night with unwelcomed behaviors." she said in a rather sweet, yet commanding tone.

And with that, the giant simply nodded, wished his mom and Rob a good night before lumbering back to his room. Within minutes, the sound of pleasant music played and was followed by thunderous snoring that echoed throughout the cavern. Once again, Rob wondered what the heck was wrong with this family and before he could burn out his fuses thinking about it, he just chalked it up it to being that all the people of Elmore were like this.

With the night being quiet (except for Hector's ungodly, nighttime, breathing noises.) and tranquil again, Mrs. Jotenheim set herself down and placed her broom back against the wall. Then with a wave of her hand, she beckoned Rob to follow her to where the the cauldron sat and began shuffling her way towards said object. Rob found it quite surprising that the pot hadn't spilled over during the fight and was still boiling a now purple slime without showing any sign of disturbance.

Once Mrs. Jotenheim reached the witches broth, she hopped on the stool she had been using to hoist herself up to the edge and grabbed the wooden stirring spoon again,

"Okay, the potion's ready, bring the rune book over and we can begin the process!" she called over to him and placed the spoon within the magical mix in order to scoop out and study it.

Before his feet could comply, he quickly swapped his RPCG with the book and glanced over the blank leather cover again before studying the contents once more. He was so happy to have gotten this far and he wondered what kind of secrets these pages held. Feeling his excitement bubbling up from within, he began to hurry his way over to the witch and stopped when he heard the sound of thunder again. He turned his head to see a dark cloud, (actually it wasn't just dark, it was completely black!) looming over the horizon a ways away, with red lightning lighting up from within and its black tendrils reaching forward as if trying to consume even the air itself.

He noticed that it was heading in the same direction as Elmore and he got a bad feeling about the unnatural phenomenon. Given that he was just attacked by two Nephilim in one night, this didn't spell good news to the young cyclops and he wondered if something bigger was going on. He feared for Elmore's safety along with Rachel's and quickly rushed towards Mrs. Jotenheim while shoving the book in her hands,

"Will the process take long?" he asked.

The troll witch dumped the book into the bubbling purple sludge and watched as it turned cyan,

"Only a minute. I can teleport you down to your car once it's done, seeing as something seems to be making its way towards Elmore." she replied, whilst silently indicating the massive cloud behind her.

Rob certainly appreciated the offer since the storm that was coming was getting deadly.

 _-Storm sphere-_

Within the alien landscape that was the spacious interior of the storm, a circular fortification was in the process of being scaled by a blue chibi cat and a paper bear. The two invaders of this pocket dimension could feel their mission coming close to its conclusion, but were still wary of the potential threats that lurked about the hostile plane they were in. In this space, there was no way for the two of them to tell the time, but the duo could feel the urgent need to hurry, find and defeat Leliel, before the storm moved on to Elmore or before any of the other Nephilim show up. The ones they at least believe to be here and currently tracking them.

Using the two suction-cup arrows to stick to the wall's smooth surface, Gumball could see that they were about ten feet from the edge and kept his focus on getting to the top. He wouldn't count himself as someone who was afraid of heights, but after a few traumatic experiences in the past, Gumball found himself to be quite tense when in high places and tried not to look down. On his back with her arms wrapped around his neck was Teri, who was less thrilled about high places as Gumball was, but not as scared seeing as she wouldn't get hurt if she fell.

The entire journey up the walls was a rather slow and arduous one with some perils involved. Gumball's arms felt like they were on fire once he got them both halfway up the wall, not that Teri was heavy, as a matter of fact, she was extremely light, but it was the other things he had to carry as well, such as his backpack, Teri's backpack, and his own weight. However, he was determined to get to the top of the wall and continued to press on like an engine. He was now feeling really glad for all the time he spent in the gym and at home, working his upper body. Now this task didn't seem as bad to him as it probably would have a month ago.

On his back, Teri could feel his fur against her face, given how close she was to him, and could smell his sweat as he worked himself really hard to get them both to their destination, which wasn't really that pleasant if she were being honest. She was very grateful for him doing this for her, but she did kind of wished that she could craft an origami centipede or something that could scurry up vertical surfaces as quickly as possible so that Gumball wouldn't have to overwork himself in order to bring them up here. Still, his dedication was quite amazing and she was glad that he was able to come up with a clever idea while having the brawn to pull them through it. It was really inspiring to say in the least and she wanted to make it up to him by doing her best when they reached the top.

Unbeknownst to her, Gumball was really happy he could be carrying _her_ for a change seeing how often she carried him due to his lack of speed and agility. It felt nice that he was able to do something back for someone who has done so much for him already and he wanted to keep doing favors for her in the future. He was worried though, if he reached the top then he was probably going to be out of breath and very tired to do a whole lot, but believed that if they took a quick break before moving on, then things should be all right.

He felt Teri's arms tightened around his collar and he raised a sweaty eyebrow once he noticed this,

"Thank you for doing this, I'm sorry that I couldn't bring us both up." he heard Teri say and he let out a huff of old air in his lungs before weakly smiling.

"Yeah… (huff! huff!)... no problem, just like… (inhales deeply, oh boy!)... gym class." he trailed off before pulling a pink sucker off the smooth, glassy surface, pulling his body up, and planting the arrow back onto the blackened wall again before repeating the process.

It was really tiring, but worth it seeing as flying would most likely get them caught. They needed to maintain their stealth if they were going to locate and defeat the creator of this dangerous place. That objective alone was enough to keep Gumball moving upwards and with a sudden burst of energy, he quickly moved them up about two feet before needing to stop and catch a breather.

While he did this, Teri thought about what they could do once they reached the top and considered their best option was to perhaps create an origami panther from her black paper that both she and Gumball could hide in, that way whatever was in the tower overlooking the wall wouldn't spot them so easily. They would probably have to do this once they were clinging on to the edge and another thing that worried Teri was the star-shaped Nephilim (which Gumball already named Flakey Platter, seeing as it looked like a snowflake and a silver platter to him.) that was flying along the wall. While she hoped that it had long since passed by, she couldn't help but feel that their arriving just when it happened to be passing by seemed a little too coincidental, given how big this place was. She hoped her suspicions were wrong though and the only thing that they would have to worry about was whoever was in that tower. She had a distinct feeling that whatever they were looking for was within that tower.

At least they had a plan and a place to head to once they overcame this hurdle.

She heard Gumball make a noise and when she pulled herself out of her thoughts, she found that he was laughing. What could possibly be going on in that feline's head that he found so amusing? She knew that Gumball could always find something to chuckle about regardless of the situation they were in and what Teri always found herself asking was whether or not she wanted to hear it, seeing as it could be anything. However, as soon as she heard more laughter pouring forth from the wall climber, the dangling Pepakuma couldn't help, but satisfy her curiosity by asking,

"What are you laughing about now, you goof!"

Gumball stopped moving in order to catch his breath while stifling his laugh and tried to answer her with a straight face.

"That's quite a wall you got there, Junior! You using it to hide your insecurities or do you still use Dr. Wangs skirt for that?" he managed to get through that sentence without bursting into laughter, but failed when he finished and wheezing fits of laughing could heard from the cat boy.

Looks like she got the ridiculous answer she was anticipating and Teri found herself groaning in disbelief. Of course, Gumball was referring to a line used by Dr. Crox to Junior in his favorite episode of _Under the stethoscope_ and only Teri knew this. She had no idea how that mind of his worked sometimes, but she also found it funny too and was glad for the change in tone,

"You're ridiculous!" she laughed,

"Why do you find that line funny anyway?" she quickly looked around them and saw that there was nothing out of the ordinary, except for an extraordinary view of the forest.

Gumball didn't really have a specific reason for bringing that line up or why he thought it was funny, but he spoke his mind anyway,

"Eh…(huff!)... Just thought it was funny 'cause you know,...(wheeze!)... were climbing a wall and I still think Dr. Crox is just hilarious despite his condescending attitude towards others. I also thinks it's…(whew!)... ironic because he's super insecure himself." he explained having started moving once again. They were about five feet now from the top and Gumball could feel his excitement growing as he continued to work his way upwards.

Teri had a feeling that Gumball may have appreciated the cynical character in the medical drama that also doubled as a comedy because he could probably relate to him. There were quite a few similarities between the two and she could also tell that Gumball enjoyed the show because it helped him escape the stress the days usually brought him. It was the same for the paper girl and she enjoyed those simple, fun moments with him.

Seeing that they were nearing the top of the wall, Teri could already feel a kind of calm filling her tense mind and was beyond ready to get started on the next, and hopefully final, phase of their plan. Before she left the tree house located at Molly's place, she told the girls that she was going home to grab some sleeping pills (she sometimes had trouble sleeping at new places, although when she slept over at Gumball's house, she was so exhausted from the fight that despite the overall stress the situation brought, her body forced her to sleep and she found rest rather quickly.) and while she was unaware how much time has passed in the duration of their visit to this pocket dimension, she didn't want to keep everyone waiting too long. If Carmen and Molly suspected that she was gone for too long, they might wind up calling her parents and that wouldn't be good for her if they found out that she hasn't reached their house and can't contact her on her phone. Plus, she needed to get Gumball home too because he mentioned that he left in a hurry and if his parents become worried about him as well, then they were both going to be in trouble.

Gumball sped up their ascent, hoping his burst of energy would carry them all the way to the end and this risky mode of transportation would be over quick. While he moved as fast as he could, he was very careful when placing each arrow down on the hard surface and made sure that the rubber cups suction force was secured enough to provide enough support for their weight. Being about a foot away from the edge now, Teri decided now was the best time to unveil her plan to her climbing companion and reached back with one hand to retrieve the black paper she used to fly them here before once again started filling in the hard working cat about her plan,

"Hey, Gumball, before we reach the top, we might want to stop so I can give us some cover-AAAUGHHH!" she screamed as something latched itself on her backpack and yanked her away from Gumball.

Hearing her scream and her grip suddenly release from his neck, Gumball stopped dead in his tracks while whipping his head around to see what happened to his friend. To his fright, Flakey Platter had returned and snatched Teri away with a claw attached to a long arm that ran all the way to the center of its disc-shaped body. The real bad news was, the point where the arm protruded from was actually a circular mouth lined with sharp teeth that trailed saliva as it pulled Teri closer to its gaping maw with the intent on swallowing her whole.

Gumball wasn't sure how the thing had managed to find them, whether it was just simply waiting for them or had managed to sense the two of them while moving away, but none of those questions mattered at this point because Teri was in trouble and Gumball needed to do something, now! With his first objective being to get to the top of the barrier so that he wasn't dangling uselessly on the wall, Gumball decided to ignore climbing and instead put all his energy into thrusting himself up to the edge. Taking a deep breath and listening to Teri's screams, Gumball concentrated and with a growl, he pulled upwards with enough force to propel his body upwards. He cleared the final foot of space left and with a quick grab of both hands, he managed to grasp the edge, his fingers slipped until his claws shot out and stopped him before he fell. With his heart and mind racing a mile a minute, Gumball quickly pulled himself up to the ledge and found himself lying on his stomach in less than seven seconds.

While this happened, Teri eventually stopped screaming, looked up behind her, saw the horrific, gaping hole that was fast approaching, and immediately began trying something before she could be devoured. The appendage that acted as both a manipulator and a tongue kept swaying, which caused nothing but a case of dizziness for the poor girl being held captive. She tried reaching into her bag to retrieve one of her notebooks, but was having a difficult time doing so.

Down on the walltop, Gumball staggered to his feet and let out a strained groaned as his upper body screamed in pain. This didn't bother him in the slightest, but he did notice that his movements were a bit sluggish while he tried opening his own school bag and was in such a frantic state that he didn't even consider taking a break. There was simply no time for such things, not when one of his closest friends is in danger.

Having already drawn out his scythe, Gumball unfolded the weapon and dropped his bag behind him. Turning around, he could see that Teri was no longer screaming and was instead trying to get something out of her bag. The Nephilim, on the other hand, was quickly reeling her in and in less than a minute, Teri will have disappeared inside the floating creature.

Many options and scenarios went through his head at once, but he found himself limited by his own exhaustion and the distance that was increasing between him and the Nephilim. It was too far away to jump to and Gumball was too winded to make the jump anyway. He considered throwing the scythe, hoping to severe the tongue that was holding Teri, but that option was quickly cast aside for fear of possibly missing or having no effect whatsoever, and losing his strongest weapon altogether. He could try distracting it and making it forget about Teri to go after him, but that had very little chances of working and he knew that it already had what it wanted.

With every passing second, Gumball could see Teri being pulled closer to her doom and with very few options coming to him, Gumball was already starting to panic. He felt as though in a few moments he was going to lose her and the thought filled him with a sense of hoplessness,

" _What am I going to do? What am I going to do? I gotta save her! I can't let it end like this!"_ his mind was already in overdrive and he could feel his grip tightening on the scythe's handle.

Without even realizing it this time, Gumball's crescent blade burst into grey flames again and a flood of newfound strength made itself known to the young cat boy. Startled, Gumball let out a gasp and stared down at the burning weapon he held. He put two and two together, and quickly realized that it had activated due to his desperation. For a moment, he forgot about everything else and felt his fear creeping up again, causing the flames to die down.

However, when he heard Teri make a startled noise, Gumball looked up to see that the paper bear had managed to grab a notebook along with a pencil and managed to slip out from her bag straps. The reason she screamed though was when she saw that the Nephilim, having somehow noticed her escape, was charging up six blue orbs at the tip of each spike sticking out from its body and was preparing to fire upon the falling girl. Seeing that she was at a safe distance from the monster and in trouble of being vaporized, Gumball pushed his fear deep down and chose to act,

" _Can't worry right now! I have to keep that thing from firing at her, she's far enough away so I can hit it."_ his internal monologue was matched with his actions as he was already sprinting towards the edge.

Before he made the leap, Gumball noticed something for the briefest of moments, the fire that normally burned out of control when spewing from his enchanted Nephilim killing item was now surprisingly calm and refined even. He didn't even feel cocky anymore, he didn't know why this was as his only intention was to unleash whatever this thing had upon the enemy in front of him, but it was like as if the power that entered him was a faucet that was being controlled: he could still feel the immense pressure, but it felt calmer and more direct. All this left his mind when he found himself sailing through the air at high speeds and shooting towards the saucer shaped monster like a cannonball. The sensation that came with the flight was great to Gumball as he felt as though he were actually flying on his own accord and that nothing could bring him down.

As she descended, Teri desperately began folding the black paper sheet into a quick, simple, yet effective means of flying with the hopes that she could get away from the Nephilim's firing arc, when she caught a glimpse of Gumball heading straight towards the monster with a flaming scythe in his hand. She didn't have a whole lot of time to question that right now, but she was concerned as to why Gumball was doing something so risky. Whatever he was doing, it seemed to have worked because Flakey Platter noticed the approaching menace and was already trying to maneuver itself away from the flying cat while simultaneously preparing a counter attack, no longer paying the girl any attention.

She formed a simple paper airplane, one that resembled something a bored student would make in class, and felt her fall come to stop as she began to glide in a straight line. Above her, the Nephilim fired a blue bolt of energy at Gumball, who saw it coming and was already twisting his body to counter it. What happened next was something Gumball could only describe as spectacular, the moment he swung his body around in the open air in order to intercept the incoming energy bolt, another surge of energy fired through him and made its way out of his scythe. The resulting effect unleashed a crescent arc of destructive silver flames, three times Gumball's size, from the weapon's own curved blade and traveled towards the Nephilim, cutting through the energy bolt in the process.

The Nephilim itself stood no chance as it was struck by the flaming wave, resulting in one of the spikes sticking out from its rim being severed and a clean path being torn through the main body of the monster that only stopped near its center. Without a single cry coming from the guardian of the wall, the Nephilim burned purple as it fell and eventually disappeared. Gumball's unorthodox attack had proven to be more than effective at just distracting the monster from Teri, but also managed to wipe it out too.

Not even seeing the monster's defeat after using such a bizarre attack, thanks to said move slowing his forward momentum to a near stop and causing him to rapidly fall all the way down to the crystal trees and red sand that waited for him. His flames immediately went out after the aerial assault and Gumball felt as though half his energy was drained from his body, which was somewhat better from the other times he used it (once again, he didn't know why this was the case, seeing as the weapon was **very** different from the one's Teri and Rob used, even outdoing conventional weapons in terms of bizarreness.), but he was still exhausted and now very terrified once he saw how fast the ground was approaching. He wanted to figure out how he did what he did back there, but surviving his very close encounter with the ground that was quickly coming up to meet him was his biggest concern at the moment,

"Gosh darn it! Why does everything cool I do always follow up with me falling from some great height! No wait, scratch that, why am I always falling in general!" he shouted in both fright and frustration. He always did wonder how he got himself into these types of situations, maybe the gods or the Jade emperor just had a really twisted sense of humor.

With tears stinging his eyes and the resulting air pressure locking his form in place, Gumball screamed as he careened downwards to a nearby plasma container with its sharp branches pointed directly at him. Before he could utter a final prayer to whatever supreme being ruled the universe, something appeared in the corner of his eye and when he saw the black shape approaching, he feared it was another Nephilim making its way towards him to finish him off instead of the bizarre flora of this place. He stopped screaming and tried to move himself again, but was halted when whatever was approaching slammed into him.

You could only imagine his surprise when the first thing he noticed was that the object that caught him felt like paper and was in the familiar triangular shape of a paper airplane,

" _And there's my savior, always catching me after I make one dumb decision after the other!"_ he thought with both relief and bittersweet amusement, constantly feeling as though he was going to be nominated the "best damsel in distress" award sometime in the future.

He heard Teri's voice call out from underneath and if Gumball knew any better, he'd say that she somehow read his mind,

"Is this going to be a theme from now on because I'm not sure if I can get use to this!" this was the first thing she said to him after having been saved herself and in turn having to save boy wonder from his own rescue attempt.

Gumball couldn't see her, for he was on top of the plane while she clung onto the bottom, but he could probably guess that she had a smug look on her face. Not wanting to take her sass, Gumball decided to counter with a snippy quote of his own,

"Mmm, don't know really. I save you, you save me, I think it all evens out well if you actually think about it, but to be fair, in the past month or so, I have been falling for you a lot lately." he replied, as he quickly lay down on his side and began cleaning his nails to show how much he didn't care about the given situation.

From below, Teri found herself chuckling at the cat's snarkiness and quickly thought of a comeback for his terrible pun,

"Aww, really!? That's so sweet! You're the air under my wings, just to let you know!" she shouted back at him.

Gumball watched the forest go by and smiled,

"Well, I'm glad to know you think so, I think it's _plane_ to see that you're quite clever yourself when making puns." he remarked.

This was obviously turning into a pun war that closely resembled flirtation and the two kids managed to turn around an otherwise terrible situation for something that eased their minds a little,

"Well, should we try to attack Leliel with another cautious approach or are we going to wing it?" she asked in a joking manner.

Gumball gave it some thought and decided that stealth was still their best option seeing as the one Nephilim guard had been taken out and once Leliel noticed, there was going to be an uproar. They were going to have to be quick too, before anything bad happened,

"Well, I say once we start our approach, we'll slip in as covertly as possible and give her some of our own turbulence once we find her!" he declared, still going along with the airplane puns.

Setting the improvised glider down near the base of the wall, Gumball hopped off while Teri began to fold the paper airplane into a black butterfly while she spoke to him,

"Okay, but we're going to have to be careful about this, my backpack was eaten by Flakey Platter and I only have one big sheet, a single notebook, and a pencil left." she showed him the remaining items at her disposal after she finished up with her folded butterfly.

Taking that into account, Gumball figured the best way to survive an encounter with Leliel is if they either attacked while she remained unsuspecting, set a trap with the papers Teri had and lure her to it, or perhaps he could just remain on the defensive while Teri used her papers as a means of offense. He really liked the shuriken idea he had earlier and reminded her to use that if they were in a pinch. She took the idea well and questioned Gumball on what he was going to do,

"Me? I'm just gonna play defense, it's a better position for me and since you're faster and have some papers to spare, you're definitely well suited for attacking, plus I can't be reckless." he said, reminding himself not to get ahead of himself for their next encounter. One of the downsides of training by himself was that he couldn't really come up with strategies in the heat of a fight and was mostly concerned with making sure he didn't die. He needed to find a way to keep a cool head in the middle of a fight and also figure out how to be more creative.

She seemed to like that idea and agreed to remain close to him when Leliel was attacking so they could both figure out a way to defeat her and go home. Turning back to the wall, the paper craftswoman looked to the top once more in order to see if there were anymore guards posted on top. While she saw no guards, something else caught her eye and she was so perplexed that she slowly reached out next to her to tug on Gumball's jacket sleeve until his attention was on her,

"What is it, Teri?" he asked, wondering what was nagging at her.

"Umm, correct me if I'm wrong, but were there any stars in the sky when we first arrived?" she pondered while pointing up towards the sky.

That was an odd question for her to ask because Gumball was sure she saw the same black sky he did, until he looked up himself and saw that she was in fact right. In the darkened sky above them, dozens of stars had appeared, spilling across the ceiling like scattered diamonds and the farther away they looked, the more the stars kept flashing into existence. _What is going on here?_ Was the only thing they could think of as they watched the glorious spectacle unfold before their very eyes. Even if they were to go home and tell everyone what they had seen tonight, everyone would think they were the most creative storytellers and would have just laughed them off because this was just too far out.

Before they could enjoy the light show they were given, a voice rang out in the distance and it was laughing. Not a joyful, hearty laugh that filled the spirit with pleasantness, but instead a cold, wicked, and apathetic cackle that rang throughout the entire dimension. Gumball and Teri quivered in fear and inched closer together until they were barely inches apart.

The laughter was eventually replaced with a sharp, feminine voice that spoke to them,

"You invasive pests have proven to be quite troublesome!" the disembodied voice echoed throughout the space and the two kids could feel the disgust coming from whatever it was that was speaking to them,

"Torax, Raph, and even poor Olaf, how could they be defeated so quickly by such vile and cowardly beings. Even Brahka and Thundero seem to have fallen after sending them away to investigate a magical disturbance happening not too far from here. It seems that even after sending out our scouts and our hunters, we still continue to underestimate the likes of you pests!" her snarl seemed to cause a bit of a breeze to rip through the forest and Gumball had to quickly grab Teri before she flew away.

After hearing the names of the opponents they fought earlier (Gumball liked his name, Flakey Platter better because seriously, what kind of disgustingly, horrific monster names itself Olaf?) Gumball could assume the other two, Brahka and Thundero, were the ones they never encountered and if they were missing, that could only mean that they were dealt with. Despite the grave situation surrounding the pair, Gumball could feel a small grin creep onto his face, of course Rob would have dealt with them and Gumball was actually genuinely impressed that his one-eyed rival managed to hold off two Nephilim. At least, that's what he wanted to believe because the idea of two unaccounted Nephilim running amuck in Elmore was beyond terrible to imagine on its own.

If they ever survived this encounter then he'd have to contact the grey cyclops as soon as possible in order to get a word in on the two possible threats to their home city,

"Teri, get ready to fly! We're heading to the tower!" Gumball declared, grabbing her by the hand and heading towards the black butterfly.

Leliel's voice continued to fill the air around them and the two could sense murderous intent within her tone,

"It matters not what you do! I have been watching the two of you ever since you entered my storm sphere and I know how you two operate!" she shouted, another gust of wind buffeting them as her voice increased in intensity.

Above them the stars began to shine brightly and while Teri had already climbed aboard the origami insect of her creation, Gumball was still standing beside her and had a very bad feeling about the sky above them. In preparation for what was to come, Gumball climbed onto the butterfly, stood over Teri protectively, and raised his scythe above his head like a lateral bar. The powerful, unseen Nephilim let out a bloodcurdling scream that nearly ruptured Gumball and Teri's ears and caused the ground and the trees to shake as a result before she shouted,

"DIE!"

The stars in the sky lit up with amazing intensity and came streaking down one after the other towards Gumball and Teri's position. Seeing the meteorite-like projectiles of energy falling towards them like guided bombs, Gumball's mind seemingly went numb as he did the only trick he believed would save them both in this increasingly perilous situation. Shifting his hands on the scythe's shaft until they were closer together and met towards the middle, Gumball began to rapidly turn one hand over the other, making the elongated weapon itself spin in a wide circle. He picked up speed just as the first striking star closed in on them and Teri watched from behind him in amazement as the blue cat boy deflected the first projectile away from them.

More falling energy blasts soon followed after and Gumball continued to keep up the unusual defensive stance as more and more energy blasts came in contact. After sending the first ten into the dirt and trees with resounding white explosions, Gumball could already feel himself getting worn down by the relentless assault and triggered his scythe's special power in order to keep up with Leliel's sky barrage. Even when he felt himself going mad with power, laughing and cursing the unseen monster as he continued to bat away every attack that came close, he kept the blade as far from his fragile companion as possible and quickly fell into a state of fright once the Nephilim's aerial bombardment had quickly ceased, his flames extinguishing themselves at the presence of his fear.

With a total of forty projectiles deflected in the span of a minute and four seconds, Gumball was already once again exhausted at the use of the scythe's enhancement and the powerful strikes that nearly knocked him back into his partner. Even with his power, blocking each attack was like deflecting a bowling being dropped directly on him from two stories with a pole made of titanium, sure, it was doable, but it costed a lot of strength and stamina and without his ability it felt even worse. He didn't know why the attack stopped like it did, Leliel could have easily wiped them out with her sheer overwhelming strength, but Gumball wasn't going to question it seeing as he was glad for the break.

Behind him, Teri looked on with shock and awe. She saw him do incredible things like deflect a doom blast and fight off multiple limbs of concrete, but being able to protect both of them from dozens of volleyball-sized energy projectiles being hurled at who-knows-what-kind-of-speeds and without so much as getting singed was utterly impressive to the paper girl. She read a few mangas before and seeing what Gumball did reminded her of some of the impressive feats the main characters of such stories would pull off. However, once the attack had ended, she got one good look at Gumball and saw that he was already nearing total fatigue: another attack like that would probably do him in.

Panting and covered in sweat, Gumball pulled off his red jacket, the combined heat of the falling star bombs with his own rising internal temperature made him feel as though he were being baked alive in his own protective clothing, and tied it around his waist. Feeling cooler, Gumball sat himself down and allowed himself to recover, he really just wanted to catch a nap at this point. He was impressed by what he did back there and was very glad that such a simple move worked because he had very little confidence that it would, given how many times he failed when practicing said move. The bipedal cat was feeling glad for not screwing up despite losing his collected mind, but such thoughts were interrupted when he heard the person whom he was defending speak,

"Wow!..." was all she could say at first, still being blown away by Gumball's well performed move,

"How long have you been practicing that one?" she asked, a childish excitement was present in her voice and Gumball could see her leaning forward slightly until she was about a foot away from him.

Gumball was about to give her an unsure answer, seeing as he actually wasn't sure what was bound to happen, but did it with hopes that they could at least survive with minimal damage. He didn't get to say anything though, as Leliel, master of the storm sphere and leader of the late Se'arot squad, was already preparing her next move against the two. Beneath their feet, the ground began to buckle and shift as an earthquake (wait, can it still be considered an earthquake if it's in a pocket dimension that's not even a part of the planet they were on?) began spread throughout the land. All at the same time, the beautiful crystal trees that dotted the landscape began to glow brighter and the two members of the three man team that was responsible for Elmore's safety felt an unbearable wave of heat crash over them. Besides them, the solid volcanic wall began to crack and break apart, pieces both large and small began to detach themselves and fall around the two, adding more to the deafening noise all around them.

They needed to leave before they were either crushed to death or burned alive by the plasma preparing to escape their tree shaped containers. Luckily, Gumball needn't say a word to Teri as the competent paper crafting and paper controlling classmate was already lifting them both in the air with a single flap of the butterfly's sharp and angular wings. Luckily, Gumball was already sitting and was easily able to catch himself before the paper insect took off, although he was sitting backwards when compared to the pilot and watched as the ground below sped away from them.

Seconds passed by and the two were at a high enough altitude where the catastrophe that was happening below could not affect them, this didn't prevent the scythe wielding cat from keeping his eyes on the sky above in case Leliel tried using her stars to attack them once again. Luckily, while the stars remained in their fixed position on the dark canopy, they didn't shoot down towards them. From their new position, Gumball and Teri could see that the unusual seismic activity was being generated from the central spire they were originally heading for, with the land around it rippling like waves in a pond. At this point the walls had completely crumbled away, revealing the land on the other side to be a scorched and desolate circle of glass that stretched out two miles in diameter with the tower at its central point.

Gumball watched as the forest was lit up in a brilliant display of cotton colored ionized gas as each structure exploded in unison, most likely glassing the red sand beneath it,

"I don't like what's going on here!" Gumball shouted, his startled expression illuminated by the intense glow from the ground.

Teri seconded Gumball's feelings of unease as she gazed at the fantastically immense scene unfolding around them, she heard Leliel mention that she had been watching them ever since they arrived,

" _Does she control this entire dimension? Okay that's definitely not a question at this point, seeing as she clearly does. With that being said, if her presence is everywhere then that should mean that she has a center. It's gotta be that tower seeing as that's where all this is originating from."_ she figured through her observations and caused the butterfly to bank towards the only structure remaining within this hellish landscape,

"We need to destroy that tower now! This pocket dimension is like her body and that place is like her brain, we destroy it, we destroy her!" she shouted back to Gumball.

"Already got that, let's reduce Leliel to rubble and clear up the cloudy weather over the mountains!" he shouted in agreement, getting ready to defend the both of them.

With an understanding nod, Teri forced the flying paper craft to accelerate towards Leliel's only hiding place.

Making a direct beeline towards the tower, both pairs of eyes were on the lookout for any immediate threats to the two of them and both felt extremely tense with virtually every threat being able to come from multiple directions. They crossed into the scorched territory of the spire and Teri could see that the tower in front of them would have to be taken down with multiple explosive runes due to the tower's great size being too much for a single attack. At the base of the structure, Teri estimated it to be at least twenty feet in diameter with the rest of the building getting slimmer as it reached the top, which had to be at least five feet in diameter. The trick was figuring out where to attack, once they were close enough, they should be relatively safe from Leliel's attacks because she wouldn't attack herself, but she didn't know where she really "was". If she was at the top of the spire, then the attack will be quick and simple, but if she was hiding at the bottom or even _is_ the tower itself, then she would have to circle around and plant many explosives in order to knock the whole thing down.

It wasn't difficult for Gumball's intelligent partner to decide that their best option was to destroy the base of the tall building because even if she was at the top, the collapse of the structure would most definitely kill the powerful Nephilim. It would certainly take them a while to complete such a task, but she believed it was doable and Gumball was more than a good when it came to defense. En route to the colossal structure, Teri pulled out her notebook and quickly began scribbling rune after rune within the pages, pausing once to draw a new rune for in case something went wrong, and glanced up every once in awhile to see where they were in relation to their target.

While they made great progress in their journey, Gumball began to feel as though something was off: Leliel wasn't even attempting to attack them even though they were now halfway across the burnt territory surrounding the dark building and closing in fast. He wanted to believe that as they were closing in on the tower, Leliel was holding back because she didn't want to accidently hit herself, but if Gumball knew anything, her star strike was very accurate and would definitely slow the two down if she was worried about them getting too close. With nothing happening all around them, Gumball kept all his senses on high alert as he waited for whatever was to come and kept suspecting they were heading into a trap.

Surrounding the tower's blackened circle, the fiery white plasma continued to rage out of control and began to climb higher and higher without ever passing over the two mile territory that the two preteens were nearly at the center of. Rather than dissipate, like normal plasma did, it just remained where it was and continued to violently sway and swirl about without as though it had a mind of its own. The blue cat had a sneaking suspicion that the glowing matter was being manipulated by the Nephilim and she was going to use it on the two of them. The real question was would they be able to get away fast enough because gumball knew he wouldn't be able to defend them against such a powerful and all consuming attack like that.

They were less than two hundred feet away from the towering heart of the storm sphere, having gotten this far with very little incident, when something happened to the building in front of them: with a sound like a bullet leaving the barrel of a rifle, a golden sphere shot from the top of the menacing building, tearing through the roof and demolishing the building with the resulting shockwave that came from the flying object reaching speeds that surpassed the sound barrier. Teri halted their advance and swung the butterfly around, nimbly dodging falling debris and accelerating away from the crumbling remains of the tower. Gumball even successfully knocked away a stray piece of rock the size of a tennis ball with the stock end of his four foot weapon before it could tear through their wing.

The golden orb rose high into the sky above and as it did, all the burning plasma surrounding the area began to swirl and rise towards the odd object. The resulting ionized Hydrogen gathered from the mountains began collect underneath the sphere and took a shape, growing bigger and more defined as more plasma added itself to the overall mass. The two middle schoolers watched with intrigue as the being shrouded in mystique began to reveal itself with its glorious intensity.

The final result from all the plasma gathering together, leaving the rest of the dimension a dark, decimated landscape scarred with the intense heat from all the broken containers, was a being whose size rivalled all others that came before, easily being thousands of feet in length and width. It was avion in shape, with six, enormous wings that stretched far and wide from its central body which was streamlined and sleek, as if this thing was made for fast flight. There was no visible head, as the top of the creature tapered off to an arrow like point with no discernable facial features to recognize (if they were there, then they were probably well hidden within the glow being emitted from such a creature.). Though, if one were to take a closer look, a crown could be seen atop the plasma monster's body, with seven spikes arranged in a circle with the frontal one being the tallest and with the golden orb, the two kids assumed this was the real body, hovering on top. There were no other features that could be seen on the large bird hovering above them, making it simply an almond shaped body with six wings covered in a fiery, white aura that illuminated the world around Gumball and Teri.

This was Leliel in her final stage and it was a dreaded sight for the cat and the bear hovering in place,

" _So that's Leliel… never would have believed I would think this, but the Nephilim really know how to put on an incredible display when they're about to destroy. Seems a little overkill."_ Gumball thought in morbid amusement as his despair had well since faded and was replaced with incredible awe.

" _So that's what we're up against. Is victory even possible at this point?"_ Teri questioned as the monstrous entity made itself known before her very eyes. She really hated this place and wanted nothing more than to just go home.

Unfortunately, that can't happen, not until Leliel, the Nephilim, the greatest threat ever present to Elmore was vanquished here and now. Tearing out three pages from her notebook, Teri used her powers to reshape the rune covered pages until they resembled four-bladed throwing stars and held them each within one hand while using the other to tightly grip the butterfly's head. They were going straight for Leliel, it was do or die time and Teri intended to get home as quickly as possible for this nightmare needed to end.

"Gumball!" her head snapped back towards the soft colored feline who whipped around to see her,

"Don't let her touch us! We're going to get as close as possible and I need you to prevent us from burning up!" she ordered, stating her intentions as simply as she could.

Not needing any further clarification, Gumball swallowed his fear, glanced at the six winged entity hovering so far up in the sky and then back at the bear-shaped, paper cut out with determination and fear mixed up in her drawn on expressions. Obviously she had a strategy, was scared to go through with it, but willing to fight the hard fight if it meant saving everyone. Gumball liked this side of her, along with her take charge attitude and merely got ready for what was about happen next,

"Sure thing, captain Pepakuma." he responded, his feelings mirroring hers as he feared what the Nephilim could possibly do, but knew what he needed to do as well.

This boy and his names, Teri was seriously liking the respect and trust he was giving her and a smile crept onto her face as she turned away from the cat she admired so much in order to focus on the objective ahead. With a silent command and a flap of the insects wings, the butterfly shot upwards with its two passengers hanging on tightly. They climbed upwards at an incredible rate and the light shining from the beautiful creature was starting to blind the two, forcing Teri to swing the butterfly upwards until its body blocked out the light. They heard Leliel's voice again and it still sounded just as hateful and cruel as before,

"Not even intimidated by my grand form, such a fascinating pair! Too bad your weaknesses are so easily displayed by your actions!" she stated in a mocking tone and unbeknownst to the two, the plasma monster began forming hundreds of small plasma lances on each wing, all of which were aiming at the approaching winged insect,

"Now burn!" she screeched and with a flap of all six wings, unleashed a rainstorm of burning hot spikes along with a cyclone of rushing air.

Having heard her, the pair immediately halted in mid-air and felt a powerful gale slam into them, knocking them back. While tumbling through the air, Gumball and Teri could barely understand what was going on as they had lost their bearings once the black butterfly started spinning out of control. While trying to regain control of their paper mount, Teri heard something whistle by and saw something bright sail right past them and disappear into the darkness. Soon more of those strange objects began passing by and Teri realized that they were caught in a barrage of plasma bolts fired from Leliel,

"Gumball!" she shouted in desperation.

Already seeing the severity of the situation, Gumball was already swinging his scythe about and when Teri flipped the flying origami around, ten foot energy lances were being swatted away by Gumball's quick swipes. This went on for a bit, until Teri was able to finally regain control of the black origami and effectively began dodging the storm of plasma lances. Looking back at the phoenix inspired entity, Teri thought it best that they don't try another frontal assault and opted to circle around and attack from behind.

Gumball noticed their shift in direction and whipped around to tell Teri something,

"Are you going around so you can catch her from behind?" he asked, already having a feeling seeing as they were already starting to circle around the Nephilim.

Teri didn't look back at him, but still answered anyway,

"Yeah, we were almost wiped out when we attacked from the front. That was incredibly careless of me." she muttered regretfully.

Now understanding the reasoning behind her actions, Gumball was sure that she was on the right track, but had an idea of his own,

"I don't think flanking her is going to work out so well, she probably knows where we are!" he stated, pointing over the paper girl's shoulder and Teri could see that as they moved, Leliel was already turning in their direction.

She continued to fly along their current course, not really knowing what to do seeing as she didn't know any possible way to escape the monster's sight,

"So what do you think we should do?" she shot back, her voice on the edge of sounding angry.

Gumball directed her attention once again to the brightly lit, six winged, bird of prey and spoke,

"Call it a hunch, but I think she uses the light her plasma gives off to see us." he pointed out, having found it rather odd that she could see them, but couldn't necessarily hear them,

"I mean think about it, those trees were everywhere and she always seemed to know where to send those other Nephilim. How about we fly low in those hills over there where its darkest and follow that path until we can get close enough to her!" he suggested.

Teri wanted to believe him on his theory, but there were so many holes in it that it seemed too ludicrous to even consider. Her eyebrows furrowed deep in concentration and her face twisted into a scowl as indecision gripped her. She was just unsure at the moment,

"How do you know this will work? Your evidence doesn't really add up and I'm sure she has other ways of finding us." she looked back at him so she could see him clearly.

To be frank, Gumball knew this was a far fetched theory he cooked up on the spot, but given Leliel's reliance on plasma made him feel as though there was more to it than using it as a weapon. Even the star attack she used on him was plasma based, he noticed this when he deflected each one and was also aware that Leliel didn't even know about them when they were outside her pocket dimension. The lightning strike that brought them here wasn't directed at them because if it was, it would have struck both of them directly.

Taking a deep breath and looking Teri directly in the eyes while giving her his most serious and confident self, Gumball explained what he came up with,

"I know this will work because she relies too much on plasma. She uses it to see us, construct her forms and even attack us. She even lured us over to her tower because we were out in the open where she had a clear shot at us. Please trust me when I say this will work." he pleaded.

He was being honest, not giving off so much as a doubt and Teri knew that while this seemed a little crazy, it actually made a bit of sense. She noticed the Nephilim's extensive use of plasma and not the other objects within the dimension itself. Maybe it had better control over the glowing, white material then over the other things located within the storm sphere and found better uses for the stuff since it was everywhere. She didn't want to be wrong because of what was at stake here, but then again, everything was always a gamble in these types of situations.

Taking in a deep breath and exhaling, allowing her head to cool itself, she spoke back to the cat boy while turning her attention back to the front of the origami,

"Okay. we'll go with your idea, but I'm not comfortable with it." she admitted in defeat.

Gumball felt a tug at the corner of his lips and found a seat,

"Thank you, and for the record, I'm not so sure about this either considering how often my plans usually go wrong." he muttered back to her.

There was a comfortable silence between the two as they made their way to the glassy hills Gumball had directed Teri to.

From high above, Leliel watched them disappear behind the rows of hills on the outer reaches of her former spire territory and began to burn with anger. Without her white light shining down on them, she was practically blind as to where they were and that didn't bode well to the powerful entity. Furious at their disappearance, Leliel let out a roar that spread throughout the storm sphere and with her six wings outstretched, another cascade of brightly lit lances began to rain down on the rolling landscape,

"You think you can escape me, you parasites! I will flatten this whole dimension if it means wiping you off our planet!" she screeched, her fury and her frustration making themselves blatantly visible.

Within the their hiding place, Teri and Gumball continued to fly along the little valley weaving in between the rising and falling land. When the rain of volatile lances began to pepper the area around them, Teri took at advantage of her creation's small and narrow wings ability to make snap turns and tight maneuvers in order to easily dodge the falling bolts and Gumball did his best job to shield them from harm. They shot through the space and Leliel was able to spot them thanks to the bits of plasma that she sent forth,

"There you are!" she shouted, a malicious eagerness replacing her wrath.

She then began to sail towards where she predicted they'll turn up, hoping to block their escape with a third volley of attacks directed solely at them. She thought about using a doom blast, but she recognized the weapon the little blue one possessed and knew such an attack would be futile. Her best bet was to overwhelm them until they tired out, mainly the blue one because he posed the greatest threat to her. The flimsy vermin would be no challenge to destroy once her companion was killed off.

She continued to descend towards her targeted spot and prepared another attack to send their way. With her wings brimming with newly formed weapons, Leliel couldn't see the Earth children, they were out of range from her previous attack, but she could calculate the general area they would be in. believing she had them cornered now, Leliel flapped her magnificent wings again and the shower of plasma lances that followed came crashing down all over the hills with the same destructive force of a strategic carpet bombing.

She waited for her senses to catch the two vermin as they burned or tried to evade her attacks, but was shocked to see that when her lances rained down on the scorched landscape below, they were nowhere to be found. All her destructive power and near omnipotent sense, and she couldn't even stop them nor see them anymore. However, before she could panic, it came to her realization that they didn't disappear, but rather changed directions after they got out of range from her first strike.

Which means they could be anywhere, but two areas now. This simply would not do for the mighty Leliel, master of the storm sphere and leader of the Se'arot squad, and further rage began to burn up within her being, much like her plasma. With a full fledged, vibrant display of ferocity and anger, Leliel fanned her fiery wings out and began firing a continuous cloud of burning fragments in every conceivable direction she could. There was no way they were going to get away that easily and she was ready to burn the whole place to the ground if she had to.

What Leliel had failed to realize was that Gumball and Teri never stayed close to the ground and instead, opted to go straight up after they escaped the second volley of attacks. Using the origami as cover against the dark sky, the small children watched as Leliel continued to fling bits of herself all over the place, causing a few stray missiles to race on by, although it appeared as though they hadn't been spotted. They were nearly floating above the Nephilim now and Teri could even make out the golden orb that served as the monster's real body and tip of the Phoenix's crown.

She peeked at gumball for a moment and gave him a thumbs up,

"Good job on figuring out her weakness and for figuring out she would come closer when she couldn't see us." she praised, recalling the brief moment after they escaped the attack in the hills when Gumball suspected she would be coming after them and instructed her to take them up quickly, as high as she could go. She also erased her eyes and drew on a pair of shades in order to see Leliel without going blind while they were gliding high above her.

Looking quite pleased with himself, Gumball beamed with pride and shook his oversized cat head in acknowledgment,

"Thank you, but I was just going off a hunch back there. We'd have been in big trouble if she could sense through the air as well." he explained, feeling more relieved than anything.

Once he said what he had said, Teri carefully looked back down and saw that they were now passing directly over the Nephilim. This was their chance to strike and Teri dug the shurikens out of the crease that ran down the center of the butterfly where she also kept her notebook and pencil. Looking back down at the target thousands of feet down below, at the golden orb specifically, and gathered her courage once again. This was another high risk strike, but she had a clear shot and Gumball was helping her, she could do this.

With her mind meeting its resolve, Teri set the black mariposa into a dive and shot straight down to the Nephilim below.

The wind screamed in both of their ears as they accelerated in their controlled dive and they could both feel the cold air starting to warm up as they closed the distance between them and the avion themed entity. Soon they were nearing a thousand feet, then eight hundred, six hundred feet and closing. Leliel seemed completely oblivious to their approach, but in their arrogance they both believed this to be the case.

She kept her focus on the Nephilim's vulnerable spot, but not until something caught her eye and when she looked up, she shouted in surprise when she saw a plasma heading directly at her. She thought about pulling away in order to avoid the incoming weapon and possibly retreating, but a flash of silver caught her attention and the white hot, plasma charge was dispersed. She didn't need to look in order to know who was responsible for saving them both and she took that as his silent reminder to keep going.

She stayed on course while multiple plasma lances raced towards them and were easily deflected with a few swift strokes by Gumball or easily avoided by a last-minute twist by Teri. to Gumball, who was close behind her, he was really getting the hang of deflecting all these attacks and was feeling very impressed with himself. Once they were about three hundred feet from Leliel's body, the heat became far too strong for them both and Teri was forced to attack from where she was. Taking both hands off the origami, Teri held her shurikens, eyed her target carefully, and threw all three paper throwing stars in succession at Leliel.

The three long ranged weapons spun like windmills towards the golden orb resting upon the white crown of the beast and for a moment Teri believed they were going to hit. That was, until the paper shurikens burst into flames when approaching the orb that was no doubt nearly as hot as a star. Teri's heart seemed to cave in on itself when she saw this and with nothing else on her mind, except running, she quickly pulled the butterfly upwards and began her retreat.

"What are you doing? Did you get her?" Gumball asked, having nearly fell off for the umpteenth time today.

Teri nearly felt like crying right there because she didn't want to tell him the bad news. They were so close and she forgot to take into account the immense heat the beast's plasma was giving off. Of all the basic observations she could have missed, how could she have forgotten something that simple.

"My throwing stars burned up!" she replied back to him as another plasma lance shot by and she got an idea,

"Can you fire another grey fire wave like you did the last time?" she asked, inquiring his special move he used earlier.

Gumball felt slightly uneasy when thinking about that attack and besides, if Leliel's body could take the heat of the plasma, then how would his own fire based attack fare against that? He didn't feel like his own unusual ability could get the job the done and he shook his head in response,

"I don't think that will work against her, also I have no idea how I used it." he explained in a grim tone,

"Do you have any runes that use ice or water attacks? Maybe something really strong that won't burn up?" he suggested knowing that they still had three runes that they didn't know about.

That brought Teri's attention to her notebook once again, she remembered drawing one of the new ones in there in case things went awry and well, she supposed now was a good time as any. She pulled the binded collection of papers from the central fold again and flipped to the marked page, all the while Gumball kept a lookout for more nearing attacks. She found what she was looking for, a page with a trident shaped symbol comprised of a diamond and two extra prongs on each side, and tore out said page.

She didn't think much of it when she first drew it on, it was just another easy symbol to remember and she now figured it must have some kind of water properties since tridents were often associated with the sea. The question was, how effective was it really against something that put off just as much heat as a star? She would just have to wait and see herself once she used it.

They were still directly above the golden Nephilim, Teri quickly folded the page into another shuriken and rather than turn the aircraft around, she began climbing down past Gumball and towards the tail end of the black butterfly. Having them right where she wanted them, Leliel began taking a different approach to ridding herself of her persistent opponents and began to manipulate the ionized gas until it began to rise upwards and surround the two in a blazing white tornado. Gumball was completely blinded by the bright white lights and forced his eyes shut, whatever Teri was going to do, she'd better to quick because he knew he was not going to be able to protect them from now on.

Teri felt the heat around them rise exponentially and she raised the shuriken again, making sure her arm was steady along with her aim. Before she could hurl the crafted throwing star, something happened and a six foot long trident made of water materialized around the shuriken in her hand. Teri was astonished by this, none of the runes she used ever activated before she let go of them, but didn't dwell on it for too long as she wanted to skewer the Nephilim now.

Taking aim, Teri felt the walls of the plasma torrent start to close in and she hurled the trident/shuriken straight down at Leliel's vulnerable body. The Nephilim saw the attack coming and tried to intercept it with a wall of plasma. Before the trident could reach the burning hot material, ice formed at the three tips and broke through the barrier while only losing a small portion of its overall mass in a puff of steam, which it then quickly regenerated. Leliel could do nothing as her golden ball-shaped body was pierced by the unaffected trident like a grape with a toothpick.

A hole the size of a dinner plate was all that remained of Teri's strike and it was one that ran from one side of Leliel's hollow body to the other. Her husk lost its luster as it began to decay rapidly, her overwhelming force of plasma dispersed into nothing as she was unable to maintain her hold on it and it died away with her.

With it all gone, Teri could see that they were surrounded by an inky blackness thanks to the lack of light Leliel provided and figured they were still trapped within the storm sphere. With the brightness of leliel's attack gone, Gumball carefully cracked open his eyes and saw the same thing Teri saw and wondered what happened. He got his answer when he saw something below them burst into purple flames, which was then followed by the entire place erupting into magnificent amethyst colored fire that consumed everything with their ever so hungry tongues.

"Now there's a light show I can appreciate." Gumball joked in response to the death of Leliel and the storm sphere.

Behind him, Teri laughed nervously and began to climb back up to her preferred spot. Once she was where she needed to be, she erased the sunglasses, drew on her eyes again, made the flying origami level out and Gumball settled back down in his seat, glad to not be dangling on the butterfly anymore. Eventually the entire dimension disappeared and they found themselves surrounded by the familiar sights of the forest at the edge of the mountain range along with the illuminated city of Elmore. Teri and Gumball were quite surprised at just how far they traveled while inside the Nephilim's pocket dimension and were glad that they defeated them just before they reached the city.

After assuring that they were okay, Teri set a course straight for Gumball's house and the two continued to fly above the dark, creepy, and blissfully not glowing forest. They were going to be arriving within a few minutes and Teri asked Gumball if he would like for her to land and reconfigure her origami into something faster, but he declined, saying he had enough of the woods for a while. They both shared another nervous laugh after that and continued flying in silence for a bit.

While they seemed to be making great progress in reaching Elmore, Gumball decided to check the time on his cell phone, 9:07 it read. They had been gone for over two hours, which wasn't good considering how late it was, but Gumball wasn't exactly too worried because he already had an excuse prepared for his folks at home. He hoped that Teri also had her situation under control and wasn't going to be in trouble with anyone, but after remembering that she was at a sleepover before she left, Gumball felt as though she would have better luck telling a fine tale as well.

Feeling slightly relaxed now, Gumball first stared at the approaching city and then at Teri while she continued to deliver them both to their respective places. Thinking back on it, this was probably their largest battle yet, having taken down four Nephilim and while also overcoming several obstacles in an environment otherwise unknown to them. They also learned a little more about their enemies during their time within the storm sphere and there were many questions running through the Watterson's head,

"So they have a leader called president Nimrod. Who the heck would lead with a name like that? That would be like if our president decided to name himself 'major dunce' and expected everyone to take him seriously." Gumball questioned out loud, hoping that Teri would answer him.

Also having similar questions, Teri was glad Gumball broke the silence and responded to Gumball's remark about the Nephilim's aforementioned leader,

"I don't think his name matters that much, it could even be a cultural thing for them, but what I'm concerned about is why does he want Elmore destroyed? That one named Torax mentioned that he was doing as an emotional response to something and that doesn't seem wise for a leader to do." she wondered, shivering a little at the cold.

Gumball was sent into his own little world of possibilities and he began listing off every single one that popped into his head,

"Maybe he fought someone here long ago and is now seeking to destroy his former rival? Maybe he went on vacation here once and didn't like the food? Maybe he wanted the collector's edition mini-figure of _Captain punch_ that came with the kid's meal at Joyful Burger, but was too late because they were out of stock? Maybe he and his wife had a bad time here and got a divorce and-!"

"Gumball! Before we both get lost in your amazing world of nonsense, let's just focus on what we're going to do from now on. We've just fought four Nephilim and won, but as usual only by the skin of our teeth, Rob probably wiped out the other two (you should text him by the way.) and we don't know how many more they're going to send here." she was almost shouting now, not because she was angry at Gumball's ludicrousy, but because she was more scared than ever.

This also came as a concern to Gumball because up until now, they've only dealt with a single Nephilim coming every now and then and even then they were always a handful to manage. With the six that arrived today, dealing with them was just as hazardous if not more even and they even let two of them get away. If they hadn't been sent off to deal with Rob, possibly, then who knows what sort of damage they could have dealt while they were gone? Before he answered, he quickly shot a text to Rob regarding the two Nephilim and he received a message less than a minute later from their ally saying that he did encounter two of them and that they were a piece of cake to deal with.

Feeling glad, Gumball explained the situation to him before he wished Rob a good night and thanked him for helping out before he put the phone away and answered Teri's question,

"Well, there's not a whole lot we can do exactly, except try to get better and maybe lay out a few traps for them. I can also start creating a few more weapons and maybe even modify our own. All in all, we should focus on each one that comes, deal with it, and maybe perhaps try to find a way to contact their leader, although that last one is probably a long shot." he suggested, not feeling too sure about what to do in terms of long term planning.

She expected an answer like that from him and to be honest, she kind of felt that was just about the only thing they could do. That didn't mean she didn't find it frustrating though, she had so many things she wanted to worry about, school, friends, cheerleading, the school music group, and all the other things that concerned her. All this fighting and surviving just added even more stress to her daily living and it was already starting to wear her down. She was now shivering constantly from the cold, but she didn't really notice it.

That was until she felt something wrap around her and when she looked, she saw that it Gumball's red jacket that he brought with him.

While she had been lost in thought, Gumball thought she looked cold and decided to give his jacket to her. There was no real reason behind it, he just felt like being nice and she's also been through a lot today, so he felt bad for the paper girl. He didn't want her catching a cold and having one more thing to worry about.

Of course, his act of friendliness confused Teri and she cast a curious glance back at him,

"What's this for?" she asked.

Gumball shrugged, his face plain and uncertain,

"I dunno, you looked cold and I really don't need it right now because I'm wearing a sweater and have lots of fur." he responded, hoping that it sounded like a legitimate answer.

While Teri appreciated the gesture, her rampant germaphobia was already sending warning signs to her brain,

"Ugh! It's probably covered in your sweat and possibly dirty too. You didn't have to give it to me either!" she retorted in disgust, though she didn't take it off.

Feeling stung by her ungrateful comeback (although he did have to admit she had a point there, she didn't ask for it and he had been running around a lot in that thing.), Gumball could already feel his frustration rising to critical levels and his hand shot as he attempted to retrieve his article of clothing,

"Okay fine then! I will just be taking that back now!" he snapped back.

Before he could take his jacket, Teri's hand protectively shot out and batted his away. Surprised, Gumball looked up at her with a baffled look and some rage in his eyes, only to see her with an enraged look that rivalled his own,

"No, it's warm and you gave it to me, so you can't have it back!" she stuck her tongue out at him and clutched the jacket with one hand.

Well this was just all sorts of confusing for the blue cat and he swore to himself he would never understand how this girl's mind operated. Then again he never understood girls in general,

"What the what? You just said you didn't want it and I didn't say it was yours either, I was going to let you borrow it until we got to my house." he said, reaching for it again, only for Teri to smack his hand away once more.

"I never said that, I just said it was filthy and it's mine now, so too bad. Also, you're seriously going to let a girl go to her friend's place without a jacket, not very chivalrous if you ask me." she responded with a smug look.

Gumball was about to counter with some more yelling and probably a few insults, but he realized that she had a point and decided to drop it with a heavy sigh. He'd get it back tomorrow anyways and besides, if she thought it was warm then who was he to take it from her. He leaned back a little and continued to watch as they passed the forest boundary and entered the city proper. Teri smiled at her victory, but quickly replaced it with a frown when she remembered how Gumball was before they encountered the Nephilim in the mountains.

Looking back at him, she called out his name and his attention was focused on her,

"Um, I know this is not a subject you like to talk about a lot and I didn't want to bring it up either, but before we encountered the storm in the mountains, you looked sad about something when you said good things don't always last forever. You were thinking about Penny, right?" she asked softly, carefully studying his face.

At the mention of her name, Gumball instantly felt the stinging in his heart and his mood became drowsy and downcast. Amazingly, his depression didn't come back in full force, but it still hurt regardless. He guessed that even with everything that has been happening lately, some part of him never fully got over her and he nodded slowly without really making eye contact with Teri.

She of course knew this was the case for him, even without his response because she saw it in his downtrodden eyes and somber face when she brought it up,

"I know you really miss her and while I don't fully understand what your relationship with her was like, I do know that she meant a lot to you. When she moved away, it was really sad for all of us too, Leslie was disappointed because he wasn't going to be able to hang out with his cousin at school anymore, most of the girls on the cheerleading squad, myself included, were broken up about it because she was one of our best members and we all felt like no one could ever replace someone that wonderful, and quite a few others had their own grievances when she moved away." her voice was considerably lower and even though she still appeared collected, Gumball could tell she too was hurt by this,

"Some of us kept in contact with her, but for the most part, we just talked to each other about how we felt and things slowly began getting better after that. I know that your situation is very different, but what I want to say is, I'm not going to make you talk about your feelings regarding Penny's departure, but if you want to talk about it with someone, you can talk to me and I will listen." she offered, knowing that she couldn't take his pain away, but could only do her best by being there for him.

Feeling touched by her heartfelt confession and offering to help him with his internal struggles nearly made Gumball's heart stop and he felt a wonderful sensation deep down inside. He wasn't aware how everyone else was feeling about Penny because he was too wrapped up in his own grief to even notice and hearing it from someone who probably knew Penny far longer than he did brought him to that sudden realization. He wasn't alone in his grievance over Penny's absence and he didn't have to be either, Teri was offering to help him lift that painful burden off his shoulders and he would be completely stupid to say no after hearing all that from her.

A warm smile crept onto his kitty face and his eyes shone with a kind of gratitude that ran deep with trust and understanding,

"Thank you. I will talk about it when I'm ready and I'm sorry for blocking all you guys out when I was dealing with our break up. I didn't think that everyone was taking it as hard as I was and was completely wrapped up in how sorry I felt. I should have reached out to everyone else who knew her." he said, feeling a twinge of regret for being so selfish.

Teri's eyes widen at his apology and she immediately rushed in to clarify what she actually meant because she didn't want him to feel bad,

"No, no, no, no, I didn't mean to make you feel bad for feeling sorry for yourself. Everyone handles grief in their own way, we knew why you weren't talking to anyone and we understood that you needed a little space. I just wanted to let you know that you don't have to keep this pain to yourself and you can talk to me or anyone else really, if you need to." she spoke with a rapid fire voice and waved her arms frantically in front of her.

Gumball seemed to get the gist of what she was saying and nodded to her before uttering another thank you and looking up at the sky again. There was another period of silence between the two and Teri could see that they were closing in on Gumball's street, probably arriving in the next two minutes or so. She was about to allow the silence to continue when she thought of something to do tomorrow and she turned around to ask Gumball one more thing,

"Hey, Gumball?"

His ear twitched and he switched his gaze from the stars to her once again,

"Hmm?" was the only noise he made in response as he cocked an eyebrow.

Teri felt her heart starting to race and she stole another breath before asking,

"If you have time tomorrow, do you think you can swing by the football stadium tomorrow and watch me and the girls practice one of our routines?" she mentally screamed at her heart to slow down, seeing as she had no reason to be so nervous if he said no.

The only pause that came was when Gumball shot straight up and nodded before saying,

"Sure, no problem!" he added an eager smile for charm's sake.

" _Well that was quick!"_ she thought in surprise when he quickly responded. She at least thought that he would have something going on like workouts or something that involved prolonged physical activity,

"U-um, are you sure because if you have to train or do something far more important then you don't have to come." she stammered out, now realizing that what she asked could be seen as selfish because she actually just wanted to help take his mind off of certain things by watching her practice cheerleading. She didn't want him to feel like he had to watch her because he was obliged to do so or something like that.

However Gumball simply shook his head and kept his excited demeanor,

"Nah! I can work out in the stands while I watch besides, I wanna see what you guys are like nowadays, especially with the new girl, what was her name… Shelly?" he scratched at his chin as he tried to recall the mermaid's name.

"Um, it's Sherry." Teri corrected, feeling a slight twinge of jealousy that she couldn't quite put her thumb on when Gumball turned his attention to the eighth grader that was the recent edition to their cheer team.

Gumball thanked her for reminding him, before adding in that he already knew that and quickly ignored Teri's snappy comeback. Sighing and turning back to the path ahead, Teri could see Gumball's house coming up and she began her descent. She didn't understand why she got worked up over him sometimes, she didn't even get why certain emotions would trigger whenever Gumball would mention another girl, but at least she was going to be seeing him tomorrow and she could also bring him over to her house tomorrow night if she wanted to. She had a distinct feeling he wouldn't say no if she asked.

After dropping him off at his house, saying her goodbyes, and taking her butterfly back up in the air, Teri focused her thought on getting back to her friend's and enjoying what remained of their day off.

 _-somewhere else in Elmore, 9:13 PM-_

Rob was sure glad the drive back to Elmore was quiet and uneventful. After seeing the black storm disappear in purple flames, he and Mrs. Jotenheim felt no need to pursue the cloud on her broomsticks and the troll witch was ready to send him off with his now translated book. Before he left, he was about to ask her about Hector's dad, but she quickly cut him off by saying that she didn't want him bringing anymore Nephilim or bad news to her home and that if he ever came to her place to steal something or just as uninvited, then she will personally send him back into the void and seal him within it for all eternity. Then just as she was about to teleport him back to his car, she gave him a parchment contain the recipe and chants required to translate the runes on his own and also warned him to be careful when messing with some runes because they can sometimes cause more damage than just taking a lot of spirit energy. Before he could ask any more questions regarding the runes and what she meant, she sent him traveling back to his car in an instant and he took that as his cue to just go home with what he had.

He wasn't disappointed though, his journey up the mountain yielded him far more knowledge than he originally came for and all the questions he had now could all be answered in time. He suspected that Fjel Jotenheim could be a Nephilim, given what was mentioned about him, but Rob couldn't possibly guess why he would still be living here if the Jade emperor supposedly banished the Nephilim to wherever it is they crawl about nowadays. Then again, no one had the exact answers as to what really transpired thousands of years ago… or was there?

While Rob didn't quite remember the details of everyone who lived in Elmore, he did know for a fact that some people in this town were effectively immortal or have been around for quite awhile. As tempting as it was to seek out these individuals and have his questions answered, Rob reminded himself not to get too ambitious and focus on what he had right now. Looking down at the rune book resting in the passenger seat next to him, Rob felt a sense of joy and curiosity for all the new items he had to play with and his eagerness to get started on his greatest project yet flared up within him.

It would be several months until he could acquire the funds and the parts for such a highly ambitious project, but he was glad for the time he had now, for it was a time of study and learning and with all the Nephilim that were bound to appear in the future, it was bound to be a fun learning experience.

Speaking of the Nephilim, while he was entering the city, he received a text from Gumball asking about two Nephilim appearing within his general vicinity or if he perhaps noticed anything. Realizing he was talking about Thundero and Brahka, Rob quickly messaged back that he dealt with them and left out his visit with Mrs. Jotenheim all together. Gumball responded with a thanks along with an explanation that they had to fight four Nephilim (Rob was quite impressed that the two of them could handle such a large amount of foes on their own.) and couldn't fight the other two before wishing him a good night and presumably put his phone away.

Not feeling like bringing up their failure to honor their end of the bargain by handling the nightshift, although to be fair they were handling a lot more than they usually did and he was the other two's target so he had no choice but to defend himself and the family that lived in the mountain, Rob just let everything slide and began thinking up more effective to deal with multiple Nephilim, if such a threat were to become a constant in their future. He was thinking about creating some modified drones that could detect Nephilim right as they appeared and would immediately attack when given an order, but he was still unsure how to detect them. They didn't give off any particular signatures that would show up on conventional scanners, but they could interact with the physical world despite being just spirits. Maybe he would have to narrow down the search to specific movements?

All this thinking made him hungry and Rob realized that he hadn't eaten since noon and should probably grab dinner. He was travelling down 29th street when he spotted a nearby _Burrito Barn_ and his mouth began to salivate at the thought of a large, wet burrito with beans and rice. Luckily for him, there weren't that many people out and driving tonight, so finding a parking space wasn't too difficult. He activated the car's automatic taser system he rigged up in case someone tried breaking in and stealing some valuable assets before making his way into the Mexican themed restaurant.

Inside wafted the delightful smell of various foods being prepared by the restaurant's best chef and deskman, Larry Needlemeyer, and Rob could see about six or seven people within the restaurant itself. The place itself was rather cozy for a fast-food restaurant, with cushy booths that could seat a whole family lining the walls, lights housed in colorful, mosaic casings that gave the room a vibrant glow, and the walls were decorated with many photos of the company's owners, first building sights and foundations, various happy families, and a couple nature shots here and there. He didn't have a whole lot of money on him at the moment, so he decided to select something from the value menu.

While standing in line behind a large, purple blob man with a cowboy hat, a thick, handlebar mustache and some leather western style boots, he heard someone call out his name,

"Rob!" a feminine voice belonging to a highschooler, no doubt

Spinning around on his heels, the polygonal cyclops raised his hands defensively (a typical reaction, for he was always slightly paranoid about the potential number of people after him.) and let out a little scream before he saw who was calling him. Sitting at one of the booths by herself with a tray full of food and waving at him was Rachel Wilson. She was wearing her fluffy hair in a ponytail and she was dressed in a black T-shirt with a pink arrow streaking across the front at an angle along with a white skirt and her usual sneaks. She wasn't wearing her headband like she usually did, but that was only a minor detail Rob noticed.

She appeared really excited to see him and was waving him over to her table,

"Rob, hey! Come on and sit next to me! I got quesadilla slices!" her hyper voice and wide eyes reflected her overall excitement that she was unable to contain, a charm that Rob sometimes found irresistible, though she didn't need to know that.

Seeing no reason not to sit by her, Rob shuffled over to the booth she was in and plopped a seat right next to her,

"Wow! Fancy meeting you here! I didn't even know you liked this place or Mexican food in general?" he greeted with a smile. It was true though, throughout the entire time he knew her, she never mentioned anything about _Burrito Barn_ or anything about liking this kind of food.

The rainbow lass shrugged and dipped a quesadilla slice into some cheese dip while casually answering,

"Eh, I don't really get out much so I didn't know what I really like, but my friend, Sissy Clementine (her real name is Agathe, but we all call her Sissy.) wanted to hang out today so I skipped work and came here. She's in the bathroom right now in case you're wondering." she pointed out, chomping down onto quesadilla once she finished speaking.

While Rob was slightly disturbed at how she could blow off work and talk about it so casually, he did admit that he was happy that she was getting out and enjoying herself. He was actually really happy to have bumped into her by coincidence and decided to put off his project just to enjoy himself tonight. He picked up one of the tortilla slices with melted cheese sandwiched in between and dipped it in some of the marinara sauce,

"Oh that's really cool! Does your boss know about you flaking from work?" he asked, not wanting to sound rude, but was concerned that the manager of the gas station she worked would find out. He popped the tiny triangle dipped in tomato flavored sauce and bit down, savoring the mixed taste that swirled on his yellow tongue.

Once again she didn't seem all that concerned and the blue skinned girl just shrugged innocently,

"For all he knows, I'm sick today and don't you worry, I won't be doing this tomorrow either. I just wanted to relax and hang out with some friends." she gave him a sly smile before moving onto a question of her own,

"So what brings you all the way out here, Mr. mad scientist?" she asked, adding another one of her pet names in order to aggravate the inventive preteen.

To her disappointment, Rob did not seem agitated by her use of descriptive names and just casually responded while selecting another slice of cheesy goodness,

"Oh, I just wanted to go for a ride, you know, enjoy the outdoors for a bit. Oh speaking of which, there's a really good place out in the mountains…" he continued on with his description of the mountains and how they should travel out there sometime.

Rachel continued to listen with intrigue, but was slightly worried on how she was going to break it to Rob and her friend, that she didn't have any money to pay for the large meal she just got.

 **(A/N) Finished!** **Dear goodness that was a long chapter and I am so mentally drained right now! Either way I'm just gonna say that I'm really proud of what came out of this mess that I wrote and I'm gonna also keep the outro brief here. Don't wanna keep you guys reading for too long, I mean that's what the story is for, right?**

 **Anyway, I'm gonna be real with you guys and gals reading this, I'm still gonna keep writing these chapters and continue the story as I had planned. I love this story and I love that you guys are seriously enjoying it, but the real issue is this: when I first started uploading these chapters, I had chapters 1-3 done already and I was able to keep things going at a constant rate for awhile, but time caught up to me in the end. Most of these chapters are very long and take me a while to write and edit, usually around two or three weeks. I'm gonna keep making these chapters, but I'm gonna have to ask you guys to be a little patient, please.**

 **Trust me when I say I hate hiatuses and delays like any other red blooded human being, but I wanna produce the best I can offer.**

 **Anyway, sorry if this ending felt rushed, I wanted to get this out as quickly as possible, but I hope you guys liked this lore and action heavy chapter. Next chapter will be another fun one and I look forward to sending out chapter 7: Burning sky. I hope you guys have a fantastic day, I don't know when the next chapter will be out, but I hope it will be soon because I don't intend on that chapter being too long.**

 **Have a good day, all of you, and please leave a like or a review down below.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Burning Skies**

Teri x Gumball

 **(A/N): well how are you folks out there? Gonna be real here for a sec, I did not plan to get this far behind, but a lot of things came up and there was just very little time in between to actually get work done. There were also times where I missed out so much on writing that I felt absolutely lost when I sat down to actually write the chapter and I would just wind up rage quitting after writing several sentences. Bottom line is, I'm sorry for the delay because the moment spring break came in, I was off to different places and then there was a crap ton of other things that I had to do afterwards, causing me to fall out of sync with my writing flow.**

 **And with all that aside, we're back with the seventh chapter of the romantic/fantasy story, Teri x Gumball: In between worlds! It's a lovely day today and so that means good times for writing. I'm looking forward to bringing out some more action in this chapter along with great character moments from the colorful cast of amazing characters from this amazing show based on Gumball's amazing world.**

 **Today's chapter is going to be a tame one with some moments taking place in school following the day after Gumball, Teri, and Rob faced off against the powerful Se'arot squad and will be also focusing on some of the consequences that follow after pulling off such a feat. This chapter will also be a short one and I have high hopes that this will reach you guys soon. We will see Gumball, Teri, and Rob working together as a team in this chapter as well and a lot will be tested amongst the three.**

 **Without further ado, let's dive right in and I hope you guys enjoy this recent upload. Please leave a review and a like down below if you were satisfied or if you have something that needs to be said about my writing style or storytelling. Enjoy your day and the contents.**

 **(I do not own The Amazing World of Gumball. All rights belong to Ben Bocquelet, the staff, Cartoon Network, and other respective owners.)**

 _-Elmore Junior High chemistry lab, September 20th, 2013, 2:19 PM-_

The overcast was something to be looked upon with some value, despite the negative beliefs that most people placed upon it. With grey clouds often comes rain, and from rain some simple lifeforms will thrive. The natural blocking of the sun by this grey misty shield that so many children and adults alike look upon with ill contempt, can easily be overlooked thanks to its dreary appearance and thus, they miss the real fortune this dull weather brings and that is temporary protection from the sun's harmful rays. A grey day much like the one currently passing over Elmore should be counted on as a blessing for the brief amount comfort nature unsuspectingly brings to the lives of the ordinary.

For the even the extraordinary must yield to the laws of nature and three particular residents of this peculiar city were about to learn that today.

Far from the minds of all the students in the chemistry class being hosted by Mr. Small was the current predicament of the world just beyond the glass pane of their windows and the bricks that were their walls, as they were mostly excited for what the end of today would bring. The coming of another mandatory two day vacation drew near as the seventh grade class of sixth hour chemistry continued with their routine while occasionally filling the air with excited chatter over what they had planned for the weekend or what they did during the two day cancellation that occured prior. Everyone seemed to be in high spirits and it could be felt by every student and staff member as it was Friday and the day was almost over.

Sitting with her assigned group, Teri Pepakuma was grinning ear-to-ear while she worked on organizing the labeled containers of various chemicals and elements that were to be used during today's assignment. Mr. Small was nice enough to give the class a fun task to perform in their time during sixth hour and put everyone in groups of four with Teri being placed with Carmen, Molly, and Carrie as they were assigned to conduct various experiments using the given materials while also balancing the formulas written in their homework packets. It was an easy assignment that Teri and the three girls were happy to take part in, along with the rest of the class.

Sadly, Teri had to get copies of her old homework sheets thanks to losing her bag to a Nephilim she and Gumball fought last night known simply as Flakey Platter or Olaf, which was even more lame when you thought about it. She was scolded by her parents after she got home and had given them a made up excuse of it being nabbed by a passing truck. They went out and bought her another bag late at night after she told them what had happened before dropping her back off at Molly's place.

She wasn't too upset about it, being glad that she lost only a bag and not her life, but she was still bothered at all the things she lost within it and was more than happy when Gumball spoke to her on the bus and offered to share his textbooks and assignments so that she wasn't too far behind. Once again, this kid who she once found to be irrefutably annoying and gross surprised her with his offers to help and Teri couldn't help but favor him as a friend. He even apologized for not being too careful while scaling the walls and letting her get snatched away in the first place, but she turned down his apologies after telling him that he couldn't have known and thus wasn't his fault.

The first ten minutes of class went by steadily as the class groups continued to work with their individual tasks and exchanged words regarding what was on their mind. Teri was listening to Carmen as she told the three of them what she was looking forward to in the field trip to San Francisco that was happening on October 4th in the coming two weeks. It had been the topic of several subjects for the past few days, with Teri having heard it several times already, the most being at the picnic and the slumber party at Molly's tree house.

Despite having talked about it several times prior, the walking, sociable cactus that was her friend and leader of the EJH cheer squad was chatting about it nonstop,

"I've never been to San Francisco before! Do you think we're gonna see the golden gate bridge while we're there? I wanna visit Chinatown too and see all the cool festivities! I also hear that Alcatraz island is really scary! Do you think it's haunted, Carrie?" Carmen excitedly asked while she carefully wrote down one of the chemical formulas and did the math in her head to balance out the various elements grouped together.

Reading through her packet, the emo ghost answered the chatty girl's question nonchalantly,

"Yep." was all she said and didn't even bother looking from her pages.

She wasn't actually studying the contents, rather just staring blankly at the text-filled pages in front of her while something remained stuck on her mind.

Carmen was a big fan of traveling the world and wanted to see famous sights of different places, so seeing the golden gate bridge along with San Francisco's other main attractions was a definite must for the prickly classmate. Teri found herself to be quite indifferent when thinking about the field trip and she had a few reasons as to why she felt this way. While she did indeed enjoy taking a trip to other places, she detested cities with a passion for the many possible diseases that would no doubt be everywhere with all the various people who flocked to the place. In short, she liked seeing something new, but prefered to view new places from the comfort of her own home where it was safe and clean,

"Well if were traveling to such a place, I can only hope that we'll be sightseeing only from the bus...with the windows closed… and from a respectable ten mile radius." she muttered as she carefully sorted a few Sodium Chloride containers and kept them far away from from any sources of water.

Carmen eyed her paper friend with suspicion and spoke while continuing to finish up her written assignment,

"I'm guessing you're not much of a city person, huh?" she asked, already assuming that her fear of microbes was causing her to feel slightly anxious about the trip.

"I'm not much of a anywhere-with-tons-of-germ-carrying-people kind of person if I were to get technical." she corrected.

This surprised no one and Carrie was the next to speak up once she found that the table was silent,

"Well, it would have to top the trip to Transylvania if it is to win any memorable moments with me." the ghost girl said while leaning back on the stool she was hovering above.

Gaining the attention of the adventurous cactus, Carmen shifted her glance over to the punk rock chick and began inquiring her about her trip to Transylvania,

"Oh, I totally forgot about that! Was it fun? Were your relatives pretty cool? What do ghosts do when they hang out? Did you visit any of the castles? Were there any vampires?" Carmen continued to pile on the questions, desperate to drain the ghost girl of any information regarding her journey to Europe.

"Oooh! I hope you didn't encounter any vampires!" Molly squealed, holding her trunk-like legs to her face in fright,

"I remember this one time my grandpa told me a story about vampires, but I didn't really pick up on most of it except for the scary bits. Anyway, I had to sleep with the lights on that night and it was really bothersome at first because I couldn't get to sleep, but I didn't want to turn off the lights either because like I said, I was scared. I decided to pass the time by counting all the cracks in the ceiling, but I lost count after 10,776,992 and so i decided to count how many red colored pencils I had, which was 17, then I counted how many blue colored pencils I had, which was 51, and then I counted…" Molly Collins continued to babble on like she normally did, completely losing herself in her story while the three girls had long since tuned her out.

Flipping her hair, Carrie remained chill despite the sudden amount of attention she was gaining and she hid her grin behind her hands after propping her elbows onto the table,

"It actually was pretty cool. Turns out my dad has a really funny family and we all kind of hung around the castle and cracked jokes while also sharing some personal stories. I even learned that one of my cousins knew Edgar Allen Poe when he was alive!" she tried to keep her usual apathetic and tortured facade, but couldn't hide the actual content she was feeling and displaying for all the girls to see,

"After that, Dad and I spent the whole day traveling the city, meeting up with some old friends of his, possessing pests to sample the food, and Dad talked a lot of his travels too. It was the most talkative I've ever seen him and it gave me a better picture of what he was like when he was alive. I thought it was an amazing trip, too bad I couldn't bring any of you guys along because I totally would have." she finished, her smile even warmer as she relived the memories.

There was an explosion of questions that quickly followed Carrie's description of her vacation in Romania from all the girls around table, most of which included what were the people like? What was food like (although that one was probably best left unanswered because they did possess common pests like rats in order to get food.)? How did the people dress? And so many others that kept coming.

Knowing that she wasn't going to be able to answer them all, Carrie redirected the conversation to Molly, who had grown silent when Teri and Carmen began bombarding her with questions. She decided to congratulate her on receiving second place in the picnic contest and wanted to know how she created such a wonderful coleslaw. Carrie herself wasn't really disappointed in Darwin and herself for placing low in the contest, 9th place to be exact, because they didn't know there was going to be a contest and they did just bring two bags of chips with different seasonings,

"Yeah, Molly! Yesterday at the picnic, Darwin and I tried out your food and it was SO good! Where did you get that delicious coleslaw recipe by the way?" she leaned forward with her elbows pressed on the table.

The other girls turned to the blocky sauropod and Molly's cheeks turned a flustered pink as she nervously looked about the room,

"Oh, that's just an recipe my grandpa passed down to me." she humbly explained while putting an arm behind her long neck,

"He used to make it every time he invited his friends from his fishing club over and we'd all hang out and just watch some fishing channels while chatting with each other. I thought I'd make that since it was the only thing that I can make and because I thought it was pretty good myself." she explained, keeping it surprisingly short.

Everyone knew that Molly's parents were hard working people and were barely home most of the time, so they usually left her grandpa to watch over the quiet member of the EJH cheer squad. It was great that Molly had someone to come home to and talk to, but her elderly relative wasn't much of a conversationalist and most of the staff and students speculated that's what lead to Molly being… well, boring. She was like her parents though, a hard worker and someone they could rely on to help out. As a matter of fact, she was pretty good at remembering anything that was taught to her and she had been really helpful with the chemistry assignment today.

While the girls continued to compliment her cooking and congratulate her for getting second place in the picnic contest, the conversation quickly switched to food and what they all did before the picnic. Carmen was the first to describe what she did two days ago, which included an early morning jog that lead her to the park which sparked the idea of having a picnic there and contacted Alan about it. She and her boyfriend then met up after sending the text to everyone to start baking, but quickly discovered that they were lacking a few key ingredients for their cookies. Without any money to buy any of the items, they spent most of the day doing outdoor services for their neighbors and when they earned enough dough, they went to the store to make the dough at home.

Carmen finished her story stating that it was a lot of hard work that paid off because she had a lot of fun with Alan as well as the rest of the class. This was one thing Teri appreciated about Carmen, she was a natural leader who was quick on her feet and could think of great ways to get people together as well as a way to get out of a bind. Her dedication to whatever task she put her mind to was also inspiring for all the girls around her and that's why she was their squad leader.

Carrie then told everyone about what she and Darwin did before the picnic, seeing as she wasn't at the treehouse yesterday to describe it. Teri found it cute how she and Darwin were able to find things to do even when their personalities were at odds with one another. They basically hung out at her mansion for most of the day, although she did describe a fun adventure at the mall's arcade where Darwin bet her that he could shoot five hoops at the basketball machine in under ten seconds. It ended hilariously with one of the balls bouncing off the rim and smacking Larry in the head by accident. There was a noticeable warm expression on the emo's face while she retold the story and even her laugh was pleasant. Looks like dating Darwin for nearly half a year has softened her up a bit.

She then finished her story with Darwin and her heading to the grocery store to get the bags of chips and then the conversation was steered towards Teri, who hadn't told anyone what she and Gumball did two days ago even when she had plenty of time to do so. Teri froze up when Carrie asked her and she found herself fidgeting a little with her fingers as the three girls sitting around leaned in to hear what she had been neglecting to tell them,

"Oh, not much…" she started off casually, avoiding their eyes,

"I mean, we woke up pretty early and while I cleaned the house, Gumball made this really delicious breakfast bread and when we got the message from Alan about the picnic, his baking gave me the idea for the cake. He even let me pick which one to bake and after we started baking it, which was actually pretty fun on its own, we both went out for a pleasant walk in the indus-I mean, around the neighborhood. It was really nice, the weather was especially pleasant, and when we got home we just kind of watched some old movies in my bedroom… by ourselves." her cheeks were starting to flush in color at the memory as she enjoyed those quiet moments with him.

Molly, quite intrigued, let an _oooh!_ And placed her trunk-like hands together,

"That's so sweet! I didn't even know Gumball could bake!" Molly swooned as she turned to cast a glance at Gumball, who was partnered up with Darwin, Bobert, and Clayton at the table behind them.

Carrie crossed her arms and smiled a little,

"Huh, no kidding? I never knew either and I've been dating his brother for quite some time now." she remarked with some interest, although she caught onto her near slip up and was quite suspicious because it almost sounded like she was about to say _Industrial zone_.

Kind of like where she sensed that one disturbance on the same day.

While she pondered this, Carmen spoke up to Teri, alluding to both her and Gumball,

"So he made you breakfast while staying at _your_ place, did he? What a gentleman!" she beamed.

Teri felt her face become a few shades darker and her heart rate accelerated a bit in response to the cactus girl's positive comments,

"Well, yeah. He kind of does it because it's his way of saying thanks!" she exclaimed, hoping that she doesn't get the wrong idea about the two of them.

That was until Carrie pointed something out,

"Hmm, sounds very generous of him. Is his generosity the inspiration for your new outfit?" she asked with a mischievous grin.

Teri froze on the spot, she of course was referring to the clothing customization she did today before she was picked up by the bus. She didn't do much except use a pencil to draw on a skirt with a few ruffles added on for texture, a ribbon under her blazer's collar and she even added on black stockings by shading in her legs. She wanted to look cute for today, but what got her worried was that Carrie seemed to see right through her because she did in fact want Gumball to notice her today. She had a reason too, although she even admitted it was a little ridiculous, but it was because of Gumball's remark about Sherry yesterday that elicited this kind of change.

She knew that Gumball only mentioned her name, but when she was talking about watching herself and the others at cheerleading, something just kind of went off in her head that night. She didn't harbor any ill feelings towards their newest member, as a matter of fact, Gumball probably never even met her, but she kind of wanted to make sure that Gumball was only paying attention to her during practice. She hoped that she wasn't sounding too selfish or paranoid, but she didn't know why Gumball's attention meant a lot to her.

She hoped it wasn't because…

Her thoughts were interrupted by Molly making a noise as she began bubbling up with excitement,

"Hey, she's right! You never really wear different outfits, so this must be a special occasion for you!" she squealed, her eyes shining brightly.

"Trying to catch Gumball's eye, hmm? Giving him a little eye candy for making you breakfast." Carmen stated suggestively, which was really unlike her and it made Teri really nervous when she made that smug dog look.

Teri flinched and began waving her hands frantically in front of her face while she nervously began sweating,

"No way! I was just trying out a new look today and I thought it was cute!" she quickly said in her defense, hoping to ward off their suspicion.

However, Carmen seemed more enticed to press on and retained her smug look as she knew why Teri was acting the way she did,

"Well _he_ certainly thinks so! I believe a certain blue feline has been gawking at you for the past ten minutes now." she said with a sneaky smile.

Teri's eyes widened in surprise and her head shot around until she could see Gumball's table,

"What?!" she exclaimed as she looked to see if she could validate Carmen's claim.

At the table behind them, Gumball wasn't actually looking at her and instead was focused on a scale holding two sheets of paper on one end and a sheet of paper with a dozen paper clips on the other. He placed the final paper clip in the pile and the scales balanced out evenly,

"Done! There, Darwin! I balanced the formulas! It was really hard since the problems were on three sheets in the packet." he said with a satisfactory grin.

Darwin looked over and frowned when he saw what his brother did,

"Gumball, you were supposed to **do** the problems listed in the packet! You know, balance the equations until there is an equal number of isotopes!" he explained in a scolding tone, crossing his fins and slowly shaking his head in disappointment.

Confused, Gumball looked around the room and saw that everyone was doing as Darwin had just described to him. Growling and glaring at his torn packet papers, Gumball facepalmed at his stupidity as well as his misunderstanding of the task. He grabbed his packet and torn out pages as he sighed, got up from his stool, and stomped to the front of the class while talking to Bobert,

"Bobert, could you do the formulas, please? I need to go get a stapler." he muttered as he walked away.

"Affirmative!" the small robot replied as he looked down at the packet in front of him before activating his printing scanner and completing the problems in 4.3 seconds.

Seeing that Gumball wasn't even looking at her and that she'd been tricked, Teri felt her face burn red while her features twisted into a grumpy expression. She turned around and glared at a grinning Carmen, who was struggling to contain her laughter at this point,

"That was mean, Carmen!" she seethed, while pointing an accusing finger at her.

The prickly desert plant could no longer contain herself and burst into a fit of wheezing laughs that was quickly joined by the three other girls. If you asked which was darker in shade: a tomato or Teri's face, Teri's face would get the hotspot as she was completely embarrassed now. She felt Carmen's hand press itself on her back and Teri turned to see that she was leaning close while she finished laughing,

"Sorry, sorry, I know that wasn't very nice of me, but your eyes were so wide when I said that, not to mention how quickly you turned around to see if it was true." she said through bouts of snickers.

The paper girl reminded herself to never share whatever she does with Gumball, whether it be a sleepover or a simple walk from their lockers, ever again. When she looked at Carmen's face though, she could tell by the honest look she was giving that she was just teasing. Teri jumped when she heard Carrie speak up and turned to see her still smiling while leaning on one elbow,

"But seriously though, he's been checking you out. During third hour, while we were taking that math test, I saw him peeking up at you every so often. It was real funny because he thought he was being real sneaky about it and then there was lunch where I saw him watching you walk to our table. He had his sandwich in his hands and was frozen in mid-bite, it was great!" she chuckled.

Now Teri considered her interest peaked when she heard Carrie's observations on the boy of her interests. At first she believed that Gumball hadn't really noticed anything different about her, aside from a compliment about her outfit and how she was looking great today on the bus, but now after what the ghost had said, she did notice that Gumball was acting strange around her. Whenever they were talking, he looked like he was studying her face and was actually paying real close attention to everything she said. He even seemed really quick to offer her any help, like when he offered to lend her his books and notes for the day, but she originally thought it was him just being nice after she lost her bag yesterday.

Did her change suddenly grab his attention and get him to start noticing/treating her differently?

The idea of this made Teri feel very warm and fluttery on the inside and she wondered if she should ask him if there was anything he found attractive about her. It felt nice that he was being so kind to her today and coupled with the knowledge that she had his attention made it all the better for her. She still wasn't sure how she felt about him, it was becoming more and more confusing to her, but knowing that he seemed interested in her and was going out of his way to be nice added a significant boost to her confidence.

She looked at Carrie with fascination and scooted closer in order to hear more about what she had noticed. She kept a neutral expression to keep it from looking too obvious, of course,

"Really! What else was he doing?" she eagerly asked, using a flat tone to mask her interest.

"Mmm, not much else from what I've noticed." Carrie said, turning her head slightly in the other direction as she glanced at the preteen, bipedal cat standing at Mr. Small's desk while discussing why he needed a stapler.

Feeling her head lower a bit, Teri looked in the direction the ghost girl was looking at and watched as Gumball seemingly grew frustrated with Mr. Small's lack of cooperation, it seemed as though the fluffy haired hippie was only interested in giving Gumball advice in the importance of understanding. She quickly looked away when Gumball turned his head in her direction and pretended that she was working on her packet.

She heard Carmen whisper close to her while her attention was on the assignment in sitting on the table,

"Well it's nice that he's got a thing for you, even though he seems a little shy about it, but what about you? Do you like him back?"

Not sure how to answer that, she felt her fingers tighten around her pencil as she paused and tried to think up an answer. She did like him for all the help he gave her and for all the nice things he's done in the past month, but she still thought of him as a close friend and despite how great they were together, he still drove her insane with his unclean lifestyle and his occasional wisecracks towards her knack for being neat and tidy. That still didn't explain why she chose to dress up differently in order to gain his attention, plus all the little odd moments that happened before when they did things that didn't seem… normal for two friends to do.

She decided to evade the question by redirecting it somewhere else,

"Um, do you understand the question on page fourteen? I can't get heads or tails of it and it's really bugging me?" she asked, furrowing her thin eyebrows as she tapped the page with her pencil's eraser.

Carmen was no fool and was able to catch on to what the flat member of her cheer squad was doing. It was funny because by dodging the question, Teri kind of answered it for her and that was something she found to be quite interesting. She pondered whether or not she should set up some kind of date for the two, but pushed those thoughts aside for now because helping her classmates was the number one priority,

"Okay then." she answered with a shrug, secretly letting her know that she knew what was up, before leaning over and inspecting the page Teri was stuck on,

"What problem are you stuck on?" she asked.

"Um, number four, I can't find the right number for this half of the formula." she pointed out, obviously stumped.

While Carmen went over the problem with her, Teri overheard Molly and Carrie talking about someone and when he perked her round ears up, she found that they were talking about Hector Jotenheim, the friendly giant and star athlete of the Elmore ducks. From what she could hear, it turns out Hector was acting kind of unusual this morning, but in a positive way. It would appear that Hector was far more chatty this morning and was even asking friends if they wanted to hang out with him in the park. It certainly got Molly's attention and the normally shy school girl was talking nonstop about him to the floating spirit.

Not sure what was up with that, Teri was well aware of the bizarre changes happening around the school and wondered what could have been the catalyst to these strange things.

While she remained lost in thought, Gumball finally managed to get a stapler from the less-than-helpful school counselor who was substituting for Mr. Corneille and proceeded back to his table. He passed by Teri's group and stole a glance at the paper bear before quickly twisting his head back towards the direction of his current destination. He knew he's been doing that a lot as of lately, but he couldn't help it! Ever since this morning, when he got on the bus (he was in a grumpy mood because he was scolded by his mom last night for being out for over two hours and returning with a mark on his face and chest, torn clothes and his bow and arrows missing along with his jacket.) he headed straight over to Teri's spot and when he saw her sitting there in her new outfit, he was completely blown away! Not only was it a little different than when he'd normally see her, but she looked absolutely adorable! Well, he always thought she looked cute, but today took it to a whole new level.

He spoke with her the whole time on the bus and when he heard that she got in trouble for losing her bag and all her school work in it, he immediately offered to let her borrow his and even apologized for her losing it. While she told him it was alright and she was thankful for him helping her out, his focus was mostly on her face and he kept on noticing little things that otherwise passed completely under his radar. He noticed how her eyes would light up whenever something interesting came to her mind, how her little black nose would wrinkle up a bit whenever she mentioned something that disgusted her and how her round ears would twitch whenever he said something. He even noticed that she would lean in real close at times while he spoke and seemed completely engaged in whatever topic they were talking about.

The observations didn't stop there either. After they got off the bus and went to their lockers, Gumball would often carefully watch her while she walked in the hallways and noted how she moved. He tried to hide his conspicuous behavior as cleverly as he could, feeling kind of awkward for staring too long because he didn't want anyone to think he was being weird or creepy even. Every chance that presented itself, the blue cat would quickly look over at the paper girl and every time he spotted her, he always noticed something he liked. For example, she had a little bounce to her step whenever she was hurrying somewhere and her hands would often flare up a little when she skirted around people, so dainty looking!

While the male kitten was aware of what he was doing, he didn't know why it was like this all of the sudden and it was also causing slight changes in how he behaved. For one, he was now very energetic and full of positive feelings, even getting his butt kicked in dodgeball today barely phased him. He was also constantly thinking of Teri, even when he felt as though he should be paying attention to other things, like studying.

Joining up with his brother, the amorphous ball of clay, and the stout little robot, the feline began stapling his papers back together while he engaged his brother in a casual conversation,

"So why is Mr. Small teaching class today? I mean, not that I mind him, but his negotiation skills would land the U.S. in a nuclear war with Canada if they ever hired him as an ambassador." Gumball asked snidely while using his zinger as a means of displaying his discontent towards the pony-tailed, tea enthusiast.

Darwin carefully poured a green liquid from a beaker into a container filled with a mysterious blue one that Clayton was holding while he answered Gumball's question,

"Mr. Corneille was injured last night when he went to the _Burrito Barn_ for dinner. From what I heard, three kids were arguing over who had to pay for the meal and when he went to absolve the situation, a girl with fluffy, colorful hair stabbed him in the thigh with a fork. He's taking the day off right now." he explained as though it were common knowledge.

"Yeah! There were a lot of cops that showed up, the S.W.A.T. team too! They tried chasing them down, but the three managed outwit and outrun them using parkour!" Clayton exclaimed, wanting in on the conversation.

Darwin shook his head and quickly disproved the red ball of clay's over exaggerated version of what happened,

"I think what Clayton meant to say was, Doughnut Sheriff showed up, but the three troublemakers already fled and none of the officers have found them yet." he revised much to Clayton's chagrin.

Before Clayton could object, both he and Darwin realized that they added too much of the chemical mix into the beaker Clayton was holding, which was starting to bubble and spark. Freaking out, Clayton first tossed it to Darwin, who also panicked and passed the reactive substance to Gumball, who let out a little scream before turning to Bobert, popping open a hatch on his side, tossing the now-burning and popping beaker in and slamming the door shut. There was a muffled _Boom!_ that followed shortly after and Bobert's interiors were lit up by the bright explosion. The chemical explosion had very little effect on the robot as it only caused him to shake a little, his big head bobbing back and forth, his single optical lense glitched out for a moment and smoke drifted out from the seams of his artificial body.

The droid then let out a mechanical sound that sounded like a laugh and he raised a claw to the two lights that lit up whenever he spoke,

"That tickled!" he said with an electronic giggle.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Gumball sat back down and turned once more in Darwin's direction,

"But seriously, who would use a fork and also, why would someone have a fork on them? I don't remember _Burrito Barn_ ever handing out silverware with their food, although it would have been helpful that one time when dad decided get breakfast through the drive through while dropping me off at school." Gumball sighed, remembering the one time he woke up late for school, forcing his dad to drive him in and to stop by the fast food restaurant for breakfast. They did and when Gumball tried eating his taco on the road to school, his dad stomped on the brakes when he noticed a yellow light causing Gumball to wear his food instead. He was still a bit salty about that incident and he resolved to never eat hand-held food in a moving vehicle ever again.

Darwin began getting another set of glass containers in order to repeat their failed experiment, hopefully with less distractions this time. He set the glass down and looked at Gumball before shrugging,

"I don't know? Silverware is a good weapon, I guess. Remember Sal Left Thumb? He used a spoon to rob a gas station during Mrs. mom's birthday." he said, recalling their one adventure at the gas station where they accidentally nearly helped the criminal rob the place. The result was the criminal was captured, but so was Nicole and they had to sing her happy birthday outside of a jail cell.

Gumball was about to object, but held his tongue when he thought about it and saw that he did have a point. After all, his scythe was his most effective weapon and it was basically an overpowered farming tool, if one were to look at it in such a way. Come to think of it, it was really scary how so many mundane objects could be used to hurt others and Gumball felt a shiver run down his spine as he thought of various things.

After Darwin and Clayton began mixing some more chemicals, Gumball started copying off of Bobert's worksheet and out of the corner of his eye he saw Tobias' table. Peeking over, he could see that he was working with Tina, Jamie, and Anton, the slice of toast that often hung around the two mean girls as their lackey, a role which he was forced into. Tobias seemed to be doing fine with Tina, as he was helping her participate by having her hold one of the beakers over a Bunsen burner with a pair of tongs while he kept an eye on the boiling liquid. Gumball was really glad to see that the two were getting along well, especially after what happened two days ago at the picnic, though that was mostly Jamie's fault.

He was about to say something to Darwin, when he turned and saw that the walking fish finished the chemical experiment and had pulled out his phone to text with someone. Curious as to who it was, Gumball looked over his shoulder and saw that Carrie had sent him a love text. Darwin then looked up at Carrie with a smile written on his face while Carrie was glancing back with a similar expression. Darwin blew her a kiss and the ghost girl caught it before placing it against her lips.

The two then went back to work and when Darwin had his attention elsewhere, he noticed Gumball was smiling at him after their cute display of affection,

"So where are you two going to hang out today?" he asked while wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Not being one to hide his activities due to embarrassment, Darwin happily explained to him the after school activity he and his girlfriend had planned,

"Not much. She wants to head on down to the football stadium because she's got some poems she wants me to read." his said.

Gumball snickered a little and placed both hands on his cheeks as he spoke in his cutesy voice,

"Awww! Someone's girlfriend has a lot of love poems she wants to share, but is too shy to let anyone else hear!" he said teasingly.

In response to this, Darwin kept his smile, but raised an eyebrow towards his older brother while folding his fins across his chest,

"For one, they're not love poems, they're _her_ poems and also, at least I'm not hanging out there to gawk at a certain well-dressed cheerleader." he replied with a knowing aire to his voice.

His mouth dropping in shock, Gumball wondered how Darwin knew about what he and Teri were planning on doing after school. He was certain he didn't tell anyone else about their plans and the discussion happened last night,

"Actually you guys talked about it on the bus and I think the whole class heard you two." he said, answering his unspoken question.

Feeling like taking the conversation somewhere else, Gumball decided to talk about weekend plans,

"Whatever. What do you want to do for the weekend? I hear the weather's going to be lousy." he asked, taking a gander at the sky outside the window which still looked grey.

Darwin paused to think about something that would sound great for the both of them and turned to his older family member with a thoughtful expression,

"How about tomorrow we invite Tobias and Ocho over to play that new _Ring_ game that came out recently? Seeing as Anais will be at Macey's house this weekend, Mrs. mom and Mr. dad are going out on Saturday to have lunch with the Yoshidas and the weather isn't going to be cooperative either. Sound good?" he scanned his brother's face while he awaited his answer.

Gumball nervously looked over at Ocho, who was working with Leslie, Masami, and Banana Joe, and began to sweat bullets when he saw the short tempered spider sprite begin to lose his marbles while focusing on the equations. Even though he learned his lesson about losing his cool on Tuesday, he still seemed to have anger issues that Gumball was just not willing to trust. At least Bobert seemed cool about the whole "incident" that cost the school several thousand dollars worth of repairs. It made Gumball wonder what they were going to cut out of the budget.

Pulling his attention away from the kid, Gumball looked back at Darwin with concern written all over his face,

"Uuummmm, yeeeeah… is it alright if we leave Ocho out of the invitation? I mean, I know he can sometimes be a chill dude to hang out with, but he can be a bit of a sore loser when it comes to games, not to sound too blunt in case you're worried." he mentioned with a quick sideways glance back at the table with the troublesome kid.

Darwin seemed to get his point as he leaned over to stare at Ocho and a tiny frown could be seen on his chubby face before he pulled back and looked at the blue cat,

"Oh, right… yeah, um, I'll just see if I can invite someone else since the game is better with four players." he said quickly and with a lowered voice, in case Ocho was listening.

"Oh can I come then?" Clayton asked, having been listening in on the conversation,

"I'm pretty good at first person shooters and I've already played the first two games." he further explained, already smiling.

Before Gumball and Darwin could offer their opinion on the matter, Bobert spoke up shortly after Clayton finished,

"If it is no trouble, would you mind if I joined the four of you on your weekend activities?" the robot asked, shifting its head to the side curiously.

Rubbing his chin, Gumball eyed Bobert suspiciously and pointed at him in a non-accusing manner,

"Okay, but do you have an 'easy' setting? Because we kind of want to have a fair match and would appreciate it if you didn't spend the entire the game blowing us up within every blink of an eye." he glared at him with slight distrust.

Bobert simply nodded his head, his servos whirring, and his eye closed in a positively expressive fashion,

"Affirmative!"

Seeing as it was difficult for a robot to lie, Gumball took his word for it and began recording his observations on the chemical reaction that Clayton and Darwin had completed. While Gumball was silent and concentrating, Darwin explained to Clayton and Bobert that with Tobias possibly coming over, one of them was going to have to sit out a match or two. Being the good guy that he is, the walking goldfish volunteered to sit the first few matches out so that the other guys could have fun.

He then nudged Gumball with an elbow and whispered to him,

"And also, if you feel the need to go outside, try to avoid any bikers and angry crows!" he then went back to conversing with their two lab partners after Gumball nodded in agreement with a grumpy face.

Last night, after he was dropped off by Teri, he got quite the surprise when he found his mom waiting for him in the living room and with an angry glare that could set fire to an entire forest. She was quite furious at him for being out late in the evening and for making he rest of them worry, especially since he was acting so strange. He quickly spun up a lie saying that he actually went out to go scare away a crow that had been pestering a few kids near the park and on his way back, a biker came out of nowhere and ran him over. He also lost his jacket after a truck passed by and snagged it with its mirror. Regardless, his mom was fed up with him and made him do his chores without being paid his allowance.

Obviously, he was upset from last night's events and he told his siblings about what happened: turns out they too were pretty ticked at him for causing them unnecessary stress.

He promised Darwin that he would try to be more careful in the future and went back to slouching in front of his papers. Speaking of paper, he looked back up once again and saw Teri talking to Carmen and Molly about something. He found his grumpy expression quickly fading and was replaced with a happy smile along with bright eyes. He thought about how many times she saved him last night and how she was so capable even in the face of danger. He couldn't wait for school to end because he wanted to ask her if she wouldn't mind letting him stay at her place again and perhaps train together. That and the fact that he just wanted to hang out with her some more because she made him happy.

His mind then began to wander off to the weekend and he wondered if there was something special they could do, like, maybe after Saturday they could swing by the Elmore Pizza restaurant or something?

While Gumball continued to list off possible places he and his paper classmate could hang out at, Tobias and Tina were carefully carrying out with Mr. Small's experiment at the table next to the young feline's. Using her short, but strong forearms to carefully hold the tongs gripping the glass vial containing a pink, bubbly liquid, Tina carefully watched as Tobias held a small cube of Magnesium with his own pair of tongs as he prepared to drop it in. Very unsure as to what could possibly happen, Tobias checked back with Anton to see if they were doing the experiment right,

"Um, did the instructions mention anything about the liquid being pink? I don't wanna accidentally set off an explosion or create a portal to the center of the sun by putting this in." he looked back at the animate slice of bread and then at the vial in the T-rex's claws,

"By the way, thanks for helping us out Tina! You've been doing a real good job!" he complimented.

Tina looked side to side for a moment with uncertainty before setting the beaker down,

"Um, thanks, but I don't feel like I've really done anything except hold this bottle for you guys." she answered disheartedly.

Tobias shook a little in his seat and nervously glanced around at the two other kids at the table. Before they began the experiment, Tina made a comment regarding her distaste in lab experiments and class projects,

" _I always wind up breaking things because I'm either too strong or I can't see what I'm holding because my arms are too small." she snarled, waving her tiny talons to emphasize her point._

He felt bad for her, so as a friend he tried to find a way for her to participate in the class assignment without causing too much trouble for herself and those around her. Unfortunately, the only solution he had for the prehistoric lizard was to hold any of the items they'd be using and after doing that for about fifteen minutes now, Tobias could understand why she didn't feel like she was doing much in terms of contributing to the group as a whole. Scratching his head, the fluffy, colorful student tried to figure out if there was anything else their cumbersome classmate could do that would help her feel better.

Looking at the Magnesium in his hand and the chemicals within hers, Tobias got an idea,

"Okay, um, if you want, you can drop the Magnesium in the beaker once Anton is done figuring out whether we did it right or not. That okay with you?" he asked.

With her claws free now, Tina scratched her neck and wondered if that was something she'd feel would help her feel more, well, helpful. She quickly came to the decision that it was better than sitting there while carefully holding a glass beaker full of a potentially dangerous substance. She turned her enormous head in the rainbow lad's direction and shrugged,

"Sure, I guess that wouldn't be too bad. You're gonna have to tell me when to drop it though since, well, you know…" she replied in her low, growly voice that still made Tobias nervous.

Feeling relieved, Tobias swapped out their items and looked over his shoulder at Anton, who was sitting on his other side along with Jamie, and spoke to him,

"Yo, Anton! My man! My hard working breadwinner! Did you check that worksheet to see if we're doing this right?" he asked, holding the glass container underneath the cube of reactive metal that Tina now held.

The burnt slice of toast that had been doing everything from balancing the formulas and reading off the instructions flipped through the packet and carefully read through the procedures for the experiment. He hadn't come up with anything yet and to be frank, he was starting to get a little stressed out. Not only did he not want to be paired up with this group, but after doing all the thinking for them, he was starting to detest the thick-skulled members of his team's over reliance on him. What made this worse was that even with the inclusion of Tobias in their circle, he was still treated poorly and it was starting to drive him mad.

With the sound of an annoyed grunt escaping him, the victimized lackey of the bully trio continued to read through the page he was on,

"Just a minute! I'll let you know when I find something, geesh!" he muttered, narrowing his tiny black eyes as he concentrated.

Tobias noticed the irritation in the living slice of toast and wondered what was up with him. He was usually a very nice and often chill dude whenever they talked. He didn't dwell on it for too long, having felt that it had to be something else that didn't have anything to do with him.

Before his mind could wander to other matters, a small, green, meaty hand grabbed the tong holding the magnesium and yanked it out of his grasp. He yelled in protest when he saw that it was none other than Jamie who had done the act and he watched as she tossed the item in the garbage bin resting in the corner of the classroom. Well, that was a waste of Magnesium and a good pair of grabbers too.

The multicolored fluffball set his angry gaze on the tomboy friend of Tina's and threw his hands in the air as he shouted,

"What gives, man! You can't just go throwing stuff like that into the trash, at least not until class is over!" he hopped off his stool now in order to stand in front of her.

The orange haired bully just bared her sharp teeth at the jock wannabe and began reaching into the backpack she carried with her,

"Who the heck cares about that boring stuff! Why don't we actually do something interesting for once!" she growled, pulling something out of her bag after she finished giving Tobias the stink eye.

Peering at the thing Jamie held in her mitt, Tobias felt his body jump back in disgust at whatever it was he just saw. His whole body shuddered and he could feel his lunch starting to come back up as a wave of nausea crashed over him. Whatever it was, it had the most repugnant stench and looked like something that was left in the sun for too long before being scraped off the side of the road.

Holding his nose and continuing to back away, he held up a shaky finger and pointed at the slimy thing Jamie had brought with her,

"Wha- what is that!" he shouted in utter disgust.

Jamie took a moment to study the odd material in her hand before looking back up at him and shrugging,

"I don't know? I found it and scraped it off the side of the road, looks like it's been in the sun for too long." she explained, her voice calm as though what she was holding was a mere animal. Then again, that's probably what it _was_ before it became the equivalent of Cthulu's sponge.

She grabbed the vial of pink liquid from Tina, who didn't stop her and even looked rather intrigued by what she was doing, and held the gross thing in her open palm. Tobias, realizing what she was about to do, felt his eyes widen in horror and he began frantically waving his arms in order to cease her unholy activity,

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! You can't just add strange chemicals to strange things you found on the side of the road! Have you seen any horror movies whatsoever?!" he desperately shouted, now starting to draw the attention of the other classmates.

Unfortunately, all of Tobias efforts to reason with the horn headed individual were in vain, as she continued to tilt the glass container towards the… whatever it was, with an insane smile on her face,

"Yeah, I've seen a lot of horror movies! They're fun to watch!" she arrogantly stated as she tipped the beaker and a single pink drop landed on the slimy, dirt and fur covered mass.

The instant the concoction formed by both Tina and Tobias touched the ball of distungingness, a hissing sound could be heard coming from the thing and a little bit of movement as well. Soon, the object that Jamie had discovered, which was very alive at this point, leapt off her hand and onto the floor where it landed with a _Splat!_ It began to writhe and twist, causing the kids surrounding it to back away and watch in horror as it began to change.

The disgusting object quickly transformed into something akin to a cosmological horror from the works of H. P. Lovecraft, growing tremendously in size until it reached the height and width of a large grizzly bear. All over its formless body, oozing welts and boils formed on the surface of the monsters green, brown and pink skin and from the lower section many beatle-like legs began protruding, allowing the monster to stand at a greater height. In the center of the quivering mass, an eye opened up, with a green sclera and three pupils that frantically scanned the room it found itself in, unsure what to make of the bizarre, alien world it was born into.

When the thing reached its full size and began scanning the room, the entire class was dead silent: no one moved or breathed. The entire class just stared at the horrific monstrosity that Jamie created and processed the various thoughts that conveyed terror, confusion, and disgust for the vileness that sprung to life before them. The silence was shattered when Mr. Small let out a high pitched (and surprisingly feminine?) scream before bolting out the door and disappearing into the hallway, all the while still screaming.

Most of the students followed suit and began letting out their own shrill screams of fright directed at the living embodiment of chaos. This was countered by a sharp roar produced by the ungodly mass, causing the windows in the classroom to crack and eventually shatter. After covering their ears or respective sound gathering spots, most of the frightened children decided that was their cue to leave and hastily made their way to the door, bumping and shoving into one another as they mobbed up around the classroom's only entrance. Unfortunately, in their rapid and frenzied attempt to leave the class, the majority of the kids had managed to clog up the doorway and was preventing anyone from leaving.

"Get out of my way! I'm too pretty to die!" Leslie shouted, his leaves pushing desperately at Sarah, who had gotten stuck in the doorway along with Tobias, who had managed to somehow get in front of the crowd before they reached door.

"Get back! We can't all fit through the door! OUCH!" the obsessive ice cream girl shouted as Masami slammed into her from behind.

Behind the entire mob, only a few students remained: Darwin, who was frozen in terror, Gumball, who was desperately looking around for something to defend himself with (he left his bag along with his scythe in his locker before he went to class.), Teri, who was also scared and frozen at the repulsive sight of the monster, she immediately began to feel her skin crawl at sight of all those puss covered sores, and lastly, Carrie, who was actually not that scared of the living nightmare standing before them,

" _I've seen worse."_ she thought to herself, not even batting an eye when she looked at whatever that thing was.

The disgusting chemical monster had undergone another transformation, this time growing several dozen, wiry, hair-like tentacles from the top of its 'body' that spread out like wiggling worms. Carrie watched as one of the monster's pupils zeroed in on Darwin and three tentacles shot towards him. The poor fish was so shocked that his feet remained planted on the ground and he could only watch hopelessly as the creature's appendages came closer.

"NO!" Carrie shouted and leapt towards the person whom she loved.

Before the abomination's arms could reach Darwin, Carrie reached him first and quickly entered his mouth. Within an instant, Darwin's paralyzed body was under Carrie's control and the ghost possessed fish boy quickly leapt out of the way just as the hair-like tentacles reached the spot they were just at. While moving through the air, Carrie spotted the broken window shards lying on the ground and used her Telekinesis to pick up several sharp pieces of glass to hurl at the monster. The window fragments were sent sailing through the air by Carrie's invisible force and embedded themselves within the creature's hide.

The monster wailed in agony and in a surge of fury, sent more tentacles after the one that caused this newborn serious pain of which it had never felt in it's brief existence. Its attack was halted when a broom was shoved into its multi-pupiled eye and it let out another agonized scream from some unknown sound organ. The wielder of said broomstick, was none other than Gumball, who had found the common cleaning device leaning against the wall and was now using it ward off the beast while the other students escaped,

" _It's not a scythe, but it'll do."_ he thought calmly to himself.

His calm was shattered when the chemistry lab monster had already begun its counterattack and was wrapping many wiry arms around the broom that was wedged into its single eye and around the arms that held said broom. Gumball realized that he was in trouble when he found that despite how frail the tentacles looked, were actually incredibly strong and kept his arms secured in one place. Screaming once, Gumball desperately began kicking at the abomination's ugly body as it began to lift him up in the air. He didn't know what it was going to do, but seeing as it was clearly ticked, Gumball could only guess that there may be a strong possibility that he was going to be strewn all over the lab.

Carrie, still possessing Darwin's body, saw the event happening and moved to free her friend and her boyfriend's brother. Lifting the glass shards once more with psychic energy, Carrie levitated the sharp objects until they were aiming at the appendages holding Gumball hostage. With a flick of her wrist, Carrie sent the second wave of broken glass forward and easily severed the multiple strands that were wrapped around Gumball's arms and broom. Gumball dropped to the floor and landed on his two feet, quickly backing away from the now enraged monster that was lacking in a few limbs.

Angered at Carrie's attack, the lovecraftian-inspired horror tried a new strategy: quickly using its beatle-like legs to skitter on top of one of the tables, knocking over various beakers and papers as it did so, it wrapped all its remaining tentacles together into one, very strong limb and whipped it out at the defensive blue cat. Gumball grunted as he raised the broom to meet the oncoming limb, but was easily knocked aside by the powerful force of all the creature's combined tentacles. He slid across the floor and felt his head slam into one of the tables, causing his cranium to surge with immense, burning pain and for bright spots to appear in his vision.

" _Well this is going just peachy!"_ Gumball's inner voice rang out in sarcasm as he groaned and slowly got back up while rubbing the back of his head. He could still hear the students desperate shouts and quickly came to the conclusion that they were still caught in the exit,

"Ugh!" he muttered in frustration, knowing he was going to have to take more punishment in order to defend these people.

When he got up, he noticed that was someone was standing next to him and when he looked to see who it was, he saw that Teri hadn't moved from her spot and was keeping an eye on the monster. Gumball was about to ask her what was wrong, but decided that wasn't the right question to ask. Placing a paw on her shoulder and getting her attention, Gumball pointed his broom at the creature standing atop of Tobias' table,

"You wouldn't happen to have a blanket sized sheet of paper on you? Cause I kind of left my scythe in my locker and Shaggorith's head lice there is a bit too strong for me." he asked.

Teri looked at him as though he had lost his mind and pointed at the thing he was pointing at,

"No and that thing is not a Nephilim, Gumball! Let's just get out of here and call the cops, or the national guard or maybe the exterminator?" she stated, not quite sure who to call in this situation.

They didn't have much of a chance to take action as the deformed creation of Jamie quickly zeroed in on them and was already lunging in for another attack. Seeing this, Gumball quickly got in front of Teri and thrusted the broom like a spear into the creature's eye again. This time the broom went in deeper and the monster's eye caved in entirely. Another ear splitting roar echoed throughout the class, breaking even more glass within the room and several of the windows in the neighboring classes.

While the broom wielding student was keeping the oozing slime ball at bay (although Gumball was worried because it wasn't going to be long until it went bezerk again.), Teri looked on the table behind her for something useful and only found a spray bottle of disinfectant. Running out of time and ideas, Teri grabbed her anti-bacterial spray and pointed the nozzle at the attacking monster. Meanwhile, Carrie had taken to throwing more things at the monster: books, stools, bunsen burners and even more glass, all of which just bounced off or got embedded into the monster's smelly hide.

"GO AWAY!" Teri shrieked as she pulled the trigger on the spray gun.

The cleaning agent shot forth from the container's nozzle like a fountain and a mist of smelly, clear liquid made its way towards the disgusting lab monster. The chemical detergent belonging to the germaphobe reached the monster's blistering skin and caused quite a reaction. From where the spray had struck, more boils began to appear and expand at a rapid rate before traveling through the body of the horrific entity, eliciting another pained howl as it began to expand far larger than its body would allow.

Sensing the incoming danger from the swelling creature, Gumball let go of the broom and and turned to Teri with a frightened look in his eyes,

"Teri, fold yourself up!" he barked, quickly glancing over his shoulder and seeing that the monster was now twice its original size.

Teri did as she was told and folded her flexible paper body until it was the size of a regular sheet of paper. She still had her face on the front and she watched as Gumball scooped her up before running straight for the corner. Clutching the paper girl close to his chest, Gumball made sure his back was facing towards the dying monster and he ducked down in the corner of the room, hugging Teri tightly with his eyes closed.

BOOM! SPLAT!

The monster's allergic reaction to the disinfectant caused its body to swell well beyond the skin's integrity and pop like a grape, spilling its guts everywhere. The green-brown slime covered most of the floor, tables, stools, students, and even managed to get outside through the broken window. If one were to walk in right now, it would have looked like the worlds biggest balloon full of trash exploded with the epicenter being Tobias' table.

Gumball's entire backside was covered in the rancid goo that was everywhere now, but at least none of it got on his front half and, most importantly, Teri. Once a moment or two had passed, Gumball slowly got up, still holding onto the folded paper bear, and had a look around the room. Seeing the mess that was everywhere, Gumball's eyes widened and he flinched a little once he realized that this was going to take a while to clean up. Also there were broken windows and broken lab equipment to deal with. Poor Rocky, Gumball hoped he would get paid extra for having to deal with all of this, seeing as that's what he usually did when these kind of things happened.

Checking on the girl in his hands, Gumball looked down and saw that she was trying to see what was going on,

"You okay?" he asked, holding her up until she was at eye level with him.

"Yeah… this is quite a mess!" she replied slowly, finally getting a good glimpse of the room.

Gumball looked around once again and realized that there was no place where Teri could stand without getting some of the slime on her. He knew it probably wouldn't hurt her if it did, but he knew she wouldn't like the idea of getting monster slime on her feet and then there was the fact that he didn't like seeing her get upset. Okay, he did annoy her time after time, but that was different. Checking around for a way out, Gumball realized that the best way to go would probably be out the window.

With his mind made up, Gumball began making his way towards the portal that lead to the outside, where it didn't reek of garbage,

"I'm gonna take you outside and around the school building that way you can go to your next class without having to step in all of this stuff." he said, still holding her up so she could see his face.

Teri's eyes widened a bit and a smile formed on her little bear face,

"Really! Thank you so much!" she replied pleasantly before her face warped into an apologetic one,

"Sorry for the mess, by the way, I didn't know it would explode when I sprayed it and you're probably going to have to take a shower afterwards." she said regretfully.

Seeing the regretful look on her face, Gumball was quick to brush the incident off as nothing and gave her a hearty chuckle,

"Don't worry about it, I'm used to big messes like this." he said, showing a big toothy grin afterwards.

He reached the wall with the window and placed Teri within his pocket in order to grab the window sill with both of his paws. While he hauled himself up to the edge (he was really glad Carrie hurled all the stray shards at the monster because the window was completely clear of any glass.) Teri muttered something while in his pant pocket,

"Why does that not surprise me." she was replying to his earlier statement of course.

She didn't really like being put in Gumball's pant pocket, it was really hot and the fabric was itchy against her skin. The worst fact was that she didn't even know what he kept in his pocket and whether or not it was something very gross. She could feel something though and if she weren't mistaken, it felt like a pair of sticky notes. She wondered what those were doing in there, but didn't stress about and was glad that she would be out soon without getting messy.

After managing to clear the window, Gumball dropped to the ground and pulled Teri out of his pocket. Unfolding herself until she stood at full height, she waved at Gumball and began to head towards the front of the building,

"Thank you, Gumball! I will see you when I get back from my locker!" she called to him.

Gumball waved back and began heading towards one of the doors that lead into the school,

"No problem! I'm going to go to my locker and then the shower room straight after. I guess I'll be seeing you at our next class!" he shouted back to her.

The two continued to go their separate paths and searched for some entrance that would lead them to their desired areas. Both of them were thinking pleasant thoughts as they walked alone and in silence. Before they went inside though, both of the kids saw a bright flash of green light within the clouds above before it quickly faded and was followed by a sound like thunder.

" _That can't be good!"_ they both thought before going on their merry way.

 _-Forest just outside of Elmore, 2:35 PM-_

Rob slapped at his neck, squishing the mosquito that had landed there in hopes of finding food and he wiped the dead bug's carcass on a nearby log. Rob knew there was no blood in his body for the annoying pests to feast on, but of course they didn't know that and that's what made them so infuriating. He really hated the forest and most of the things within it.

He found himself out here once again in a camp set up just two miles Northeast of Elmore with a camouflage tarp hanging overhead, two laptops sitting on a portable table with one of them hooked up to a rune printing machine he pulled out of his RPCG last night and the other hooked up to his other weapon _Cuatro Oblivion_ , which was outfitted with a modified camera that was pointing at the sky along with the weapon. He had been napping not too long ago when he dreamed of a Nephilim appearing over the city and hovering within the cloud cover. Packing his mobile campsite along with his other equipment, he set out to snipe the sky entity from an elevated position out in the forest as well as field test some of the new runes he uploaded onto his computer.

Unfortunately, his sniping attempt was met with failure as he quickly discovered after firing a modified projectile, the object was shielded with a barrier much like the one Toxic Pill used in the battle of the desert. Things seemed to take a turn for the worst when he actually got a better visual with the modified camera he completed last night while uploading all the new symbols as well as wiping all the security footage from last night's "accident" at _Burrito Barn_. leaning forward to better study the image his camera was capturing, Rob's single eye widened in shock when he saw a smaller object detaching from the bigger object and descending towards Elmore.

"That's not good." Rob muttered to himself as his fingers leapt across the keyboard, enlarging the image to get a better look.

Once he got a good look at the being that was rapidly approaching the city, he quickly calculated its trajectory with a pen and notepad he brought with him before snapping up his cellphone. He tapped the message list and began filling out a message to Gumball. His forehead was full perspiration as his eye darted from the cellphone to the image on the laptop repeatedly. He finished writing and sent the message with a tap of his thumb,

" _Time to call in the cavalry."_ he thought to himself before turning back to his computer to begin the engraving process for his weapon.

 _-Shower room, 2:40 PM-_

Stepping out of the shower with a towel wrapped around his waist, Gumball walked over to the small locker containing the bag he had retrieved from his other locker which contained another set of clothes he accidentally pack with him for gym while completely forgetting that he already had a pair of gym clothes in their already. Way to turn an accident into a wonderful opportunity seeing as he now had a clean pair of clothes that didn't smell like sweat or wasn't drenched in monster slime. Pulling his bag out and unzipping it, Gumball thought about how he was very lucky to have survived yet another close call with a monster, albeit this one wasn't like the ones he, Teri, and Rob fought on a daily basis.

While he got changed, another person standing beside him also wrapped in a towel cleared his throat while he waited for Gumball to finish with what he was doing,

"So when exactly did you become a broom wielding superhero who fought giant blobs that spawn in chemistry class?" the person asking was none other than Darwin of course, who had managed to escape being slimed when Carrie forced his body to leap out the window at the last moment.

He had to take a shower as well because Carrie miscalculated where they would wind up flying to and ended up sticking them both in a tree. They both met up in the hall and were kind of quiet the whole time after what just happened. Since Darwin was talking to him now and Gumball had his mind cleared up, he pulled up his black gym shorts and turned around with a shrug already on his shoulders,

"I dunno, I think working out a whole bunch must have made me more confident or something and I just did what I thought was the best course of action." he replied, knowing full well that he was actually going off of instinct after fighting the Nephilim for a nearly a month now.

Darwin seemed to accept this answer and just moved on with the other things that were on his mind,

"Well that's really cool because all I did was freeze up until Carrie took control of my body and got me out of that terrible situation. I was really scared." he explained in a disheartening tone.

Pulling his white T-shirt over his head and turning around to face his little brother, he noticed he looked really disappointed and could guess that he was feeling bad for not being able to do anything. To be fair, Gumball could relate to him a little because there were several moments where fear caused him to plant his feet in one spot and force his body to remain where it was. He was by no means fearless, but what got him to actually do what needed to be done despite the seemingly overwhelming odds was the fact that he feared what would possibly happened if he didn't.

Walking over and placing a comforting paw on his shoulder, he waited for Darwin to look up at him when he finally started reassuring him,

"It's okay, man! Everybody was scared there, heck even I was scared when that thing first appeared, and honestly, I think it's awesome that you have such a cool girlfriend who loves you so much that she'll help you move when you can't. What actually prompted me to move was because you were standing next to me and my first instinct was to protect you. You're surrounded by awesome people who love you and would do anything to keep you safe because you mean so much to us." the next thing he was hug him so tightly because he meant everything he said,

"So like I said, It's okay. Everyone was scared and everyone acts differently when they encounter things like that." he whispered in his ear.

Whatever magical effect Gumball's speech and embrace had on Darwin seemed to work as Darwin choked back a sob and squeezed his older brother tightly. Feeling Darwin's grasp tightening around his midsection, Gumball felt his heart lift up in relief and then settle back down with the love and compassion he was feeling for his brother. Like Teri and the others, Darwin meant the whole world to him and another reason he feared the Nephilim so much was for the fact that they could easily take him away just like everyone else who couldn't see them.

The two continued to hug for a minute before parting and slowly going back to what they were doing. While Gumball began to dig out some utensils from his bag, his collapsed scythe catching his eye once, Darwin continued to talk about the current situation while wiping a tear from his eye,

"I'm not sure if they're going to continue classes today." he stated his mind already on all the other students caught up in the earlier mess,

"A lot of the students had to go to the infirmary after Chemistry class: Anton was trampled under all the students, Molly has a bunch of thorns in her backside after Carmen ran into her, Sarah's cone was broken, Masami is feeling sick after catching some of the monster's guts in her mouth, Tobias got hurt after being squished in between Leslie and Sarah, and Ocho is in need of a full body cast after getting stepped on by Tina." he explained having seen the damage after he got himself out of the tree, with Carrie's help of course.

Following his assessment of the students condition, a heavy silence hung in the air and the two boys began to feel the weight of negativity bearing down on them. It was nothing too severe, but the thick atmosphere was causing a bit of discomfort to the Watterson children: for different reasons too. This sudden change in tone caused Darwin to look for something positive to talk about and after fidgeting in uncomfortable silence for a moment, something popped into his head,

"Well, at least the sky's going to be clear by three thirty this afternoon, so at least when school gets out we'll have a few hours of sunshine." he said, already feeling better.

That actually did sound nice to the blue cat as he didn't really like the look of the weather outside and was hoping for a bit of sunshine at this point. He thought about that weird green light in the sky he saw before he entered the building and just couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right. He continued to unpack what he needed, his folded scythe catching his eye once from the lower confines of his bag and he hesitated, thinking about a possible threat that could be in the skies above. With that storm sized Nephilim they encountered yesterday, Gumball was more frightened about what else could possibly be heading to Elmore and the green light brought such fears back into fruition.

The last item to be pulled from his bag was his cellphone, which he fished out of his dirty pants pocket and was already getting ready to bury it in the pocket of his shorts. That was until the phone's screen lit up at the slight movement of him lifting it up and he saw that someone had sent him a message. Quickly opening the window on his screen, Gumball's eyes shot back and forth as he quickly skimmed the message sent by Rob,

 _We have a problem, there's a powerful Nephilim heading down to Elmore and there's another one in the sky above. Need backup ASAP!_

Feeling his tail shoot straight up and his ears flattening on top of his head, Gumball took a deep breath before calming down and texting back,

 _Gotcha! Be there soon, gonna go grab Teri!_

He pressed send and slipped the phone in his bag before zipping it and slinging it on his shoulders. _"Great. Looks like my worst fears have been realized."_ he thought cynically. He pivoted on his feet and started for the exit, quickly passing by Darwin as he made his way out of the shower room. He shot the fish boy a glance and uttered an excuse,

"Gotta go! Tell everyone in the infirmary I said get well soon!" he said and quickly disappeared out the door, leaving Darwin on his own with a baffled expression.

Deciding that it was something important that Gumball will explain later, Darwin chose not to dwell on it for too long and went over to the bench where his green shoes were sitting. While wrestling them onto his feet, he thought about how Gumball seemed to be acting rather odd given that he knew his brother was naturally a coward and wouldn't do anything so bold if he knew it would cause him some bodily harm and/or death. He was happy for the sudden change from his earlier depressed self, but he was starting to get a sudden suspicion that his closest sibling was doing something that seemed rather upsetting.

He hoped it wasn't anything too bad like getting involved in a gang or picking fights with people and animals in order to forget about Penny. Some signs did point to his strange mannerisms as attempts to move on and Darwin wasn't sure if those were exactly healthy ways to do so. He would have to keep an eye on him to see if something real bad wasn't going on and that hopefully all these worries and concerns of his will be nothing, but silly fears that his mind is conjuring.

It could also just be that he just had a crush on Teri and he was just hiding it because he was too embarrassed to admit it. That sounded pretty funny when Darwin thought about it, remembering the one time Gumball thought that Darwin himself had a crush on Teri when he was actually interested in Carrie. Funny how the times have changed.

With his shoes placed firmly on his feet Darwin placed his towel in the hamper right next to the bench, got up, and began striding towards the door. Once he was out of the hot, muggy shower room and in the much cooler empty hallway, save for three sixth graders hanging around one of the lockers, Darwin began making his towards his next class which happened to be choir and was being taught by Mr. Brown. This was good because it meant he could get news as to whether or not they could have class seeing as a lot of the students are incapacitated.

While lost in thought someone appeared right next to him, causing the nice boy to jump in surprise as he was still a little on edge and was not expecting any more surprises. He was relieved to see a familiar ghostly figure with a single black eye looking at him and felt his already racing heart slow down. Happy to see Carrie with him, Darwin quickly hugged his girlfriend and began blabbering about how glad he was to see her,

"Carrie, I'm so glad that you're here! I really needed someone to talk to right now, since Gumball had to run for some reason and I-?" he was cut off when she suddenly looked infuriated.

"Wait, what! You mean he's not with you!" she shouted in surprise.

Without answering, Darwin simply gestured at the empty space next to him with both fins before shrugging and shaking his head.

Carrie sighed and facepalmed herself while slumping downwards in defeat,

"Darn it! I wanted to ask him something and he took off again! I was looking for Teri too, but I couldn't find her anywhere!" she seemed really distressed now and Darwin was starting to worry.

Curious and concerned for his incorporeal lover's state of mind, the scaly, amphibious student reached out to grasp her hand,

"What's wrong? Did he do something to upset you? Is there something about him and Teri you wanted to find out?" he asked, he had more questions, but he didn't want to overwhelm her with his prying.

Shaking her head, the floating spirit looked up and into his eyes with more disappointment,

"No, nothing like that, I…" she paused and sighed. There was no reason to keep this a secret anymore and she needed to tell him what she had been noticing the past several weeks now,

"I'm not sure what's been going on lately, other than I've noticing some strange things lately and I want to know if Teri and Gumball know anything." she admitted.

Perplexed, Darwin rubbed the side of his head and gave her a strange look,

"What kind of things and you think those two are connected somehow?" he asked, not quite following her.

Shaking her head and shrugging, Carrie sighed,

"I don't know and all I've been noticing is that whenever I sense these dark energy signatures somewhere in Elmore, they usually disappear and when it's gone, they come back. That's why I need to find them." she explained.

Given the urgency in her voice and the sad, yet frustrated look in her eyes, Darwin could tell she was quite upset, even when he felt as though her story was a little off,

"Well, I don't know where Gumball is, but Teri might be in the infirmary, if I were to guess." he said, agreeing to help her.

Carrie seemed to be moved because her face lit up when Darwin offered to help despite clearly not knowing what was going on,

"Thanks. I thought about going there first, but I figured Gumball would be with you and you were closest." she said.

"No problem. After all, I do owe you one for saving me back there and for assisting my brother." he replied, rubbing the back of his head with his fin.

She shook her head and drifted closer to her amphibious boyfriend,

"You don't owe me anything, sweetie! I love you and that's all the reason I needed to save you. Also, Gumball is a friend of mine and I know he means a lot to you, so helping him was also no big deal." she whispered, planting a kiss on his lips.

Feeling as though he were floating, Darwin returned the kiss with passion and the two found their arms wrapping around one another. The three students in the hall spotted the couple and made a few comments on how cute they were, but neither of them noticed. Eventually breaking out of the tender moment, the two shared a moment of passionate silence before setting their minds on finding the paper bear.

"Alright, let's find Mrs. Markham's most frequent visitor." Carrie stated.

Raising an eyebrow, Darwin couldn't help but ask,

"Which one: Gumball or Teri?" his voice hinting at a joke.

The pale, incorporeal lover of Darwin did not seem to like his sense of humor and casted a look that fully displayed her exasperation,

"What are you going on about, you doofus?" she shot back.

Darwin simply answered after letting out a giggle of his own,

"You know, because they always go to the nurse's office, mostly for pointless reasons." he laughed before stopping to think,

"Actually they're more alike now that I think about it. They can both be self-centered, but nice when they're not thinking about themselves. They're both easily flustered and can be very obnoxious when it comes to their obsessions. Oh, and they both have ridiculous phobias that can drive their behaviors." he remarked, surprised by this revelation.

Carrie thought about it too and realized that he was actually spot on,

"Hmm, you're right. Maybe they are meant to be together. What's Gumball's phobia by the way?" she asked, surprised that she never heard of it.

"Spiders." Darwin replied simply with another raise of his shoulders.

"Right, I'll definitely remember that for a prank." she said with a wicked smile full of sharp teeth,

"Shall we off then?" she asked Darwin, who nodded in agreement before extending a flipper and grasping the ghost's hand.

Clutching his fin tightly, Carrie closed her eyes and concentrated on the Nurse's office, painting a clear picture in her head. With a loud _Snap!_ and a flash of light, the EJH's weirdest couple disappeared from the hallway they were standing in. This startled the three sixth graders, who were standing no more than a few meters to the side, but quickly dismissed the unusual form of transportation as something not worth looking into.

 _-Seventh grade hall, 2:42 PM-_

While Carrie and Darwin had the right idea to go looking for Teri and Gumball at Mrs. Markham's office, they were just a few minutes too late and missed Teri, who had just left after once again being thrown out by the band-aid nurse. Walking down the hallway and cursing under her breath like she always did when these situations turned bad, the school's biggest hypochondriac and most common visitor amongst the medical staff just above Anton, Tobias, Gumball, and Darwin had her head hung low in shame and was going off on how the nurse was an absolute moron. Clenching her fists as she kept an eye out for something on the ground to kick, Teri just continued to seethe and react in embarrassment at the nurse's newest form of condescending advice and belittlement,

"I was in the same room as the blob monster!" she stated with a sharp increase in her tone than she was used to, but didn't care since she was already too angry,

"What if the air was contaminated? What if my eardrums were ruptured when it roared? (then again, that definitely wasn't the case seeing as I could hear _her_ nonsense!) _"Too many patients with serious injuries to treat."_ Yeah, I could be one of them if you just did your stupid job!" she whined out loud, which she was used to doing, but was unaware that it was just baseless complaints that did nothing,

"And what did she mean, _"Take him out to dinner and let the situation solve itself."_? I told her that I was feeling butterflies in my stomach and random increases in body temperature when I was near Gumball, which could mean I've contracted cat flu or the Haze virus! I wasn't asking for dating advice!" she added in, feeling slightly annoyed that even the nurse of all people was starting to throw Gumball and her into the dating ring.

While she vented out her anger in an external display, deep inside she felt something worse culminating and threatening to spread like a cancer. No, it wasn't cancer itself, but rather a fear and an insecurity that she's had for quite a while, but has been pushing down for quite some time now. She worried that her germaphobic mannerisms were starting to get on people's nerves and that people don't actually pay her any attention because she was too obnoxious.

This feeling was starting to nag at her some more ever since she started developing a bond with Gumball. She admired him so much, but she was starting to think that maybe he only considered her only as a close accomplice that could only be relied on during a fight. Perhaps the reason he wanted to see Sherry perform at cheerleading today was because he found her annoying. She still held no ill will towards their newest and greenest recruit, actually finding her to be quite fun and cooperative despite being a bit of an airhead at times, but she still couldn't fight that slight twinge of ugly jealousy that erupted within her mental landscape when Gumball mentioned wanting to see her last night.

She even felt horrible for trying to capture Gumball's attention by changing up her outfit, yeah it was nice to change things up every once in a while, but to do it with the sole purpose of making sure a specific someone had eyes only for herself just felt somewhat dirty to the paper girl. What was worse was that Gumball didn't even say anything else about Sherry except that he wanted to see her and he hasn't even met her in person, so why was she so worried about him suddenly taking an interest in someone he didn't even know?

Wanting to deny it, but understanding why she felt this way, the thought made its way into her head,

" _You're afraid he's going to be so blown away by her that he'll forget about you entirely."_ her inner demon snarled.

Angry and upset at everything that has been happening, she furiously shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut,

"No! I don't care if he pays attention to me or not! I don't like him that way and I just want protect Elmore with him until the Nephilim stop attacking us or until we all eventually wind up dead!" she nearly shouted, feeling the heavy weight of the last eight words on her tongue. She prayed to the Jade emperor that the last part would never happen and that everyone will make it through this somehow.

Yet, when she uttered the word 'protect' another image came into her mind and she remembered how Gumball protected her twice in the chemistry lab. Once again, he went out of his way to guard her from any harm in spite of the fact that the one eyed blob was not a Nephilim and the only thing he had to fight with was an old broom the lab used to clean up broken glass. Then, even when the dying beast wouldn't have caused her any damage by exploding, he shielded her from the blast just so she wouldn't get dirty and offered her further help by carrying her out of the messy lab.

Everything he did for her, he did it selflessly and here she was, selfishly vying for his attention. She wanted to be better than this and she wanted to do more than just allow him to take hit after hit for her. She cared so much for him and wanted to give more to this amazing person other than selfish acts and last minute saves that still leave him battered, bruised, or straight up uncomfortable.

She was broken out of her negative thoughts when she noticed she was no longer alone in this hallway and that a figure was quickly approaching her. Getting a better look and a sense of deja vu, Teri saw that it was her troublesome blue cat boy now very clean and dressed in his gym clothes. The sight of him caused the dark cloud in her mind to instantly vanish and a burst of positive thoughts manifested themselves in her head.

She then realized after getting a good look at his face that he seemed determined and serious about something and going off of how fast he was running, something was definitely up. Teri's eyes were wide open when she saw that he wasn't slowing down and that he was probably going to throw her over his shoulder once he reached her. Quickly getting into a ready stance, Teri prepared to dodge the fast approaching feline,

" _No way am I letting him sweep me off my feet this time! As soon as he's close enough I will jump to the right and let him run past me!"_ she went over this in her head space and an equally determined look was written on her face.

Problem was while the plan was simple and good, the execution was far from perfect. The moment Gumball was within five feet of her general vicinity, Teri's feet were swift and propelled her through the air to her right, using her light weight to cover a bit of distance. Gumball seemed to predict this, much to her disappointment, and the moment she landed, he made a sharp turn, reached out, wrapped an arm around her waist and heaved her over his shoulder before she could even turn to run. With the paper girl being as light as a feather, Gumball didn't even need to slow down and was already racing towards Teri's locker, all the while the paper cheerleader was verbally protesting to this form of transportation.

Placing her arms on his back in order to stabilize herself, she angrily turned her head so she could see the boy's own head and began shouting while the hallway sped past them,

"Seriously, Gumball? Put me down this instant, I can walk, you know!" she protested, wishing that she had something to hit him with.

Gumball kept his eyes on the hallway ahead as he picked up speed, but answered her angry shouts in a calm voice,

"Walking is too slow. Rob sent me a text saying there's two Nephilim: one's heading for Elmore and the other's in the sky." he explained, making a sharp turn around the corner and passing the nurse's office,

"By the way, you look very pretty today!" he added in the compliment in hopes that she'll calm down.

It seemed to do the trick, well a little at least, because when she spoke again, she still sounded venomous, but at least her voice was lower this time,

"I can run too and I kind of got that by the way you were rushing towards me with that look on your face. Do you know where he wants us to meet him or did he mention where the Nephilim are?" she asked, hoping they at least had a destination or a target so that they weren't aimlessly wandering around Elmore searching for something that could be wreaking havoc amongst the citizens,

"Also, you said that this morning and thank you." she said, responding to his compliment that he'd given her on the bus this morning.

Gumball skidded to a halt once he spotted Teri's locker and put the anthropomorphic paper bear girl down, where she shot him another glare and proceeded to grab her things. At least he made sure the ride was comfortable for her this time and also, Teri was impressed with how fast they traveled. Gumball was doing a good job on his workouts. While she opened her locker to grab her things, Gumball kept talking and was sounding pretty happy too,

"He wanted us to meet him on some hill in the Northeast forest and to be honest he didn't mention where the other one is. Also, I felt like saying it again, so you're welcome! And for good measure, I will repeat it a third time: Teri, you look very pretty today!" he exclaimed, his arms folding across his chest and a grin complimenting his bright eyes. He felt like he was on fire today!

Behind the safe cover of her locker door, a smile forced its way onto Teri's face and she snickered in amusement,

" _There he goes making me happy again! What is with this dork and being able to make me want to hit him one second and hug him the next?"_ she felt another wave of content wash over her and her body temperature shot up several degrees.

Pulling her bag out her storage space and sliding it on her shoulders by the straps, she swung the door shut and turned to her furry companion with a pleasant look,

"For a mischievous ball of fur, you're too sweet, you know!" she replied, throwing her own compliment into the mix.

Responding by wiggling his eyebrows in a silly manner that got Teri giggling again, the paper girl grabbed the goof by the wrist and began leading him towards one of the exits,

"Come on, let's go meet Rob and we shouldn't be too pressed for time either, I heard Ms. Markham say something about calling it in for Mr. Brown's music class." she explained while walking Gumball to the exit.

" _That's a relief! I swear that I wouldn't have been able to think up another good excuse for why Teri and I are late for class for the umpteenth time."_ he thought with a sense of relief.

Swiftly exiting the building, Teri stopped along with Gumball on the sidewalk in order to pull out a large sheet of paper and fold it into an origami replicant of the famous American fighter jet of the Vietnam war era, the F-4 Phantom. It wasn't as detailed as some of her earlier creations, but that was because she created it simply to get them to the forest as quickly as possible. Repeating a process they have been doing for the better part of September, the two kids hopped on with Teri being in her usual front position and Gumball taking a position in the back and after a few quick verbal exchanges, the two were already soaring into the cloudy sky.

 _-Rob's camp, seven minutes later-_

Rob spotted the two middle schoolers fast approaching his location and pulled himself away from his monitoring equipment in order to greet them. Grabbing an orange sweater with some university logo printed on the front in purple, he stepped out from under his covering and waved the warm, colorful article of clothing as a flag to signal the approaching aircraft. Spotting him, Teri banked the Phantom until it was on a direct approach to his makeshift base of operations and when they got close enough to the hill he was on, Gumball simply hopped off, dropping down ten feet next to the cyclopean defender of Elmore. He greeted the former-villain-now-turned-ally with a single wave and a small smile, still not exactly comfortable with engaging the mad inventor with friendly mannerisms.

After Teri had landed, packed away her aircraft, and joined the two boys, the three made their inside the tent after Rob asked them to follow. The lanky pre-teen was relatively quiet when he went up to his computers, settling for a rather serious atmosphere, and after crouching down next to the crate where his laptops sat on, he began pulling up the images his monitoring device had captured several minutes ago. While he worked his magic, Teri and Gumball glanced around his work site and admired the amount of makeshift equipment the former void wanderer had cobbled together. The set up made him look like a professional soldier in the field and the duo got the distinct impression that Rob just tinkered and did lots of planning and preparation in his spare time. Such a crafty individual!

After setting up everything he wanted to show the two, Rob waved them over and began to fill them in on the situation. The cat and the paper girl fixated their eyes on the monitor in front of the disfigured boy and saw what looked like a golden ring suspended in the cloud cover. They assumed this was the Nephilim Rob mentioned in his text and got their answer when said teammate opened his mouth to speak,

"So this is what I saw in my dream roughly two hours ago." he started, pointing at the image with a grey, clawed finger,

"It has a fixed altitude and has shown no signs of activity ever since it appeared, which means that it has no intention of attacking the city. After some careful observations and measurements, I found that this 'Nephilim' is actually a weapon of terrifying power." he said in a serious tone while pulling up several images showing detailed measurements that showed the ring was over a thousand feet in diameter, but relatively flat, being no more than ten feet in thickness.

Gumball and Teri were collectively blown away by the size of the object Rob just showed them and visibly displayed their shock by letting their jaws drop. Of course, they fought Leliel, who was a colossal phoenix made of scorching hot plasma, but what scared them was the fact that they were already sending something so large to deal with them after losing a powerful Nephilim soldier along with five others. Even though the one the were looking at was surprisingly simple in appearance, one thing the three learned at this point was to never judge these monsters by their appearance.

While they continued to study the image, Rob carried on with his explanation,

"I've gone over the weather reports and concluded that the Nephilim's arrival is no coincidence. Nearly half an hour from now, the overcast we've been experiencing all morning and afternoon will have moved on, leaving the city in direct sunlight." he leaned back and placed a hand on his chin, rubbing it while Teri and Gumball turned to face him with a puzzled look on their faces,

"I believe that is what the Nephilim is waiting for. I can speculate that the weapon were looking at is a type of focusing lens or a magnifying glass, if you prefer. Once the cloud cover is gone, it will reduce the entire city to ashes in a matter of minutes." he said in a grim tone.

Even though the interior of the tent was rather warm, the kids felt a chill run down their backs and the two listeners felt themselves stiffen at the mentioned menace that was very close to destroying their home. It was one thing to have one of the Nephilim show up and be an immediate threat to all the people in the surrounding area, but to have one right above their heads with the ability to annihilate their entire city within a short span of time definitely drove the fear factor a little deeper this time around. Sure, Concretin and Leliel were also capable of mass destruction on a city wide scale, but one was a simple enemy that could be dealt with on the bridge and the other was a massive entity that appeared so far away and gave them enough time to deal with it.

Knowing there was a bit more to this story, Gumball swallowed the lump in his throat and turned back to the screen,

"So, what's the deal with this one? If it's not doing anything, then shouldn't it be easy for you to kill it or did you want us here to help you deal with the other one that you mentioned earlier?" he asked, rubbing the back of his gargantuan head as he stared at the image in discomfort.

Rob's single eye lit up when Gumball popped the question and he leaned forward to sit up straight,

"That actually is the reason why I summoned you two, well, the last part at least." he replied before using his index finger to move the cursor over to another series of images,

"I actually did try taking it down several minutes before I texted you, but as you can see…" he trailed off as he scrolled through the line of shots captured by his gun cam for both of them to see.

What Gumball and Teri saw was what appeared to be a long range shot directed at the ginormous sky weapon with a rune-tipped shell. What the images showed was unlike anything the two had seen before, with a clear image of the tracer round being launched from the barrel before morphing into a pair of serpentine dragons composed of emerald flames that spun around each other in a double helix pattern and sailing straight for the Nephilim weapon. While the two kids were visually shocked at what they were seeing, they could feel their spirits crumbling when they saw the twin dragons get closer and eventually explode in a brilliant fireworks display right before they struck the target.

A familiar field of blue hexagonal plates glowed as they surrounded the massive, circular Nephilim device. It was something the three of them had seen before and knew in the back of their minds the possibility of its return. It was an energy barrier, much like the one utilized by Toxic Pill in the desert.

Rob ceased scrolling through his library of photos and looked at the two with a deadpan expression,

"...the focusing lens is well protected." he muttered with disdain.

There was a brief period of stunned silence as the two silently thought over what their ally had shown them. While Gumball was simply amazed that Rob's first attack was the reason behind the flashy light display in the clouds, Teri had already analyzed the Nephilim's defense and realized that the entire thing was surrounded by the invisible barrier, meaning there were no openings. This didn't bode well for the paper girl, as the only reason why they were successful when encountering this obstacle the first time was because there was a slight flaw that she was able to exploit and one that only she could get through. Now getting through the Nephilim's shield seemed virtually impossible.

" _If it's anything like the first shield we went up against near the chemical processing plant, then neither magical or physical attacks are going to be able to penetrate that barrier."_ she thought with a hardened expression as she studied the image,

" _Wait a minute, Gumball mentioned that Rob also told him about a second Nephilim that came from the magnifying glass! Could that have something to do with us being able to take down the weapon or its shield perhaps?"_ she mused.

Whipping her head around until she was looking at the grey-skinned former student of Elmore Junior High, she caught the studious expression displayed all over his flat, blocky face and even saw that his hands were clasped together in front of his closed mouth. As soon as he was looking at her, she told him about her observations,

"So the shield is impenetrable and there's no gaps that will allow us to slip on through. I'm guessing we're going to have to wipe out the second Nephilim to see if we can do something about the focusing lens?" she asked, already sure that was the likely reason they were here.

With his eye widening in surprise and an amused smile etching its way onto his face, he nodded and stood up, easily towering over the two of them,

"Very perceptive Teri, and yes, it is my hypothesis that dealing with the operator of the deadly device will help us bring an end to this debacle." he leaned over once again and brought up one of his most recent photos, this one capturing a vague shadow leaping off the ring-like object.

It was too blurry to see, but with the measurements Rob was able to make by comparing it to the size of the sun powered weapon of mass destruction, he was able to deduce that the creature was around sixty feet in height. This made it considerably smaller than the object it arrived on, but sixty feet was definitely nothing to sneeze at. Looks like everyone was in for another difficult fight and neither of them were looking forward to the pain that thing would no doubt dish out.

"I've already calculated its current trajectory, it's heading for the airport. I want you two to head on over to intercept it and wipe it out." he ordered, finally handing them their task.

Gumball had a question regarding Rob's assignment and cocked an eyebrow while quickly glancing at his gun that was resting on the fold out table next to the one holding the computers,

"Um, what about you? Are you going to be going with us or are you just going to stay here and watch us get pummeled with your camera?" he asked distrustfully.

Without even acknowledging the blue kitty's quip, Rob simply waved a hand in front of the computer,

"I will be joining you two once I finish creating my auto firing mechanism that will link up with my smartphone so I can finish off the sky lens from a distance while being able to join you two in the fight. _Cuatro Oblivion_ is already locked onto the target, but I gotta finish creating the signal to connect the gun with my cellular device." he explained, once again sounding very proud of his work.

Before he could send the two off on their mission he remembered something he needed to give them, especially Teri, and his eye lit up in excitement at the reminder. Quickly turning away from his various screens, he made a dash for his parked car and beckoned the pair to follow,

"I just remembered something important! It's in the trunk of my car, so come with me!" he said with a surprising amount of energy, almost like a kid who wants to show off a cool new toy to his friends.

Looking at each other quizzically, the two found no explanation within one another and with a shrug, began following the brown haired genius. It took them several paces to get to his parked geo metro and when they stepped outside the tent, it suddenly became slightly breezy, offering a bit of wind chill for the paper girl and cat boy. Flanking Rob while he popped the trunk, they both saw that he had a lot more gear packed within the car's storage compartment, ranging from all kinds of devices that either looked really sophisticated or really rugged and barely holding up. There was even a kind of rifle that was taped to the roof of the trunk and several harnesses with bags that could store extra ammo: talk about prepared!

However, what he was after was nothing flashy or complicated, instead he pulled out what looked like two phone cases (one custom made for Teri and one for Gumball.) that looked like they were made from some kind grey, crystalline material. Holding them up in front of him as he presented the two with his latest creations, he beamed with delight as he explained what they were before either of them could even ask,

"I made these a little while back in my spare time. The materials are easy to get ahold of if you know the right guy, but these are phone cases made from magnetite composites. They'll protect your phones from the Nephilim's EM field and they're waterproof!" he handed them the phone coverings and watched as their eyes glimmered in shock and awe at the devices given to them.

Teri was the first to thank him for his gift,

"Thank you, Rob! I'm so glad the three of us can stay in touch even when the Nephilim come down to attack us!" she was looking at him now with honest gratitude.

"Or it can help us tell the time at least." Gumball said quietly as he inspected the phone case.

Rob heard him, but didn't respond, instead turning to the Pepakuma child once more with something else he wanted to give her. Clearing his throat, he spoke to Teri with the same excited tone he had when he was giving them the modified phone cases,

"Oh, that's right! Teri, do you know what all your runes are capable of?" he asked, raising his single eyebrow curiously while placing his hands behind his back.

Thinking back on it, Teri folded her arms and placed a pointer finger on her chin before looking back at him with a shrug,

"Not all of them." she responded,

"I know three out of the five you've given me: one creates an explosion, another petrifies any Nephilim it comes in contact with and finally, one creates a powerful trident made of water. The other two are still a mystery to me." she concluded with a sigh.

Looking off to the side and scratching his glitchy head, Rob appeared to be ashamed of something,

"Yeah, sorry for not labeling all of those. I didn't find out what the rest were capable of until I fought another Nephilim on my own in the landfill." he stated, still scratching the back of his head nervously.

Having heard him while sliding his new casing on his phone, Gumball's head snapped up and his face was masked by a murderous look,

"Wait! So you're the one who killed that Nephilim! Thanks for telling us because we spent three hours wandering that dump and nearly got eaten by Tina's father." he fumed, remembering the one evening after their fight on the bridge when Teri had a dream at her house about a Nephilim in the city landfill only to find nothing but piles of garbage and one angry, old T-rex.

A sweatdrop made its way down the back of the cyclops' head and he nervously looked away from the seething cat. He knew he forgot to do something that day, but he was just so excited after discovering what the rest of the runes could do that it slipped his mind to report what he discovered. He also felt bad for not informing Teri on his results with the powerful symbols, coming to reason that the paper girl only discovered what the other two that weren't labeled could do just by using them as a last resort or something. He took her for the cautious type, unlike her blue companion, who just leapt into action once the opportunity presented itself.

Once again, paying Gumball no attention, Rob quickly said what he needed to say while handing Teri another piece of paper he pulled out of his pocket,

"Well, just to let you know the square rune with the three horizontal lines bisecting it is a spell that can summon a lightning bolt and the one I'm giving you right now can create a barrier that can take one hit before shattering, so use it wisely." he said with a warning.

Teri inspected the symbol written on the slip of paper handed to her and noted that it was really simple to draw. It resembled two crescent moons with one being smaller and fitting within the curve of the of the bigger one. Teri was grateful for this one because she now had a better means of defending herself, although she would have to see what it was capable of when they were in the field. She didn't want to overestimate this thing's capabilities, but more or less, she was happy to have something to better protect herself with when something large was attacking her.

With a delighted smile and a sparkle in her eyes she clutched the paper tightly and bowed her head a little in Rob's direction,

"Thank you so much for this!" she said before lifting her head up again,

"But what about the other rune in your notebook? The swirly one?" she asked with a perplexed glance at her bag.

Rob seemed to tense up a little when she asked about that symbol. He knew which one she was talking about and frankly, he was _definitely_ sure that it should be used as a final means of ending a conflict. With a sigh, Rob turned around and closed his car's trunk,

"It's a really powerful weapon that shouldn't be used so often. It killed the Nephilim in the landfill, but it almost took me down as well. It's actually one of the reasons why I gave you the moon shield, so you have a better means of defending yourself while slowing down your opponent." he whirled around, this time with his eye locked onto Gumball,

"And as for you." he mentioned, causing Gumball to stop grumbling to himself and pay attention to what Rob was saying,

"I learned from someone I met last night that you should keep a cool head when using your grey fire. It's a dangerous ability that enhances your strength, but will consume your sanity if you don't have an objective to focus on."

Taken aback by this, Gumball felt as though he were paused and his mind left to try and navigate between what he should say. He wanted to thank him for the advice he had given, since he was already struggling to understand and control this power of his. However, he had kind of gotten the gist already after waging several battles while using the terrifying power the ancient weapon possessed. What he really wanted to know was what the other two runes meant.

Sadly he never got to ask any other questions because Rob was already shooing them away,

"Alright, well I kept you here long enough, now go to the airport and stop that Nephilim before he causes any damage. I will be joining you shortly after I finish with this program, which shouldn't take no more than ten minutes." he said with a simple wave and began pacing towards his tent.

Gumball was still about to ask more questions, but just as he opened his mouth Teri grabbed him by the arm and began to pull him away from the car,

"Come on! Let's go save Elmore!" she exclaimed, pulling him along with ease.

Gumball was about to object, but after weighing in the amount of time that had passed since they arrived, getting to the airport and saving the people there was definitely the top priority. Rushing over to the clearing next to Rob's mobile base, Gumball waited for Teri to form another aircraft or winged creature out of paper and took one last look in Rob's direction. He was at his laptop again, plugging away at his keyboard, his yellow orb locked onto the screen and his back hunched as he continued to finish his program.

He had to admit, he was impressed on how far along his former nemesis came in terms of advancement in both technology and magic. This was also the thing that bothered him the most, whenever he spoke to the genius inventor, he wouldn't talk much or would leave out significant portions of his daily activities. The eldest Watterson child wanted to chalk it up to him just being anti-social, but he wanted to know where he got the new runes and who this certain 'someone' he met last night was. In fact, it kind of corresponded with the attack last night and they were up in the mountains, so was Rob nearby when the attack happened?

He pushed these questions to the back of his mind when Teri finished creating a helicopter for them to ascend in and hopped on to the landing skid. Eventually the two rotors began to turn and Teri made the aircraft lift off from their small clearing, Gumball felt as though this was nicer because he wasn't being pulled back by a sharp increase in acceleration. Once they were high enough, Teri figuratively floored it and the pair hightailed it to the far off sector of the city where most visitors arrived and left in.

They could only hope that nothing terrible had happened, yet.

 _-Elmore airport, two minutes later, 2:52 PM-_

Another place Teri always feared more than the school itself was the airport and there were plenty of obvious reasons for such a trepidation. She wasn't scared of the planes or the potential dangers that came with air travel, she actually kind of admired aircraft and the idea of flying, but instead the people or rather what they carried with them. Planes were the largest hotbed for bacteria and viruses to dwell in, with the warm environment and the many, many people coughing, sneezing, and putting their hands everywhere just made it a good place to catch an infection. Through some vigorous research in the past, Teri was able to find that most vacations ended with people getting sick and almost all of them were linked to air travel.

In short, she hated airports and coming to one now for the sake of a mission, just filled her with more unwanted anxiety. Lucky for her though, the fight was probably going to take place outside (which was probably just as bad, when you consider all that's out there.) and if they play their cards right, the fight probably won't last long either. This was just wishful thinking though and what could be worse was they arrive with everyone at the airport already dead.

They were just outside the major hub of international transportation and flying low enough to not get clocked on the air traffic controller's radar. They would also have to be really careful not to get caught because with them carrying such deadly weapons, they could land themselves in very hot water with airport security. Obviously this was one of their most critical missions as of yet because one wrong move could either cause a panic, get a lot of people here killed by the Nephilim, if there were any incoming aircraft then they could also be shut down by the monster's EMP, and if that weren't enough, the entire city was about to be incinerated in less than an hour.

They had a lot of lives riding on their shoulders and it was kind of nerve racking for the two middle schoolers.

Another cold breeze wrapped itself around the two and Gumball looked up at the cloudy sky, praying that it wouldn't rain. He was already cold, being cold _and_ wet just sounded like a miserable time for everyone. The clouds could stay though, he wouldn't want things heating up too quickly once the sun decided to come out.

The helicopter Teri fashioned herself had a flat, non-transparent cockpit, meaning the two of them had to ride on the landing skids mounted on either side just underneath the aircraft. This meant that he had to hang onto the cockpit with one hand and hold his primary weapon with the other. This honestly wasn't so bad for the fickle feline because he enjoyed the stability the helicopter offered and not needing to worry about standing up when traveling at top speeds, like he often did with Teri's jets.

"Alright, Gumball, we just passed over the fence, so keep your eyes peeled for the monster." she shouted.

Gumball couldn't see her past the cockpit that was separating the two of them and neither she him, but he nodded anyway,

"Roger!" he called back, scanning the now visible airfield for any threats.

He couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, although there weren't any aircraft taking off nor landing and there was minimal activity on the runway. He did see a few workers milling about the various buildings, but lucky for them, they were too far away for them to see. Other than a few parked planes and some cargo trucks, there wasn't really a whole lot happening at the airport. Must have been a slow day.

"Well, this shouldn't be too difficult." Gumball stated, feeling positive already,

"All we have to do is find the bugger and lure it away from the buildings before finishing it off somewhere with a lot of open space." he finished and scanned the airfield for anything suspicious.

On the other side, Teri pondered the overall strategy devised by Gumball and saw a few flaws. For one, luring it away was definitely a good idea because it would reduce the likelihood of innocent people getting hurt along with property damage. However, once it spotted them, then fighting it would be a challenge because the Nephilim were very difficult to take head on. Plus, fighting in an open space gave the Nephilim an advantage as their power sometimes complimented their size and overwhelming strength.

There was one thing they could do though to even up the odds,

"Okay, if we're going to lure it out in the open then we're going to have to keep our distance and attack it while in the air. If we maintain air superiority, we can hit it in it's vital areas and we'll have a lot of room to maneuver in." she mentioned, picking up her visual scanning and keeping a lookout for any suspicious building sized giants.

They were still quite a distance from the various runways and the control tower, so they had a clear view of everything.

Gumball liked the idea of keeping to the skies since most of the Nephilim they fought were ground based. Although, the Nephilim they were looking out for was actually descending from its primary weapon (which was bound to fire at around 3:30, right around the time the clouds were predicted to clear.) like a dandelion seed, so they weren't exactly the only ones who had the sky as their domain. Still, it was a big target and hitting something as large as a six story building shouldn't be too difficult.

Nodding his head in agreement, Gumball leaned against the solid cockpit of the helicopter and shifted his gaze towards the sky,

"That's a good plan, though we should also utilize one of your fastest animals in case we're grounded. We have speed and our small size on our side, so we should also be able to wear it down with hit and run attacks." he added in.

Moving the helicopter until it was positioned in an area where they could get a better view of the building complexes where people came in to either board or leave the aircraft of their choice, the two continued to search for the giant invader,

"Right. Do you still feel comfortable using your grey fire? That long range attack you used last night was pretty helpful if you ask me." Teri questioned, trying to peek over the paper construct to see his reaction.

Clutching the sinister reaping weapon tightly in his paw, Gumball still wasn't so sure about the magical properties of such a device and let out a sigh,

"Not really, although I guess what Rob said was kind of helpful." he answered in a low volume,

"So I just gotta maintain focus, huh? Not sure what that means exactly." he knew it was a simple concept, but it could mean anything really. Did he have to focus on defeating the monster? Did he have to focus on not going crazy? He didn't exactly know what he did back in the storm sphere, all he was focusing on was saving Teri from the saucer Nephilim, but when she freed herself, his focused shifted when the monster attacked him instead and he was forced to defend himself.

Perhaps it _was_ objective based.

While he considered this, he heard Teri say something and his pointy ears shot up,

"Well, try to find out what that means then. We're probably in for a real challenge, so if any opportunity presents itself you should take it. If you find yourself in trouble, I will back you up and make sure we have another shot." she sounded hyped again and Gumball could feel the positive energy flowing from her words.

Cracking a positive smile, Gumball continued to lean against the paper chopper's side and spoke with the same level of excitement,

"Yeah, same here!" he declared.

Hearing the confidence returning to him, Teri was feeling better already and suddenly felt as though this mission wasn't going to be as difficult as it first appeared,

"That's the spirit! We'll defeat this guy in no time and return to school before practice starts!" she proclaimed, pumping a fist in the air.

Gumball's eyes lit up at the mentioning of Teri's after school cheerleading practice with the other girls (and Leslie.) and he felt a blush creep onto his face after picturing Teri in her cute outfit with the other girls, waving pom poms and doing flips. It was definitely something he looked forward to seeing her in and such a thing felt like a great motivation to get this mission done. His thoughts also drifted to the new member Teri mentioned last night and was actually quite curious to see how their newest member would fare in the squad.

Rubbing his furry chin with his pointer and his thumb, Gumball brought up the subject with his paper partner,

"Oh yeah! That'll be awesome and I'll finally see how Sherry fits into the team!" he mentioned, still sounding very optimistic and excited.

Teri froze in disgust and felt her head droop a little along with her smile. There it was again, that ugly, unwarranted jealousy towards a person who didn't do anything to do deserve it. Instead of celebrating and cheering alongside Gumball, she wanted to scream or do something to cause a scene, but all that wound up happening was all her words got caught up in her throat and she felt as though she were choking on her own anger. Seriously, why was this an issue for her?

Having felt an uncomfortable twelve seconds pass by, Gumball's cheerful optimism soon faded and was replaced with concern along with a slight twinge of fear. He didn't know if it was something he said or if she spotted something, but the air was suddenly colder than usual and it was starting to worry the young cat. With the aircraft rotors being the only sound being made, the situation got awkward real quick and Gumball decided that now was a bit too long before clearing his throat in order to talk to the quiet girl next to him,

"Um, was it something I sai-!" he was starting to say, but interrupted when Teri shouted and pointed at something in the distance.

"THERE IT IS!"

Panning his head in the direction of her visible finger, Gumball could see where she was referring to and saw the Nephilim approaching! It was on the other side of the airport terminal, several hundred feet away from the buildings and had easily scaled the fence on its towering, bulky legs and was currently making its way towards the housing complex with all the visitors and the departing. With it being so close now, Gumball and Teri could see its effect on the area immediately take place as the all the lights inside switched off and the parked aircraft that had its engines running, suddenly gave out and went silent. Soon everything within the airport was quiet, dark and motionless.

That was until, the crowds of people from within could be heard screaming at the sudden loss of power and even the workers outside the building fell into disarray once their devices ceased to function. Obviously to those inside the transportation hub, this was quite terrifying because a loss of power could mean anything from a malfunction in the electricity grid to a terrorist attack and either option was less than ideal for these simple folk. For a moment, all Gumball and Teri could do was listen and watch with awe as both civilians and workers tried desperately to assess the situation and figure out was happening.

For the two kids though, the problem was clearly in front of them and the threat was just as bad, if not worse, than some power blackout or some kind of attack. This was a life or death situation that no one there could perceive and it was about to vaporize the city too. They needed to act now before the Nephilim attacked the helpless civilians.

Putting her thoughts into her actions, the helicopter sped forward and on a direct course to where the Nephilim was currently walking. They needed to lure it away from the terminal, perhaps out on the runway, if the control tower is down then no aircraft would try landing here anyway. Right? Teri was unsure, but she needed to push that doubt down and worry about it later.

Seeing where they were going Gumball readied his weapon, clinging tightly to the side of the paper aircraft and kept both eyes on the monstrous giant drawing closer to the airport visitor center. The creature was slightly humanoid in appearance, with three sets of arms all connecting at the shoulders and two powerful, athletic-looking legs that carried the creature in long strides across the grass. Like Silver Twelve this one had clothing, but in the form of a loincloth that wrapped around its waist and was decorated with ruby jewels and sapphire stones. Its oddest feature was that it lacked a head, neck, and sternum unlike most humanoids. Instead, it had an opening that bisected the upper torso all the way to the navel and within it was a large, fiery, glowing ring that seemed to run through the Nephilim and arc all the way up where the head should be. In its top hands, it held two weapons: a pair of two pronged spears called "bidents" that had a length of forty feet.

When they both saw this unusual creature enter the airport grounds, many questions ran through their heads as confusion and shock regarding the Nephilim's bizarre anatomy came to them. It was like a statue of a Hindu deity had come to life, but an angel decided to throw its halo at it, resulting in it getting stuck within the monster's body. It would've been a goofy sight to behold had it not been sixty feet in height and was marching towards the airport in a threatening fashion.

Teri stayed their course and made sure the helicopter was above its reach, so as to prevent any immediate attacks against them. It obviously didn't have any visible eyes or sensory organs, but that didn't mean that the behemoth couldn't detect their presence. She kept observing it and was figuring out some obvious weaknesses that they could exploit when she heard Gumball say something next to her,

"So how do you want to go through with this?" he asked, readying his scythe.

That was a good question. Looking at the Nephilim, Teri could see that the giant was still quite a distance from the airport and would need a minute or two before it reached it. They should obviously work on slowing it down before luring it away from the civilians and giving themselves a greater advantage over the creature.

Studying the monsters knees and ankles, Teri gave her answer,

"We need to slow it down, so we're going for its legs." she said, already forming several shurikens with some petrification paper she pulled from her bag and maneuvering the aircraft until it was flanking the monster,

"I'm going to try solidifying its knees and ankles. I need you to have your scythe ready in case something goes wrong!" she exclaimed.

On the other side, Gumball was already prepared for a counterattack, but appeared slightly confused,

"What do mean if something goes wrong? It hasn't seen- UH-OH!" he exclaimed in shock when he saw the Nephilim turn towards them and was already charging up a red doom blast.

Teri felt herself start to grow heavy and her control over the origami VTOL craft began to weaken, causing the two of them to slowly descend. Being unaffected by the Nephilim's primary attack, the blue cat quickly, out of desperation, ignited his scythe's defensive spell and reoriented the helicopter by twisting the flimsy tail with his free paw until he was directly facing the monster's attack. Moments later, the air heated up and with a loud vibrating hum, the red lance of energy leapt towards the two kids.

Gumball deflected the devastating beam of exotic energy with a swipe of the burning blade, although the force of the attack was enough to push them back and cause the aircraft to sway a little. Luckily, none of them were hurt and Gumball was starting to feel more comfortable about being on defense. The moment the attack ended, Gumball shifted his focus to where the Nephilim was, but saw to his surprise that it had vanished.

Confused, his head shot to the left followed by the right before he realized a shadow had fallen over both of them and forced him to looked up. Icy cold fear gripped him when he realized that the six armed Nephilim had leapt up above them _during_ the firing of the doom blast and was now ready to attack while he and Teri had little time to react. To make matters worse, the surprise attack caused the blue furball's weapon to extinguish itself once his mind was overcome with the direness of the given situation.

He barely had time to raise his scythe as the beast clasped both of its lower hands together (its middle hands were interlocked in two rings formed by its index fingers and thumbs, for some strange reason.) before raising them up and bringing them down on the tiny aircraft in front of it. The paper helicopter crumpled underneath the intense force of the Nephilim's hands and while Teri was able to form herself around the blunt attack, Gumball was forced to take it on with only his weapon and arms being his first line of defense. To the blue cat, getting struck by the monster's hands was like getting hit by a car moving at a decent speed: it wasn't enough to kill him, but it sure did knock his insides around a little and the little fella was overwhelmed with pain.

With the main rotor and body being wrecked, the helicopter crashed to the ground and the two kids were flung from the wreckage. Being no stranger to crashes (and getting roughed up by Nephilim.) Gumball was already getting up and wiggling his fingers and toes to see if they were broken. Good thing was, they weren't and nothing else was either, although his arms were throbbing. It didn't take him long to spot a dizzy Teri already picking herself up from the crash as well and he made his way to her while she dusted herself off.

He waved to get her attention and called out to her,

"Hey, Teri! We should get to cover before it-!"

"LOOK OUT!"

Teri already looked to see where the giant was and saw that the unusual titan was already descending upon them with one of its bidents poised to strike Gumball. The upright feline caught her warning and whirled around just in time to see the two-pronged spear jetting towards him. Taking three steps to the right, Gumball narrowly avoided being skewered by one of the sharp tips of the golden spear and Teri was wise to do the same, seeing as the six armed monster had been aiming for her with the other one.

With both its weapons stuck in the ground, both Gumball and Teri took the initiative and charged the halo-like monster with their weapons raised. However, the monster seemed to have predicted this and caught them both with one of its lower arms. Having been knocked into each other, the two kids flew in a tangled heap and landed a ways away. Both of them sported no injuries, but were left quite dizzy from the Nephilim's simple strike.

Using his arms to push himself up, Gumball opened his eyes and saw that he was atop of Teri, who was just opening her black eyes herself. They both were able to see each other and noticed that they were both alright. Seeing the close proximity they were in, a shade of scarlet covered both of their faces and Gumball quickly reacted by leaping off of her and facing towards the faceless Nephilim,

"U-uh, okay, so rushing it was a bad idea. You wanna create an animal and circle around it?" he asked the recovering paper bear behind him.

Already standing on her feet and looking the monster up and down, she saw that it was pulling its two weapons out of the ground and was already standing tall, ready to attack. She gulped and began reaching for her bag,

"Definitely, we should keep out of its range and also, you're on defense." she answered simply, her flimsy hand already finding a large sheet within the bag's confines.

Gumball wasn't entirely sure if he could defend against the creature's physical attacks, but he agreed that it was their best chance regardless. He didn't expect the monster to be so quick, but at least they had its attention now and he intended to keep it. If circling around and attacking its legs didn't work, he was going to have to reconsider using his power and wearing it down with a flurry of enhanced attacks. He'd probably go crazy again, but if their plan didn't work, at least it will give Teri an opening. There was also that wave attack he could try using, but that was if he couldn't think of anything else.

While Teri began folding the large orange sheet into a replica of a tiger, Gumball noticed the Nephilim do something strange. The wheel of fire turning within its body flickered and changed from a burning orange/yellow to a tranquil blue before it stopped rotating. Following the sudden change, Gumball flinched when he saw the ring move and disconnect one end until it was moving like a serpent within the six-armed giant's body. A baffled Watterson child kept his guard up as he watched a fiery blue head sprout up from the neck spot and two empty black eyes made themselves visible as they peered down at the two with apathetic disdain.

Then the monster spoke,

"So… you're the pests that have been halting our forces here for the past month." he remarked with a condescending cruelty that Gumball and Teri have grown quite acquainted with at this point.

" _Great. Another talker."_ Gumball thought in irritation and disgust. He honestly didn't know which was worse, a Nephilim that attacked them with brainless animosity or with smug intelligence and the occasional monologue. These things were nothing but irritating if Gumball were to say.

The Nephilim let out a nasty laugh that made both Teri and Gumball's skin crawl and it continued to jeer at the two,

"This has to be quite the comedy because I never once would have imagined that such insects could cause this much damage to our mighty army." he joked, once again letting out another chuckle before suddenly going silent. He glared at the duo and let out a snarl, causing the paper bear and the cat boy to shiver at the sudden change in tone,

"So you're the ones that eliminated the Se'arot squad along with my dear sister, Leliel!" his voice was now filled a ferocity that matched his fiery cranium.

Both Gumball and Teri shook with surprise at the revelation that came from the six armed Nephilim. Of course they never suspected that the plasma controlling inhabitant of the storm sphere was the sibling of the monstrosity that was threatening their city, but it wasn't surprising that he would try to attack them seeing as they recently learned that the Nephilim were capable of complex feelings like regret and loss. However, this did not change the fact that they still had to kill Leliel and her underlings because of what was at stake.

They didn't display any kind of regret and continued to stare at the spear wielding entity towering above them with empty black eyes filled with hate and malice,

"I see, well then, in the name of my comrades and my sister I, Uriel, the sun king, will vanquish you vermin along with your putrid nest with my spears and my sun throne. Nothing will remain of your vile-!"

"Man, I'm getting a real strong sense of deja vu here." Gumball interrupted, not a shred of concern in his voice or his posture,

"How about you, Teri?" he asked his equally calm companion.

"Don't you mean deja _blue_?" she joked, hiking a thumb at the shocked entity's cyan colored head and making Gumball laugh at her pun,

"But yeah, you're most certainly correct. Six arms, blathering on about fallen comrades and revenge. He's kind of like that virus we fought last year." she said, chuckling at the memory.

Gumball's eyes lit up like burning stars and a smile found its way on his kitty face,

"Oh yeah, you're right! He does kind of remind me of him! Too bad he's too big to step on!" he exclaimed, a giggle escaping his lips.

Teri joined in on his laughter until the Nephilim stomped his foot, causing the ground to shake and the kids to cease in their antics. Their eyes were on Uriel now and even though he lacked any facial expressions, it was evident that he was irritated. Raising a single spear until it was pointed at the two, he continued to glare at the beings who were just recently mocking him,

"If you're finished with your senseless humor spouts then I suggest you apologize now for the pain you caused me and for being the unlucky parasites that you are. Go on, I'm generous enough to give you a minute, but only a minute and then I will vaporize you lot!" he folded both his lower arms across his chest and abdomen while he awaited for their apology.

What came next wasn't a fearful response to the giant, instead was an angered reply from the paper girl. Teri wasn't frightened by this beast anymore, no, she was shocked that this monster had the audacity to demand an apology after his kind had done nothing but cause terror, destruction, and even a few deaths in this town, plus he was threatening everyone who lived here. Taking a step forward, Teri decided to give this monster the kind of respect it deserved and raised an accusing finger in its direction,

"Do you seriously think that Gumball and I feel any kind of regret for killing your comrades? After your kind invaded our city, killed three innocent people who did nothing to deserve their fates, terrorized us for nearly a month, destroyed private property and now threaten thousands of others. I think that you're the ones that owe us an apology!" she shouted, her hands at both of her sides now and clenched into fists.

The sight of her this furious was quite a shock for Gumball, the little paper girl was burning with righteous fury, her arms shaking, and her eyes narrowed into a dangerous glare that threaten to reduce anything that met their gaze into nothing. Her being angry was nothing new to the cat, but this kind of explosive defiance was definitely startling to look at and quite empowering too, to be honest. Soon he found himself standing next to her and hurling his own flurry of righteous insults,

"Yeah! So why don't you step off our planet and go back to whatever planet or dimension or butt end of nowhere you crawled out of. Also, tell your ugly friends to stay away too because we're fed up with you Nephilim constantly interrupting our daily activities!" he shouted back, his hyper-aggressive attitude causing him to emphasize what he was saying with his paw.

Hearing their protests and backlash, Uriel's fiery head seemed to burn wildly with anger and his black eyes began to narrow. Of all the indignity these two displayed, actually talking back to him instead of apologizing was taking it one step too far. Their wretched kind have already been the cause of so much misfortune for his people, but the two that took so much from him were already pushing the boundary to unforgiveable levels.

They will pay for their insults.

With his spear still raised and pointed at the two, Uriel concentrated and a small golden orb began to form in between the twin prongs of the lengthy weapon,

"The Earth never belonged to you or your kind! Your simple lives and petty excuses mean nothing to me and your refusal to apologize for taking someone so precious from me is the reason you two will burn!" he roared.

The glowing orb that hovered within the space of the bident's tip grew larger with the sudden increase of rage and quickly morphed into a rotating ring of fiery energy that glowed like the sun. Gumball and Teri braced themselves for what was to come next, luckily there was still some time to act for the two and the attack wasn't like a doom blast, so they could still move. While Gumball was already standing in a defensive pose with his scythe, Teri had retrieved a piece of paper from her notepad, sketched a symbol onto it and followed the same procedure once more.

Eventually the Nephilim's energy based attack seemed to reach its critical peak and with a swipe of his bident, the burning ring of fire was sent hurling towards Gumball. Taking two steps back, Gumball felt his arms tense a little as he prepared to swing and counter the attack. Within the release of a single breath, the flying, circular projectile came in contact with the cat's curved weapon with a noise that sounded strikingly like two blades connecting and screeching against one another. The force of the ring's collision with the shaft was enough to push the alert cat boy back a few feet, but wasn't enough to knock him down or do anything else really. Feeling the intense heat emanating from the Nephilim's long range attack, Gumball felt the fur on his paws start to singe and several sparks that flew from the rotating halo made their way to his arms, face, and torso before landing and fizzling out of existence.

Despite the strength of the attack, Gumball knew he could push this one off and with a grunt, he tugged on the scythe's handle. The motion caught the levitating ring of fire within the inner teeth of the silver blade and with a powerful swipe, the projectile was sent flying away from the cat boy. The deadly weapon sailed away like a fiery ring toss and Gumball was able to catch his breath.

He couldn't remain still for long though, as two things began happening at once: Uriel had taken the opportunity to strike with his other spear and the energy projectile he just deflected was circling back around as if it had a mind of its own. This was quite troubling to Gumball, for he could not figure out which to deal with first. Obviously the Nephilim's spear was a big threat, but if he focused on him then the energy ring will surely come back and strike him while his attention was elsewhere. He was in desperate need for a fast reaction time and the moment this desire arose, so did a familiar force within him. Soon the heat from the blade's silver flames could be felt enveloping the anthropomorphic cat and the scythe wielding Nephilim fighter got ready to take the Nephilim's spear head on.

It didn't wind up happening that way because as soon as his flames were ignited, a familiar paper doll had leapt over him with amazing grace and agility before lightly landing on one foot. Gumball's eyes grew in surprise when he watched his flexible fighting partner hold up a slip of paper with the moon runes scratched onto it with pencil lead and a circular, transparent barrier manifested in front of the two of them with the same set of symbols inscribed in the center. This all happened just as Uriel's attack reached them and instead of impaling the two kids like bizarro shish kabobs, the spear was halted upon impact, the only sound being a heavy and non-threatening _thunk!_

For a moment no one said or did anything, even Uriel seemed baffled by this unorthodox move. His flaming, blue head cocked to the side and his black hole eyes narrowed as he studied the defensive spell summoned by the girl he first deemed as the least threatening of the two. The barrier shattered like glass and dissolved in a fine mist mere seconds after the bident had struck and Uriel remained where he was.

Seeing this excellent opportunity to counter Uriel's rebounding energy ring, Gumball's feet were already moving his body to intercept,

"Time to finish this deadly game of ring toss!" he eagerly exclaimed with a cocky grin and a fire was lit in his eye.

In a daring move that could be mistaken for well practiced choreography, a power infused Gumball rushed over to Teri's side while hooking her arm within his free one (also being as careful as his power crazed brain would allow him not to let the flames get too close to Teri.) and spinning around on his heel. Swinging the paper girl around and away from the incoming ring of fire, the pivoting scythe wielder reached out with his primary weapon and swiped the blade through the offending projectile with a powerful swing. The ancient weapon's powerful grey torrent seemed to do the trick because the six-armed Nephilim's newest method of attack was completely obliterated.

Coming back around full circle, Teri was at first perplexed with Gumball's unusual method of defense, but when she saw that Uriel's spear was drawing closer, she knew that Gumball somehow had managed to react quick enough to defend them both from the other threat while organizing a countermeasure. He was surprisingly very quick on his toes today and Teri was quite impressed with his quick thinking. Coming into range, Teri slapped the other rune she was holding onto one of the flat prongs of the bident and watched as a square rune with three bisecting lines began to glow a brilliant yellow before flashing ominously.

KRA-KOOM!

From the empty sky above, a single lightning bolt shot downwards in a bright blaze and an Earth shaking roar as it struck the note Teri placed onto Uriel's spear. Even enchanted metal such as the sun king's spear was obedient to the laws of physics as the cold, golden surface of the beast's primary weapon was encased in brilliant arcs of electricity that snaked their way up towards his upper arm and began frying the six story behemoth with a temperature five times greater than the surface of the sun.

His screams of agony echoed throughout the airport as his body contorted and writhed with every jolt of electricity. Not sure how long they had until this effect wore off, Teri decided now was the time to get on her tiger and get moving. Turning to the astounded Watterson child, Teri waved him over to her origami,

"Come on, we have to go before he recovers!" she shouted with real urgency in her voice.

However, Gumball didn't move from his spot and instead remained fixated on Uriel, his burning weapon still in hand. Confused, Teri got a good look at his face and saw that his eyes were lit up with a kind of bloodlust. A wild, crazy grin was also visible as he crouched down and prepared to run towards the giant,

"You kidding me? He's open and I'm going to carve him up!" he shouted with a kind of murderous glee that was unlike him.

Realizing that the boy had gone crazy with his power again, Teri realized that she had to get through to him before he rushed off to do something stupid. Taking a deep breath, she raised her voice and began shouting at him. She also had an angry look plastered on her face and was already marching towards him to enact whatever means of force to snap him out of his craze,

"Gumball! We need to go now or else you will die and everyone else here will die too!" her voice already reaching a critical point in ferocity.

What she said seemed to do the trick because as soon as her words reached him, he turned to her, saw the angered and worried expression she wore and the silver flames engulfing his weapon quickly extinguished themselves. Realizing that he made her worry again and nearly put everyone at risk by foolishly preparing to attack the Nephilim, Gumball's fear of failure quickly took hold and brought him back to his senses. He really needed to work on controlling his power instead of having it control him.

With a shaky nod, Gumball lowered his weapon and uttered a quick apology,

"Sorry about that. I nearly lost control again, thanks for snapping me out of it." he gave her a half smile before dashing off to the tiger Teri had made.

Feeling relieved that Gumball was back to normal, the Pepakuma child formed a pleasant smile herself and let out a small, content sigh. Her relief ceased when she heard another roar coming from Uriel and the present situation caught up to her once again. Pumping her long, flimsy legs as hard as she could, she bounded towards the folded paper replica of the dangerous jungle cat, saddled up with Gumball already behind her and with a silent command, got the paper cat moving.

Meanwhile, Uriel had already recovered from his initial shock (no pun intended.) and was watching the two tear across the field and towards the runway. With a snarl, his head reverted back into its halo form, this time his flames were a bloody crimson, and took off after the two with his spears raised. While he rushed after them, the colossal figure's internal thoughts were calm despite his appearance,

" _Torax, Raphael, Thundero, Olaf, Brahkka, and my dear sister, Leliel, I know you wouldn't have wanted me to disobey orders in order to avenge your deaths, but I can't let your murderers run free. I will make your killers pay and rid this land of its vile inhabitants."_ he thought to himself with a grim resolve.

He was informed of his sibling's death along with the loss of all his former colleagues several hours ago and even though his squad was going to be deployed elsewhere on Earth, he disobeyed his orders to remain with his squad in order to come to the land where closest friends and beloved relative were slaine. He knew he was possibly facing court martial and even execution when he came back, but he figured since president Nimrod wanted this town destroyed that he may receive a less harsh sentence. He knew what was at stake, but none of that mattered to him, his grief and hatred were the only things motivating him at this point.

With his unwavering resolve, the Nephilim pressed forward and began closing in on the two children trying to flee.

Gumball looked back and saw the sun king getting ever so close, despite the already fast pace they were moving at. Trying to keep his cool, he informed the driver of their mount of the approaching threat and kept his guard up. Teri noticed the immediate danger and tried to devise a quick, yet effective plan,

"Ummm, let's turn around and go for his legs. I don't have any runes drawn up yet, so you're going to have to slash at his ankle and that will hopefully slow him down." she suggested in a hushed tone.

Gumball was quick to catch on and crouched down the moment they came to a halt. Just as Teri had hoped, the Nephilim was caught off guard by this sudden action and was forced to stop himself. Quickly twisting the tiger around, Teri and her companion began to make a mad dash towards one of the giant's legs. Uriel was fast to catch onto what they were after and thrusted one of his spears directly at them.

The tiger nimbly dodged to the side and the two pronged weapon sank into the soft dirt with an impact similar to that of an artillery shell. However, he wasn't finished there as he utilized his other weapon to swipe and jab at the two, which yielded no results. He did make it increasingly difficult for them to reach their goal though, after pulling his bident out the ground, he began to back up and continue his onslaught at a comfortable distance.

Gumball watched as multiple strikes from the six armed beast missed, shooting up clods of dirt as Teri carefully maneuvered and leapt away from each one while maintaining enough speed to keep up with him. Realizing that they weren't getting any closer and were more than likely to get skewered at this point, Gumball came up with a new plan of attack,

"Teri, go for his spear!" he shouted over the constant impacts that rained bits of Earth everywhere.

Taking his advice, Teri carefully waited for the next strike from the Nephilim's spear and when she saw the golden weapon making its way towards them, she willed the orange tiger to pounce. Landing on all four feet, the paper tiger clambered up the telephone pole thick shaft of the twin tipped spear and towards the entity's forearm. Uriel sensed this happening and made his move to rid himself of the pests,

"GET OFF!" his angry voice shouted as the middle arm opposite of the spear they were on shot upwards and swiped at the two.

Luckily, Teri's reaction time just barely managed to avoid them getting struck by the colossal hand that was racing towards them, although the hind leg of the origami jungle cat was brushed by Uriel's little finger. It was a close call for the duo, but they now found themselves falling from the incredible height they had climbed. Bracing themselves, the bear and the cat felt a slight jolt as their unusual ride landed at the base of the giant's feet, but they were fortunate enough to remain unscathed.

Looking around, Gumball noticed that they were pretty close to sun king's massive feet and spotted a perfect opportunity to attack. Raising his lengthy weapon, the blue feline swung hard and allowed the crescent blade to tear right through the Nephilim's ankle. The titan's response was almost instantaneous, an audible yelp could be heard coming from him as he leapt up into the air and left the tiger riding kids on the ground below.

Seeing as he was up in the air now, Teri made a last second decision to go find cover and scanned the area for a spot to hide in. Her attention was drawn back to the airport where she spotted a couple of trucks parked quite a ways away from any of the parked aircraft and people. She didn't like the idea of bring the fight closer to the airport, but unfortunately if they stayed out here in the open while he was in the air above them then they'll only succeed in getting destroyed or worse would waste even more time trying to fight him. With a silent command to the origami they took off and began heading towards the parked trucks.

Keeping an eye on Uriel, Gumball saw that the six armed entity wasn't returning to the ground and was instead hovering in place. His middle arms were interlinked with that unusual finger lock again and Gumball wondered if that was somehow connected to how he flew, Teri noticed this as well. He could assume that the giant wasn't going to land thanks to the injury of his left ankle and was possibly going to fight them from up there now. Looks like the conflict just got more complicated and their original main advantage over the Nephilim was gone.

They were about halfway from where Uriel was hovering and the trucks they were heading for when Uriel began his next attack. Placing both his bidents together end to end, forming a staff, the powerful entity held it above his head with both arms and began spinning the staff around. At each end of the linked spears, a golden orb manifested, creating what looked like a massive ring similar to the one running through his body and the a familiar hum could be heard as he selected his fleeing targets.

Gumball felt his grip tightening on the origami tiger's back as he watched the odd spectacle unfold before him and a grim feeling quickly followed,

"You might want to floor it, Teri! He's doing something and it doesn't look good for us!" he remarked to the paper girl with a hint of fear in his voice.

Wanting to maintain her focus on getting to cover, Teri didn't look behind her, but she took his word for it and assumed they needed to hurry. Grinding her teeth together, she put in another command and the paper cat's hind legs coiled up before launching them even further, much closer to the trucks. All the while, Gumball was already preparing to ward off what was probably going to be a devastating and overwhelming attack.

Behind them, Uriel's weapon was already charged with energy and if he could sneer right now, he would have: these rats were in for a world of hurt. Still rapidly spinning his staff, the hovering giant raised his lower arms and then clasped his hands together in a prayer-like position. The noise became silent and within a the span of a single second, he unleashed his devastating attack. From the ends of his spinning staff, dozens of flaming energy rings spewed forth and began arcing towards the running wild cat with its two unprepared passengers.

Feeling his fur raising, the Cyan cat was already on his feet and met the first ring with a horizontal slash that sent the energy projectile bouncing away and out of sight. Unfortunately four more rings came in to replace the one he deflected and the young boy was forced to quickly start hacking and slashing at anything that was attacking their rear. He was doing good, until one of the fiery circles came from his left side and while he was able to move just in time to avoid getting his head lopped off, his shoulder was burnt by the rotating projectile.

Groaning, Gumball swatted three more away and felt one of his hands clasp the burnt spot where the ring had grazed him. He didn't have time to tend to his wound though, as twelve other energy rings, plus all the rebounding ones he had deflected were already zeroing in on them and preparing to annihilate them from all sides. Baring his fangs, Gumball began to have regretful thoughts as he concentrated on which one to hit first,

" _There's no way to deflect all of them and even if I do somehow manage to accomplish such a feat, they're just going to come right back with reinforcements."_ he thought with dread,

" _No choice, I'm gonna have to power up in order to destroy them all."_ he realized, although he didn't want to because he would lose a lot of energy from doing so and he would probably get hurt too due to a lack of thinking.

Before he could ignite his scythe though, he heard Teri say something and he paused,

"Watch your head!" she shouted over her shoulder.

It didn't take him long to figure out what was happening and without so much as a care for the threat behind them, Gumball quickly dropped down on his stomach just as a shadow passed over him. Thanks to Teri's increased speed, she managed to get them to the trucks as she had intended and with a quick warning to her backseat companion, she ducked down, allowing the two of them to slide underneath the massive trailer attached to the rear of the cab. With a set altitude, the flurry of burning halos slammed into the truck with enough force to push it aside a little, burning through the trailer and bursting out from the other side before soaring upwards and away from the parking space for the cargo transports.

Safe and sound, the kids managed to emerge from underneath the damaged vehicle and took a brief moment to catch their breaths. They weren't being attacked for the time being and right now was a good time to re-strategize. During their fight, Teri noticed something about Uriel, he was afraid of letting them get close and tried his best at keeping his distance. All his attacks were long ranged and the way he panicked when they tried running up his spear indicated that he was guarding some sort of weak spot.

And Teri already figured out where it was and how to get to it.

Rotating her upper body until she was facing her feline companion in arms, she decided to relay her plan, although she was unsure if he would be comfortable with it,

"How are you doing back there?" she asked, knowing that deflecting all those attacks must have taken a lot out of him.

With a simple thumbs up and a wobbly grin, Gumball gave her some assurance that he was doing pretty well for himself,

"Not bad! He seems to really like us though, since he keeps trying to put a ring on it, if you know what I mean." he breathed, some of his humor still managing to leak out.

Teri couldn't help but smile at the boy's tenacious sense of humor and unbreakable spirit. Feeling comfortable knowing that he was still fit for fighting, the paper girl moved accordingly to fill him in on her observations and her planned counter attack. Placing her hands together, tilting both index fingers in his direction and putting on her serious face, Teri grabbed his attention,

"Good to know! We're going to attack before he makes another move." she stated with the utmost urgency,

"During our scuffle with him, I noticed an obvious weak point thanks to his overall structure and that spot is his waist. He has that opening that runs all the way down to his naval, meaning the area there is extremely thin and could be destroyed with a powerful explosive attack." she explained, feeling pretty sure that's what Uriel was guarding.

With it all coming to him, Gumball felt that what she said was quite obvious and gave him the ideal place to target. Feeling hope and determination rising within the very core of his being, Gumball was already pumped for a counter attack. Keeping his ears sharp for anymore incoming projectiles, Gumball figured Teri already had a strategy devised and leaned forward to show that he was listening,

"Gotcha! So we split him down the middle! How are we gonna do that, though? he's in the air and surrounded by a swarm of rings ready to engage us at a moment's notice!" he pointed out.

Rolling her eyes at his clever pun, Teri continued on with an idea that popped in her head,

"I've already thought about that and I know how to get pass his defenses, although you're probably not going to like it." she said with a worried glance in his direction.

A devilish smile made its way onto Gumball's face and he could feel his heart starting to race. He already knew what her plan was by the way she spoke and to be honest, it was probably a good idea too. He did have to admit that he was scared of the idea of facing the death dealing king of the sun, but he had faith in Teri's plans and that was enough to quell his concerns,

"Gotta distract him while you sneak in and deal him the final kude-grah, right?" he proclaimed with a look that conveyed his sarcasm towards the female fighter.

Placing a flat hand behind her round head, Teri smiled nervously and nodded a little in order to confirm the cat's suspicions,

"Well, actually I need you to buy me some time because I gotta get prepared first." she quickly added in.

Feeling as though it was the same basic idea, Gumball hopped off the tiger and prepared to fulfill his role in Teri's master plan when he eyed the truck sitting next to them,

"Sure thing… also, that truck over there is carrying extra papers in case you need more ammo." he explained, hiking a thumb over in the direction of the semi with a _Channax_ logo painted on the trailer with subtext stating _printing paper delivery_ underneath.

With her eyes widening in amazement, Teri was about to thank Gumball for pointing that out, but was cut off when she heard a hum that was getting louder by the second, prompting Gumball to get moving. Before he could dash around the truck though, Teri did have something to say and she called out his name. Pausing in his tracks, Gumball pivoted and gave her one last glance,

"In case something goes wrong, here's a quick back-up plan…" she started.

She quickly gave him her other idea and with a single nod of acknowledgement, Gumball ignited the scythe's grey inferno before taking off. Remembering something important, the enhanced kitty slashed a large hole into the side of the _Channax_ delivery truck as he rushed by. Now Teri had a means of getting more paper when the situation called for it and Gumball was able to run out to meet the enemy head on.

From his position in the sky, Uriel sensed a familiar blue figure emerging from his hiding place and redirected his flying weapons to confront the running feline. With his speed and his strength enhanced by the energy raging within, the Watterson child was able to intercept the first volley that was closing in on him and with a few powerful swipes and slashes, reduced the flying halos to nothing. Not entirely phased in the slightest, Uriel sent in the next wave with hopes of completely surrounding his foe and getting a lucky shot where his blindspot was.

The giant watched for a bit as the blue cat continued to make short work of numerous attacks with his lower arms crossed and his mind fixated on the surprisingly capable creature,

" _That's definitely an enhancement spell. He's not going to go down easily, but he'll eventually wear himself out. I'll just keep sending wave after wave of energy attacks at him until his energy completely dissipates."_ he concluded after watching the scythe wielder completely deflect all his rings with no apparent effect on his overall stamina and health.

With nothing else being hurled at him, an enraged Gumball peered up at the villain in the sky and shook his fist at him,

"Is that the best you can do? Why don't you come down here and give me a real fight!" he shouted, already becoming irrational and hot-headed. He was really itching for a fight and with all this energy he possessed, he needed to dish it out on someone.

Hearing the tiny being calling him out, the Nephilim remained where he was and began charging up a doom blast. With a grunt of discontempt, he fired the red beam directly at the noisy little pest and thought to himself how the thing oughta pay for being so disrespectful. Of course, the beam of exotic energy did little to harm the cat as he was already moving away from it and used the opportunity to get closer to the floating beast.

With the blast scorching nothing but Earth, Uriel aborted the strike and disconnected his bidents, holding them until both were pointed at the rapidly approaching the feline Nephilim fighter. Letting loose a couple energy projectiles to harass him with, the halo-themed Nephilim began to drift away while Gumball desperately tried to deflect and dodge the homing attacks being centered on him. While maintaining his focus on the deranged, yet tenacious person fighting below, Uriel noticed that something was off,

" _Wait a minute! If he's attacking right now, then where is his female companion?"_ he wondered after noticing the absence of the second Earth child.

Extending his senses to the surrounding area, the six armed entity and wielder of the sun throne searched for the frail, yet clever partner of the one down below. He was surprised when he picked up movement from behind and whirled around when he saw a flat, angular Sparrow darting through the air towards him with a familiar figure on its back. He also sensed that she was carrying some powerful magic with her and if he had a mouth he would be grinning in amusement,

" _How entertaining! These parasites seriously think such a simple diversion would be enough to get the jump on me?!"_ he mused.

Facing his airborne adversary, a loud hum began to resonate within the ears of the two fighters and Teri looked up in surprise when she saw a familiar scarlet orb began appear in front of the Nephilim's chest. Down below, Gumball leapt over a fiery projectile and cut it in half with a well aimed swing before cutting the remaining one down upon landing. He felt the atmosphere heat up and the world was basked in a bloody red glow. Curious, he turned his gaze upwards and saw that he was too late to stop Uriel from firing his doom blast at Teri, who was immobilized by the entity's force.

For a moment, all Gumball could do was glance up at her in horror as he realized what was about to happen, but stopped when he noticed something. The moment the doom blast reached critical levels and was released in an intense display of light and heat, a circular glass barrier formed in front of Teri and her bird with the twin moons imprinted on it. A barrier rune!

The destructive beam clashed with the transparent wall Teri had placed in front of herself and Gumball smiled when he saw the red energy simply flow around the magical obstacle, leaving Teri surprised, but unscathed. Uriel however, was unaware of the Pepakuma child's defense and presumed her to be nothing more than a few stray atoms. After a few seconds of firing, Uriel was ready to see his handiwork and with a simple command, the beam vanished.

He got a nasty shock when he saw Teri still alive and flying! Taken aback by this, the Nephilim quickly moved backwards, hoping to put more distance between the two of them and launch some countermeasures. To his surprise though, Teri did not attempt to pursue him, instead opting to bank around on her paper sparrow,

" _Wait a minute! If she's not the attacker then why was the other one acting as a…"_ fear running through his mind, he adjusted his sense so he could know what was behind him.

Leaping through the air with his blazing scythe raised above his head, Gumball soared towards the giant with a triumphant grin and got ready to deal the final blow. Uriel realized that he had fallen for their trap, Gumball was never meant to be the distraction, but he was sent out to fool him into thinking he was and he took the bait. Truly the Earth children were a cunning bunch and underestimating them would be a mistake. He felt the child's burning scythe tear its way through his midsection, effectively cutting him in two and leaving the two halves to fall.

Feeling a sense of relief overcoming him, the flying cat continued to move through the air, his magical flames having been extinguished after he'd cut his way through the giant and waited for Teri to intercept his flight path. He was feeling a bit tired now, having used a decent amount of power during that confrontation and the close call with Teri left him mentally exhausted too. If he hadn't seen her throw up that barrier earlier, he probably would've assumed the worst and then he'd… actually, he didn't know what he would have done right then and there. If Teri had been killed, it would've felt like his world was ending because she meant so much to him.

He was glad she was okay and that her plan worked, she knew that Uriel was clever and informed him to get ready to attack once she had the Nephilim's attention. Now he was in two different pieces and falling towards the ground and hopefully the barrier went down around his sun throne so Rob could take the shot. He was several dozen meters from landing when Teri swooped in and caught him on the back of her avion.

Looking back at him with a stressed, yet triumphant expression, she spoke to her passenger,

"Nice job! That was really impressive, holding off all those attacks and cutting through him at the last second!" she said, giving the exhausted boy some praise.

Feeling honored, Gumball managed a crooked smile and wiped some sweat off his brow,

"Thanks! Your plan was effective as always and nice job at tanking that doom blast! That had me scared for a moment!" he remarked, feeling lucky that she was alive and in front of him.

Smiling back at him, the paper girl swerved the bird towards the town and began taking them both in the direction of their school,

"Yeah, I was worried too. I was hoping to get in real close before he could do anything, but his senses were too accurate and he caught me. I'm glad he's dead and no one got hurt." she sighed, already wanting to get this day over with.

Kicking back and feeling himself starting to relax, Gumball allowed the wind to gently caress his fur,

"At least the barrier is down now, so I should probably contact Rob and let him-!" he was interrupted by a blinding light that came from behind.

Both looked back and saw that the flash was coming from the spot Uriel's two halves supposedly fell and a shroud of despair fell upon them. The realization struck the duo as they never saw the body burn up like the Nephilim normally did when they died and foolishly began retreating without confirming the kill. Something was definitely happening now and it obviously spelled bad news for the defenders of Elmore.

Gritting her teeth, Teri growled and swung the bird around, making sure to avert her eyes from the intense light source,

"How can this be? I thought you killed it?" she questioned out loud, feeling all sorts of frustration and confusion at their current situation.

Shielding his eyes too, Gumball didn't have an answer for her, but knew they had hard work ahead of them,

"I'm not sure, but we gotta get back there and finish the job!" he shouted back.

They continued to fly in a straight direction and while they did, the glow died down and what was left was not a single Nephilim, but a pair instead. Getting closer, the curious duo carefully analyzed the two new opponents and were quite shocked to see what the Nephilim had become. While they haven't changed much in appearance one of the most notable differences was their size and number of arms each one possessed. Instead of sixty feet in height, one was forty feet and the other was twenty, looking as though the original was cut down by one third. Another thing to note was while the taller one had four arms the smaller one had only two and both Nephilim wielded a single bident spear.

Despite the big decrease in height, they were both significant threats to the two (actually more so because they lost the advantage in numbers.) and what's more disturbing was the fact that neither of them showed any signs of damage from Gumball's earlier attack.

Mouths agape and eyes locked onto the newly reformed and undamaged silver creatures, Gumball wondered how this was possible,

"How did they…?" he couldn't finish that line because he understood that the Nephilim were capable of pulling off extraordinary abilities, so this shouldn't surprise him.

Still, this was real bad, not only was Uriel undamaged, there were two of them now and Gumball wasn't sure how he and Teri could deal with a pair of Nephilim at once. They already had enough trouble dealing with _one_ Uriel, or any Nephilim for that matter. He really hoped that Rob was finished with his program and was heading down to reinforce them because he wasn't sure either of them could hold out against this new threat.

Keeping their distance, Teri had the bird circle around the new pair and continued to observe them. Like her passenger, she was very surprised with this new and rather difficult situation present before them. She hoped that the last attack would do him in, but it seemed that Uriel had his own clever trick up his non-existent sleeves. His original form had six arms and was twenty feet higher than the tallest one there, so it was easy for Teri to deduce that he could only do this trick once more with the taller one, which had four arms. She wasn't sure how strong each individual one was and whether or not their strength was divided as individuals, but she figured that taking out the smaller one might be easier.

It's the big one though, that displayed the most problems and with both of them working together, it was going to be an uphill conflict.

While she thought of a plan, she noticed the taller Uriel's body halo had reverted back into a head form and was now speaking to them,

"I commend you for such a clever trick, not bad for vermin such as yourselves. You have my respect as a soldier of Babyloth." he said, showing genuine esteem for his two opponents.

On the sparrow, Gumball stood and cupped a hand around his mouth before shouting back at the Nephilim,

"Sorry Sunny D-stroyer, but flattery won't help you unleash the power of the sun and destroy our town." he responded with some snark. Teri was glad to hear him making puns and using silly nicknames, it meant that he was still high in spirits.

Ignoring his snappy comeback, the forty foot tall Uriel continued to ramble on,

"But I'm afraid to say that your cunning tactics won't be enough to save you and your kind's infestation." he said, his tone already shifting back to bitter hatred,

"Seeing as I have a vendetta against you and the people living here, I'm going to send my puppet out to start exterminating the unsuspecting pests, starting first with the youngest and I believe the closest nest of young Earth children is there." he said, pointing off in a certain direction.

Teri and Gumball followed the direction of his finger and figured out where he was referring to,

"The high school!" Teri shouted.

"Anais!" Gumball screamed in terror.

With a simple snap of his fingers, the divided sun king sent his smaller counterpart off and running out from the airport. As soon as he disappeared, Uriel turned his attention back to the airborne fighters, his dark eyes locking onto their terrified expressions,

"So many young souls." he muttered with an apathetic cruelty,

"Of course, you two could stay here and finish me off yourselves, it would be difficult, but achievable no doubt. However, my puppet will probably reach the gathering of young Earth children in five minutes or less. Do you really think you can defeat me in time? Leaving here to help the children will also result in the deaths of the people in the airport and perhaps the surrounding area." he mentioned.

Staring in disbelief, Gumball and Teri tried to mentally find a solution to this unfortunate predicament. They could phone in Rob and have him intercept the Nephilim heading for the school, but he was still quite a distance away and there was also the fact that he may not be finished with his auto-firing system. The next obvious choice was to quickly finish off the one stationed here, but like he said, it would probably take them too much time and what would happen if he divided himself again? The final option would be to split up and handle each one themselves, but neither of them were strong enough to take on a Nephilim by themselves.

" _Such a dirty trick! This is exactly what I feared would happen as time wore on, having to deal with multiple opponents."_ Teri's internal monologue voiced her frustration and anxiety,

" _We have no choice! One of us has to go after the one that left and the other has to stay and keep the bigger one occupied. Problem is, if either one of us goes then our strength would decrease and we'll have more difficulty fighting."_ she growled as she quickly glanced around for anything that could be of use.

Sneaking a peek at Gumball, she saw that he was already starting to move with his focus being on the taller Nephilim standing below them and his weapon already raised at his side. She realized that he must be opting to take the larger one down as quickly as possible and with his scythe's ability along with the Nephilim's decrease in size, he probably could inflict some serious damage with the enchanted weapon. With that being said, he could probably take the smaller one on his own if he were careful and level headed.

And just like that, a light went off in her head as she kept her eyes on the bizarre weapon her partner used.

Getting ready to leap from the bird, he cast her a glance and saw that she was looking his direction,

"Alright, let's take this guy down right now! I'm gonna attack him from ab-?"

"Gumball, go after the smaller one!" she interjected, pointing in the direction of the Nephilim that had left.

Baffled, Gumball tried to make sense of what he had just heard and just stared ahead with a perplexed expression. _Did she just tell me to go after the one that just left?_ This was the only question he had on his mind for the first second, but another quickly replaced that one the next second,

"Wait, what?! Go after him? What about you?" he asked in concern.

Teri shook her head and pointed again in the same direction of the retreating beast,

"There's no time to argue! You have to catch him now before he reaches the high school! Your sister is in danger and I don't want you to be distracted, so deal with him first and come back as soon as possible." she was nearly shouting at this point.

He wanted to object, but he could tell by the look in her eyes that she was right, there was no time to deal with the four armed one when the smaller one was going to be arriving at the school. Plus, it was true, while he knew the larger entity was probably a bigger threat, he wouldn't be able to fight it while his mind was on his little sibling and it would probably drown him in fear of what could possibly happen. If he had it his way, he would have sent Teri after the fleeing giant, but wondered how she would fight it on her own.

Gritting his teeth, he nodded as a sign of acknowledgement, but said something before he left,

"Alright, but I will be back as quickly as possible so don't do anything reckless." he warned, giving her a stern look that contained his concern and his fear for her safety.

With a simple bob of her flat head, Teri promised him that she will be okay,

"I won't. I'll keep him busy while you deal with the other one and I promise I will be okay." she assured him.

Gumball took one more moment to glance at her, he really did not want to leave her here and let her face Uriel by herself. He knew she was smart and capable of fending for herself, but what if something went wrong and he wasn't there to help her? There were so many things that could happen and knowing these possibilities scared him.

But he knew that his sister and all the other high schoolers weren't going to have a snowball's chance in dealing with the Nephilim and it was their unannounced job to protect people against a foe they couldn't even comprehend,

He hesitated before he jumped off, taking a moment to wish her a farewell,

"Okay… good luck. I promise I'll be back soon." he said softly, offering a weak smile before he leapt off the sparrow,

" _I have to save Anais, the high schoolers, and help Teri as soon as possible. I have a promise to both I must keep and I will not break it!"_ his internal declaration drove his magical weapon to feed more power into him and the blue cat landed safely on the ground before racing off towards the fence that surrounded the airport.

Within seconds he cleared the perimeter and was in hot pursuit of the Nephilim puppet that disappeared earlier, leaving Teri alone with the much larger, four armed sun entity.

Surprised that Uriel let Gumball go without any attempt to stop him, Teri circled around the giant, but kept some space in between them. She wasn't sure what he was up to, but now she could not afford to make any mistakes. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted something moving towards her and fast! Spinning downwards, Teri avoided the approaching object and when it passed overhead, she could see that it was another one of the Nephilim's energy rings.

Letting out a frustrated noise, Teri tried to find cover while the spinning projectile homed in on her and banked in a tight circle in order to catch her during her descent,

" _He must have fired it while we were talking, sneaky jerk!"_ she thought as she peered over at the giant in question and saw that he still hadn't moved from his spot.

Suddenly, an idea came to her and she figured out how to lose the projectile while also dealing him some damage. Snapping out of her dive, she changed course and started heading directly towards Uriel, who wasn't too far from where she was. Seeing her fast approaching, Uriel prepared to fire a doom blast, but found that he couldn't maintain a lock on her due to her flight's weaving pattern. The doom blast was only effective when a target was slow or stationary and with Teri's maneuvering, there was little Uriel could do to stop her from reaching him.

Aiming for the space in between his legs, Teri and the sparrow sped up, shooting in between (she had to be careful not look up because she did NOT want to see what was up that giant's loincloth.) and narrowly dodged one of his swiping hands. Fortunately for the speedy paper puppet, the moment he bent down to intercept her, he was struck by his own projectile and it exploded against his shoulder in a bright flash.

Seeing as her move was successful, Teri put some distance between herself and her opponent before turning to see the damage. Sadly her clever maneuver proved to be less than effective, as the only damage done to the giant's silver hide was a smoking black spot on his shoulder where the energy ring struck. Standing up straight again, Uriel dusted off his shoulder and spun about his heel until he could see his adversary flying about while observing him,

"You're far more formidable even without that furry mammal, but as you can see, my own attacks will not harm me." he cocked his flaming blue head to the side, as if taunting her,

"You'll have to do better than that!" he uttered in that condescending tone of his.

Reaching into the side pocket of her bag, Teri withdrew several sheets of paper with runes already drawn onto them. With her control over paper, the sheets twisted and folded themselves until they were in the shape of four pointed shurikens and she held all three in between her fingers. All the while eyed the Nephilim and kept a straight face as her origami mount swerved around and began ascending, making sure she was above him,

"How about we see what happens when I use something that will do more than scratch the paint?" she called back insultingly.

If the entity could smile, he would have been beaming, he never would have suspected that Leliel's killers were such a daring bunch and was happy he came here of his own accord. Holding his golden weapon in both hands, he raised it until its two points were level with the airborne paper girl and charged up another halo bolt. He was definitely going to be executed for disobeying orders and coming down to Earth on his own, but at least he will have had one of the most interesting fights in his whole military career,

"Why don't you come a little closer and we'll see?" he happily proclaimed.

And with that being said, his flames went from blue to gold and his head reverted back into the flaming ring that divided his upper torso. Getting ready for her descent, Teri held the shurikens close to her and prepared to throw them when she was close enough. Just as a safety measure, she also snuck a shield rune in her front pocket, not wanting to receive any damage in the event that one of his attacks managed to hit her.

She scanned for an opening and saw that he had lowered his body in order to effectively cover his weak point,

" _Breaking his defense is going to be tough, but it should be achievable with some direct attacks from above."_ she wasn't entirely confident this was the best strategy, but time was running out and she needed to keep this guy distracted,

" _I hope Gumball will fare well in his confrontation. To be honest, I'm very worried about him and while the opponent he's facing is smaller, doesn't mean it will be an easy fight. Regardless, I have a strong feeling that he will be able to complete his task and he will be back in no time. In the meantime, I will make sure our unwanted visitor doesn't do any harm. I may not be as strong or as durable as Gumball, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve."_ she seemed rather at ease now, having gone through all her concerning thoughts right then and there while restoring her confidence a bit.

She was going to have to do this by herself and it was terrifying in on its own to think about, but at least she wasn't completely defenseless. Finding a weakness in Uriel's defense, Teri reacted immediately, causing her orange sparrow to tuck in its triangular wings and dive straight towards the space between the Nephilim's arms and spear. It was do or die time!

 _-Rob's campsite, 3:05 PM-_

Far from the chaotic battleground at the airport, Rob eagerly ran his fingers across the keyboard and each digit produced a wonderful _tap!_ as it struck every desired key. He finished with the program he had been vigorously working on for the past twelve minutes and was delighted to see the fruits of his labors display themselves on the glowing monitor. He was well aware that the battle for the airport was occurring and was partially nagging himself to hurry, but he understood that many lives were at stake unless he completed this vital component to his weapon. Patience is a virtue, but unfortunately time was of the essence as well, and he needed to get down to the airport soon, or else he may no longer have any partners to fight alongside him.

Slapping another mosquito that had made the mortal mistake of disturbing him while he worked, Rob pressed a few more keys, and clicked 'ok' on a pop-up, allowing for a brief loading process. Seconds ticked by and seemed to stretch into minutes as Rob anxiously watched as the loading bar moved from twenty seven percent to thirty two percent, forty eight, fifty four, sixty eight, seventy one…

Running his pink hand through his blocky brown hair, Rob blinked his dry eye several times in order to relieve it of its pain and continued to watch the monitor intently,

"Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on…" he muttered rapidly to himself as if his words alone would be enough to speed up the loading process.

Lucky for him, it didn't take much longer for the loading bar to reach one hundred percent and flash green, indicating that his program was finished downloading. The next thing to pop up on his screen was an image of the deadly focusing lens with a cross hair focusing directly at its center along with several other statistical readouts at the corners of the monitor. Everything was set up, all it would take was one press of a button on his phone and _Cuatro Oblivion_ would deliver its deadly payload straight to the target.

Feeling pleased with himself, the polygonal cyclops stood up, rubbed his burning eye, and began making his way towards his vehicle. He was needed at the airport and with a glance up at the sky, he could tell that he needed to hurry. While he paced towards his car, his phone started buzzing on his wrist and he plucked it off to see who was calling him.

To his surprise, it was Gumball and he pressed the answer button before holding the cellular device up to his ear spot,

"Gumball! I just finished with my program and I'm heading down to the airport." he responded into the phone's speaker.

There was a bit of a ruffling static on the other end, as if Gumball were traveling at high speeds in a car with the windows open and it was slightly difficult to hear him,

"Great! You need to hurry though, the Nephilim is able to divide itself and has sent one of its copies to Elmore High. I'm in pursuit of the one heading to the high school, but you need to get to the airport immediately because Teri is facing the other one by herself." Gumball explained, trying his best to make sure his message was clear.

With his heart nearly leaping into his throat, Rob stopped for the briefest of moments, his eye wide with fright and one of his hands trembling a little,

" _Rachel!"_ the name of his housemate rebounded through his mind like a warning beacon as terror began to sink in.

Rachel was still at school today and if that thing was already heading there to wreak havoc, then she was in serious danger. Already feeling what needed to be done, Rob picked up the pace towards his car, talking to Gumball as he opened the door and climbed in,

"Alright, I'll meet you at the high school to provide some assistance and then we'll reinforce Teri straight afterwards." he responded, closing the door and strapping himself in.

There was another muffled sound and Gumball's voice barely made it through the receiver,

"No! I can handle this one! Go help Teri because the one she's facing is much stronger than the one I'm pursuing!" he stated, sounding very frantic and if Rob could guess correctly, it sounded like he was more worried about Teri than himself.

He didn't fully understand what was going on, but pushing his personal feelings aside, he figured that helping Gumball first would be preferable because while he could endure a lot of punishment, he wasn't exactly cunning like his paper partner. Also, the high school was en route with the airport, so if he hurried he could catch Gumball and the Nephilim before heading off to help their third companion. He was certain that Gumball's feelings for Teri were driving him to send help her way and to be fair, he wasn't entirely different in that regard either.

He twisted the key in the ignition and the car's engine roared to life,

"Okay. I'll be right there." he lied, before hanging up and placing his phone back onto his wrist pad.

Placing the car into drive and pressing his foot on the gas, Rob guided the vehicle onto the empty gravel road that lead up to his campsite. He wasn't worried about anyone stumbling across his equipment because this road was usually left alone due to some safety hazards along the trail and the forest of doom was also not too far away either, although the beasts only come out at night in this area. With the high school as his destination, Rob began to race down the path and would be pulling out into a freeway in less than a minute.

He knew Gumball wasn't going to be happy with his decision to come help him, but he had a lot of good reasons to back him up. While, he hadn't known Teri for the longest of times, she was undoubtedly one capable person who could hold her own against the Nephilim and wouldn't do anything that risked her personal safety. Being frail was definitely a burden for someone like her, but if anything, it also taught her how to be careful and aware of the dangers surrounding her. Rob was certain that she'll be alright and that when they got there, she would still be in one piece.

At least he hoped so…

One thing that was on his mind though, was Gumball's usage of his scythe and the consequences it could possibly have on him. It didn't take some sort of rocket scientist to understand that Gumball was using his weapon to help him travel through Elmore at high speeds while in pursuit of the monster that was threatening the lives of a bunch of high school students. Remembering the warning Mrs. Jotenheim gave him, Rob knew that incorrect usage of strength enhancing magic could severely damage one's soul and that one would have to be clear in his intentions in order to avoid serious harm.

And with Gumball's mind all over the place, this didn't bode well for the cat's former classmate and he held this as another reason to lend him some assistance. He hoped that he could get there in time before Gumball lost control and does something to hurt himself or worse. Looking up at the sky, he could see that bits of sunlight were starting to make the grey ceiling a bit brighter and he knew that time was running out.

He was going to need the defenders of Elmore back together for everyone's sake.

 _-Elmore High-_

The two armed Nephilim puppet stepped unhindered and unnoticed onto the parking lot of the public school. He could sense all the young spirits inside as they prepared for their long day of classes to come to an end and for their elder peers to release them out into the world so they could begin with their brief time off. A lot of positive energy was said to be brimming amongst the young folk and Uriel found this to be quite entertaining.

As a higher being, whose form could not be perceived by those seen as his inferiors, Uriel admired the idea of erasing those happy thoughts and emotions within a single blast of his energized weapon. Afterall, why do they deserve to live when he, along with many other Nephilim, were suffering? He also knew that those pestering insects that have been defending this wretched placed cared so much for the other people living here, so killing the younger ones would drop their moral pretty low and when that happens it wouldn't matter whether he succeeded in his primary mission or not because there was little chance of them getting up after taking such a devastating hit.

He raised his bident and a golden orb appeared between the twin prongs, an attack that will no doubt decimate the entire building,

"War always brings about terrible tragedies." Uriel muttered bitterly to himself as he waited for the energy attack to reach critical levels.

Behind him, a blue cat boy tore across the street, making his way towards the two story tall spear wielder. His mind had been fully concentrated on reaching the school and stopping the smaller version of the being from the airport, aside from a quick call to an accomplice in the forest who always seemed to have his eye on everything. Feeling glad that help was coming Teri's way, Gumball was able to concentrate on protecting his sister and all the other high schoolers who were about to receive a terrible fate.

The run here was utterly fascinating to the town's local troublemaker and defender, as his increased speed saw entire blocks and streets pass on by within mere seconds. He had to be careful though, for he nearly struck a few objects that, if it weren't for his amazing reaction time, would have hindered his journey. He was also amazed at just how fast the Nephilim could travel on foot because he never seemed to catch him despite taking off after him half a minute after he was sent to destroy the school. One good thing he gained from all of this was that he knew how to control the flames, kind of, he was kind of bent on ripping the Nephilim to shreds when he first started running, but with fear of Teri's safety constantly sitting in the back of his mind, he called Rob and seemed to calm down afterwards.

And just like that, once he had his goal set before him, the silver flames that threatened to destroy everything he deemed a danger died down a little, but remained at steady level. He no longer felt this fury constantly causing him to lash out and was doing much better than he was earlier. Question is, how long could he keep this up and what would happen once he reached the Nephilim? He already used up a lot of energy during the fight and during the trip here, now he could actually see the Nephilim standing in the school parking lot and his body was already starting to tire. He needed to finish him in one attack, so he was going to have to strike from behind and at his weak point.

It was do or die time.

Making his way across the street, Gumball easily cleared the front lawn, leapt over the sign at the entrance and dashed towards the halo-like being with his arms pulling the scythe towards his side. He had his eyes locked onto the creature's middle, where the split ended and where the waist began. With the Nephilim being only twenty feet tall, there was about four feet of space between the sun-inspired monster's body cavity and where his legs parted, so cutting through it shouldn't be an issue.

Closing in on his target, he readied himself, tightening his grip around the weapon's metal handle and with about thirty feet of distance between them, Gumball leapt. It was easy to gain some air with the massive amount of energy allowing his normally weak leg muscles to propel him upwards and at a speed that allowed him to close the distance real quick. The silver flames began to roar as he raised the weapon, ready to bring death with a single swipe and right before Uriel could unleash his energy blast.

Things don't go necessarily as planned though and Gumball was made painfully aware of that when the burning entity spun around with its spear ready to knock him out of the air. He had sensed him coming, Gumball knew this, hoping that he could finish him off before he could react, but he had to change his approach now before he was killed. Sadly there wasn't enough time to dodge the Nephilim's swing, plus he was already in the air so he couldn't move out of the way. Clenching his teeth, Gumball's muscles tightened as he brought the scythe downwards while at the same time a burst of energy rushed through him and to his weapon's edge.

The resulting strike, unleashed a familiar arc of destructive, flaming energy that propelled the little kid backwards and shot towards the now flabbergasted Uriel as he tried to defend himself against this unbeliavable strike. With very little time to react, Uriel tried to move aside, but was caught in the flame's devastating arc and an explosion of silver blossomed from the contact between him and Gumball's amplified swing. Meanwhile, Gumball collided with the ground, tumbling a little before coming to a stop and was temporarily blinded by the fireball he instinctively created. A loud screech was all that could be heard from the ring-like entity and the feline wondered if that strike was enough to finish him off.

Lying on his back and breathing heavily, Gumball felt like a sack of potatoes made of Tungsten. All this usage of magic today was having a toll on his body and he really felt like curling up somewhere to take a nap. One thing he was definitely working on this weekend was his usage of the fire because this was most certainly one of his greatest assets as well as one of his greatest setbacks. That and a whole slew of issues that needed to be addressed.

" _Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay."_ he said repeatedly in his mind, trying to keep himself from passing out as he began to force himself back up,

"Just… gotta get (gasp!) back up… and… uh… check out the… um… Sunny D-stroyer or whatever his name was…" he wheezed past his fatigue.

His mind was a little foggy and getting back up was harder than any workout he'd done, at least that's what it felt like to him. He did get up eventually, although he had to use his scythe as a support before he was standing back on his feet again. He felt as though his strength would return in the next few minutes once he caught his breath, but for now, he wasn't going to be running any marathons.

In front of him, something moved slightly and his ears picked up a rough sound, causing him to point his head in the direction of the noise. He didn't get to see anything though, as something big and metallic looking shot out from the smoke and slammed into the weary bipedal feline, sending him soaring across the parking lot. The impact of the massive object caused him to lose his breath and moments later, he felt his shoulder strike the asphalt, hard, before the rest of his body connected and bounced into a parked car.

Nothing could describe the firestorm he was feeling after smacking full force into the ground and then into the car that prevented him from travelling any further. Gumball couldn't even let out a scream, instead only a slight gurgling sound managed to escape his quivering mouth and he curled up into a fetal position as his body burned with agony. He could tell his shoulder suffered serious damage as he couldn't seem to move it and every time he did, a hot spike would drive itself into the joint and force him to tear up a little while gnashing his teeth.

Ways away from him, the puppet of Uriel stepped out of the cloud of smoke that resulted from the explosion while brandishing his spear with the one arm he had left and converted his body circle into a head again. Managing to straighten himself out, Gumball sat up, cracked an eye open and watched as the silver titan began to make its way towards him. Looking at the stump where his arm was, Gumball could say that he was quite impressed with how much damage he caused the Nephilim, although he may not be able to admire his work for long and figured that his existence here was about to be cut short.

Having not kicked the little cat boy very far, Uriel would be upon his target within a few paces and seeing as he appeared to be in a weakened state, finishing him off will be a simple matter. Staring at him triumphantly, the sun king began to mock the Watterson child while he struggled to stand once again,

"I daresay you are quite the troublemaker, I can see why you lot have been a thorn in our side for some time now." he snarled.

Gumball spat onto the pavement and sported another grin,

"I disarmed the first guy too, you know. You Nephilim are about as bright as coach Russo's sweatpants after she waddles to the food court and you're not laying a finger on my sister either, candle face!" he snapped back with some wit.

Uriel did not seem to take well to the cat's punny and very degrading comparison, as his fiery head burst into another explosion of crimson fury,

"How about I show you bright by setting you and your kin ablaze!" he bellowed, his eyes already disappearing within the inferno as he swung the spear directly at the smaller enemy of his.

Summoning up whatever energy he had left, Gumball's ignited scythe met the spear several inches from his neck and he bent his knees as the force of the monster's swing nearly sent him flying again. The sharp sound of metal striking metal rang in his ears as he placed his other arm, ignoring the pain surging from his crippled shoulder, against the shaft, right beneath the curved blade itself and pushed with all his might. He managed to knocked the giant's weapon away a little, enough to allow him to escape and began to run towards the space in between Uriel's feet.

Seeing what he was going for, Uriel lifted one leg and brought it down right on top of the scurrying mammal. Swiftly dodging the massive foot by rolling to the side, Gumball felt the ground shake as the silver skinned foot came crashing down next to him and formed cracks in the concrete. Getting up, he slashed at the giant's ankle, forming a decent sized cut within the joint, although it was slightly shallow thanks to his reduced strength. He was still feeling too tired and needed to think of a better plan fast.

He remembered having something in his pocket and decided he would have to use it at some point.

Wanting to put some distance between him and the pest, the Nephilim placed the tips of the spear on the ground and spun around, allowing the bident to scrape along the asphalt as he did a sweep. Hearing and seeing the golden blades fast approaching, Gumball tried to turn and run, but saw that the bident was coming in too fast. Aiming to deflect, Gumball brought his lengthy weapon up just as the colossal split end of the giant's primary weapon reached him and with another hollow ringing sound, Gumball was sent skidding back towards another car and seemed to be nearing another painful collision.

Thinking fast, Gumball swung downwards, allowing the scythe's curved blade to dig into the ground and drag him to a stop, roughly twelve feet from the car he was heading towards. Gasping, the anthropomorphic cat took a moment to catch his breath and when he looked down at his selected Nephilim fighting device, he saw that the flames that once engulfed his blade in a blaze were now reduced to something akin to a candle flame that ran along the edge. He barely had any energy left to do much, so he was going to have to keep his distance from now on.

Standing several feet away and unbeknownst to the recovering fighter, the warrior was raising his spear now, poised to throw it at his adversary. Taking a moment to aim and to factor in how his balance was off thanks to his missing arm, the giant placed where his opponent was and drew his arm back. Feeling something was off, Gumball glanced over to where the Nephilim was and his his eyes widened in shock when he saw the tuning fork-shaped weapon sailing towards him!

"ACK!" was all he could say when he found his upper body being roughly pinned to the ground by the colossal golden weapon of sun entity.

Sprawled on his back and caught in the space between the twin prongs, Gumball found it difficult to breathe. He tried to push the heavy metal object off of him, but found that it was too heavy and embedded deep within the ground to budge. Realizing that pushing it off was a futile effort (his scythe was also knocked out of his paw, so any extra power he could have summoned out it wasn't going to be of use to him.), he decided to try wriggling out from his metallic prison.

While he attempted this, he could hear the Nephilim approaching over the sound of his own grunting and didn't look over to where he was because he didn't want to panic,

" _Crap, crap, crap, get off!"_ his internal voice screamed while he groaned externally, kicking his legs and pushing against the bident that was acting as a brace to keep him in place.

The footsteps got louder and louder until they stopped, he could tell from the vibrations the massive being's feet produced that he was close by. Soon he felt the heavy spear being lifted off of him and he could breathe easily again. He was lucky that nothing had been broken or worse, that he wasn't cut in half. Unfortunately, when he looked over, he caught a glimpse of Uriel dropping the spear he had lifted so effortlessly and then leaned down to pick up the now defenseless and exhausted child lying on the ground.

With not much time left, Gumball quickly fished out the item in his pocket just as several colossal fingers wrapped around his body and began to pull him from the ground. The Nephilim's grip was strong and Gumball could feel the smooth, cold texture of its mirror-like skin all over his body. It felt horrible to him and his heart was racing a mile a minute, plus the monster's grip wasn't so comfortable and his shoulder was suffering for it. Lucky for him, both his head and one arm were sticking out from the enclosed space and he could see the giant's crouching body as he ascended from the ground. Spotting the entity's knee, Gumball tossed the object he was holding in his hand at it just as he was brought up to Uriel's face and found himself gazing into two large gaping holes set in the middle of a fiery Cyan head.

Standing at his full height, Uriel gazed at the helpless creature held prisoner within his grasp and a chuckle was heard coming from him,

"None of your toys are going to break you out of here, vermin!" he said, allowing a blast of heat from his head to hit the blue cat in the face.

Gumball tried to turn his face away, his eyes were already watering from the rising temperature and he felt as though his face was on fire. He also didn't like looking this monster in the eyes because they were just so cold and empty, despite his blazing appearance. He struggled against the Nephilim's iron grip, trying his best to free his other arm and winced every time his shoulder would jolt with pain.

Seeing the boy's struggle to escape, Uriel tightened his grip a little causing Gumball to scream in agony as his shoulder throbbed under the intense pressure,

"Why do you persist on escaping? Heck, I'm confused as to why you even bother trying to fight us at all? You know your end is near, right?" he questioned, venomous fury lacing his voice.

Biting his tongue to keep from screaming again, Gumball braved the intense pain he was in and tugged at his arm again. There was another item in his hand and he needed this arm to be free. After a few seconds of wriggling and heavy silence, Gumball's arm popped free of its prison and he turned to the Nephilim speaking to him with a condescending smile etching its way onto his face,

"Because you and the ones that came before always underestimate us!" he remarked with a mischievous glint in his eyes as he pointed downwards at the giants knee.

Confused as to what he meant and where he was pointing to, the monster's head shifted until he could see his own leg. He nearly froze in absolute shock as he saw that his knee and lower thigh were slowly turning to stone! On closer inspection, he could see that the source of the petrification was a wadded ball of paper with some kind of drawing on it.

Fear gripped the silver titan within its icy talons and he released his own hold on Gumball in order to swat away the object that was causing damage to his limb. Caught in a free fall, Gumball descended towards the Nephilim's mid-section and extended the claws on his free hand as well as his feet. He caught on to the entity's reflective flesh, his claws scraping the side and leaving behind an engraved trail in Uriel's hide as he slowed to a halt near the monster's jewel embroidered loincloth. In his other hand was a sticky note with an explosive rune written on its surface, he always carried two runes on his person in case he couldn't use his scythe, and placed the magic object right below the Nephilim's navel before leaping off.

Uriel, who was too busy trying to deal with his frozen leg, didn't notice the kitten's actions and was killed in a violent explosion that erupted from his middle. The damage was so severe that when the explosion faded into smoke, the Uriel puppet was falling in two separate pieces that were slowly fading in color as his central flames dissipated from the death of its body. Gumball got up from his braced position on the ground and was happy to see purple flames erupting from the two fallen masses,

" _Thank goodness."_ he thought to himself with a smile. The Nephilim puppet was dead and the school was still intact and best of all, Anais was safe. His family was safe. At least he managed to defeat the monster by outsmarting it and taking advantage of its arrogance,

" _I love it when Teri is right!"_ he thought with a chuckle before realizing that he needed to get back to the airport right away.

Turning around, he saw his scythe lying on the pavement not too far from him and he hobbled over to it. He was still too tired, but his need to assist his close friend was driving him to ignore his body's warnings and need for rest. There wasn't much energy left in the weapon and he knew it, he didn't even know what he was going to do if he even managed to reach the airport, but he didn't care about that right now: he had to help her.

Slowly bending over and picking up the dull grey metal object, Gumball grunted as he hefted it over his shoulder and started towards the school's exit. He walked a few paces when something caught his eye and when he looked up, he noticed the sky was getting brighter. Not sure how much time has passed, Gumball pulled out his phone and checked the clock on his main menu.

3:07 PM

The clouds were clearing up in twenty seven minutes, give or take, he needed to get a move on and defeat that Nephilim as soon as possible. Hopefully Rob was close to the airport, if he was there to assist Teri, then things should be going well and since he was also aware of the time, that Nephilim was probably as good as dead. Now all he had to worry about was getting there.

BEEP! BEEP!

Gumball was so lost in thought that he didn't even notice a car pulling into the school parking lot and he jumped as a result. Peering up at the incoming vehicle, Gumball recognized it right away and found himself welling up with a sense of relief as well as an unbridled rage. It was a purple Geo Metro with its driver being an all too familiar arch nemesis of his; an arch nemesis that was supposed to be going to the airport!

The car pulled up next to him, wheels slowly grinding against the pavement before coming to a complete stop and a moment later, the passenger popped open,

"Nice job, Gumball! Now get in, we have a town to save!" Rob greeted while waving him towards the car.

With a sigh, he obliged and got in, slamming the door behind him before placing his seat harness across his body. With his passenger secure, Rob placed his foot on the gas and circled the two of them around before making his way to the exit. While he drove, Gumball thought about yelling at him for not doing as he asked, but decided not to because he was actually grateful for the transportation.

Folding his scythe in, Gumball sat back in his seat while massaging his shoulder,

"You look like you've seen better days." Rob commented after stealing a glance.

Gumball tried to chuckle, but it came out as a pained grunt,

"Yeah, not the worst fight I've been in, but this one was a bit taxing." he muttered before turning his large head in Rob's direction,

"Weren't you supposed to be heading to the airport?" he asked, a sour expression on his face.

The driver rolled his eye and swerved around another car (he was driving over 90 even though the speed limit was 45.) nearly tailgating it,

"Funny you should say that, because the high school just so happened to be on the same route as the airport- Shoot! Hang on." he warned, as yanked the wheel to the left and Gumball held on to the passenger door handle for dear life as the car violently spun at a turn before racing off down another street.

" _Of course it was."_ Gumball thought sarcastically to himself while simultaneously praying that they make it to the airport in one piece,

"I thought I'd pop by and lend you a helping hand, but you seemed to handle that fight wonderfully." Rob further explained, although his usage of the word "wonderfully" seemed rather snarkish and Gumball got the implication that the inventor was mocking him.

"Yeah, well, in a few minutes I should be good to go, but that all depends if we can actually _survive_ the journey there." he responded with a glare being shot in Rob's direction.

"What's wrong with my driving?" he asked defensively.

It was at that moment, the car sped across a crosswalk and clipped the rear wheel of Hary Gedges', the elderly purple neighbor of the Wattersons and mailman of Elmore who also had antlers, bicycle. The poor citizen of Elmore was knocked down with a scream and his envelopes were scattered amongst the wind. The two boys both looked back in shock before Gumball shot another glare at Rob while raising his arms and pointing behind him in order to emphasize his point,

"Whatever, hopefully the house bill will come in later than usual." he stated, showing not even the slightest bit of care for Gedges' condition.

Facepalming and letting out a sigh, Gumball slumped back down in his seat while still clutching the door handle in a death grip,

"Well in case you haven't noticed, we're still trying to save the town _and_ the people living in it." he snapped back.

Rob just shrugged and kept his eye on the road,

"Yeah, which is why I'm driving at ninety five towards the airport in hopes that we can kill a monster that's threatening to burn our town to the ground with a giant magnifying glass and for the record, destroying you and the people here is supposed to be my job, not these Kaiju-wannabes." he grumbled to himself while dodging another car on the road.

They had a few minutes until they arrived at the airport and Gumball was actually quite surprised that despite this car going at its fastest, he was still able to move faster with his the power the scythe gave him.

Watching every road pass by, Gumball's anxiety was skyrocketing because of how slow everything felt and every second that ticked by was a second where Teri could possibly be in danger,

"Fair point, although if you want the job done faster, why not team up with these guys instead?" he asked, trying to calm his nerves.

Rob's shoulders hunched up at the question and he furrowed his eyebrow in annoyance,

"First off, like I said, they're unoriginal copycats and lastly, I don't think they would stoop that low. They seem to be pretty confident in their own ability to wage war on us and honestly, they probably can wipe us out if they wanted to. All it would take is a small army or a really strong weapon and they'll trample this place back into dust… along with everyone else. So yeah, I'm not teaming up with these genocidal dum-dums to ensure my own demise." he replied, sounding very grim about the subject.

Gumball too felt very wary about the uncertainty regarding the enemy's power and how their lives were at stake. The cyclop's words served as a very dark reminder to the both of them not to get overconfident and to expect the worse that is to come. Clutching his scythe tightly and holding it closer to him, Gumball rid his thoughts of the uncertainties that lay ahead and instead focused on the current problem at hand,

"I sure hope Teri's doing okay." Gumball spoke softly, feeling as though his words might invoke some bad omen.

Curious, the strange ally of Gumball and Teri snuck another peek at him and then answered in some reassuring confidence,

"I'm sure she's fine. Unlike you, she's incredibly smart and talented, I'm sure that Nephilim is nothing she can't handle." he responded, hoping that would bring the cat in a better mood.

It kind of did the trick, as Gumball was reminded how capable Teri was and how she could probably work her way out of a tricky situation. He also caught on to Rob's insult, but didn't comment about it because he knew it was just what he did. They would be arriving at the airport within three minutes and then some. Gumball hoped that Rob was right and that they'll arrive in time.

 _-Elmore airport-_

"I can't handle this!" Teri shouted to herself as swerved her paper panther and narrowly dodged another donut shaped projectile as it slammed into the runway she was currently running on.

Ever since she sent Gumball away to deal with the other Uriel, she'd been struggling against the much larger and stronger version ever since and she was starting to have doubts whether or not she was going to make it through this ordeal alive. For the past few minutes she had been flying through the air, evading airborne attacks, scurrying around on the ground, deflecting several doom blasts and all in all trying to score a hit on the monster. Unfortunately, her adversary proved to be a bit of a challenge as he was able to keep her away with a flurry of energy projectiles, red death beams, and jabs with his spear and whenever she did happen to get close enough, he would gladly use his three available arms to swipe at her.

During the entire battle, she had lost three origamis, dozens of rune papers, and managed to obtain three tears on her body: one on her cheek and two on her upper right arm. All this because she got too close one too many times and payed for it. It just seemed like the four armed Nephilim with the massive body ring had little vulnerabilities and Teri was starting to get real tired of fighting it.

She was quite the distance away from him now and was running towards the end of the runway, where many aircraft took off and landed on a daily basis. Her pursuer was far behind her, but he could easily catch up by flying or pinning her with another one of his magical strikes. Either way, she was running low on time and she needed to check her bags to see how much paper stock she had left.

Keeping an eye on the charging behemoth far behind her, the paper puppet tugged off her school bag and began shifting around the contents,

"Hmm, let's see probably around thirty blank notebook pages and two extra large sheets, plus a lot of writing utensils." she listed off to herself before tearing five of her remaining thirty plus pages out of her notebook and placing the bag back on her shoulders.

She was going to have to restock, which meant that she was going to have to turn around and head back to the _Channax_ truck in order to resupply herself. Unfortunately, that meant she was going to have to get past the rampant four story colossus that was set on tearing her limb from limb or burning her to a crisp. Scribbling four trident runes and one barrier spell on the pages she clutched within her hand, she began to slow the panther down and waited for him to get in close.

A few seconds later, she could hear him getting closer and when she looked back over her shoulder, she could see that he was already charging up for another volley of energy rings,

"What mockery is this? All you ever do is run and try to bite at me with your ridiculous spells. Are you really the one who killed my sister?" he shouted as he unleashed a pursuing hollow projectile.

Still rushing forward at a slower pace, Teri spun around on her seat and raised one of the trident runes as the tracking bullet drew closer. As soon as it was held above her head, the piece of paper gathered water around itself until it formed a magnificent trident, much like the one she used to slay his aforementioned sibling with and released the liquid weapon with a single throw. The short, three pronged fishing weapon made its way towards the burning wheel of death and collided with the airborne weapon, causing both to explode in a puff of steam.

With the evaporated moisture clouding the area in between them, Teri used it as cover and whipped around before shooting towards the mist. As expected, the Nephilim was caught off guard by the counter and wasn't prepared when he sensed the bear racing towards him. His senses relied on heat signatures so the warm cloud of water vapor messed up his tracking and was too late to stop her from darting in between his legs. She hurled another trident of water at his right ankle while it zipped past her, the three icy tips embedding themselves into the silvery surface, but failed to do any real damage and Teri was forced to keep going.

" _An explosive or petrification rune oughta do the trick next time, but it's hard to tell if I'll ever be this fortunate again."_ she thought remorsefully, knowing her best bet in dealing with him would be to slow him down first.

Her run towards the airplane docking area was quickly detained by an invisible force locking her in place and a red glow accompanied by a familiar buzz filling the air around her,

" _Crud! I forgot to keep weaving, how careless of me!"_ she mentally chastised herself as her flat body was forced downwards.

Another burst of heat and the devastating main attack of the invading giants was released onto her. With her barrier rune already with her though, the attack had no effect and was deflected quite easily by the transparent window that manifested behind her. While engaging the Nephilim earlier, she found that she didn't even need to be holding the protective spell out at all in order for it to take effect and it would block whatever attack that came in too close.

The sad thing was, she knew this attack wasn't meant to destroy her, but rather to delay her from reaching her destination. As soon as the energy blast faded, she turned her eyes to the sky and wasn't at all shocked to see the massive monstrosity descending towards her from the grey sky above. With the doom blast's effects disappearing shortly after it was discharged, Teri found herself able to move again and commanded the panther of paper to move just as the one who sat upon the sun throne came crashing down.

The moment his feet came in contact with the ground, the Earth thundered and shook, nearly sending Teri and her cat mount flying into the open air. Raising his lowered body up to its full height again, the rotating halo that sat in the middle of his body burned from a dark red to a bright orange as he began swinging his bident at the little girl who was now within his range. Reacting as soon as he attacked and swiftly dodging a painful severing, Teri was able to place herself onto the golden weapon with a graceful leap.

Instead of running along the spear's shaft in order to get closer, Teri remained where she was and summoned another water trident using one of her two remaining runes. Taking aim, Teri found an easy target, which just so happened to be the Nephilim's thumb, and chucked the watery apparition of the trident towards it. The icy tips of the enchanted weapon tore through the monster's grasping manipulator, severing it from the hand that was holding the oversized weapon and forcing it to fall to the ground with a heavy _clang!_

Satisfied and thoroughly impressed, Teri could not believe she had managed to inflict some damage on this thing all on her own. This defining moment was short lived however, as the giant retaliated by using one of its uninjured hands to swat at the astonished middle schooler and send her along with her folded paper panther flying several dozen meters. Landing gently, she and her ride suffered no serious damage, except her pride perhaps, and sat up to shake off the dizziness that was the result of her tumbling through the air several times.

Once her world stopped spinning, she was able to get a good look at the Nephilim and was glad to see that he was busy inspecting the damage done to his upper right hand's thumb. Tipping the black panther back onto its legs, she hopped back onto its back and took off again. She had only one trident left to use and she was seriously hoping that she wouldn't get caught in another doom blast. While she made her way back to the truck, Uriel finished assessing the damage done to him by the fragile kid and picked up his spear with his upper left hand, being ambidextrous had its advantages.

Turning about on his feet, the four story, vengeful entity sensed his fleeing target and looked down at the hollow stump where his thumb used to be,

" _Not bad for a cowardly creature."_ a nasty laugh followed his thoughts, vocally displaying his amusement for Teri to hear.

Turning to see what he was laughing about, Teri's gut clenched when she saw him lifting his spear and pointed the horrible weapon in her direction, all the while laughing maniacally at his missing thumb. Another fiery attack was charged up at the tip of the pointed weapon and Teri urged the animal to run faster. She didn't turn her head to face him when she heard him shouting at her,

"DON'T YOU DARE TURN YOUR BACK ON ME, COWARD!" he roared, nearly bursting the bear girl's eardrums.

Hearing the familiar sound of three projectiles being fired upon her, Teri's head began reeling with fright as she knew those cursed blazing hot ring tossers were faster than she was, even when riding an origami. Taking a moment to see where the trackers were coming from, she gasped as soon as she spotted one pursuing her directly from behind and two more on flanking ends, moving in a wide arc in opposite directions. Recognizing the strange formation, Teri realized what Uriel was trying to accomplish. The one traveling in the middle was going to hit her first unless she used her remaining trident to destroy it. The problem though, if she used her remaining trident to rid herself of the projectile closing in on her, then the other two will catch her from the front and bring an end to her life.

Looking ahead, she could see the line of trucks getting closer, probably about a hundred feet away if she were to guess, but there was no way to reach them before the flaming rings reached her. She didn't have much time to think, she looked down at the only weapon she had in her hand then towards the deadly weapon that was gaining even more distance while she ran. She didn't have time to draw anything else, she didn't even have time to reach into her bag! Feeling the heat from the spinning tracer already starting to creep onto her back, Teri spotted the other two glowing halos starting to close in on her as well on her left and right. Having no choice, but to play along with Uriel's tactic, she spun around and hurled the trident that formed in an instant, right at the deadly disc.

In a puff of steam, the pursuing threat was eliminated, but Teri spotted at the corner of her vision one of the other two already several feet away and was close to impact. Reacting in the only way she could when she needed to hide or protect herself, Teri folded her upper body, leaving only her legs to cling onto the running jungle cat and she heard the two rings smashing into one another above in a brief explosion. To her disbelief, she had narrowly survived such a close call and only with one weapon against three.

Unfolding back into her full form, Teri assumed that the two explosions would throw off the Nephilim's senses and kept heading towards the truck in the serpentine pattern she remembered to use. She felt as though things were going pretty well for someone who was clearly outmatched by a larger opponent, that was until she felt a horrendous burning sensation in her left leg and noticed a bright light in the corner of her vision. Looking down at whatever was causing the excruciating pain, she learned that she hadn't gotten out of that last attack unscathed as a single spark had managed to light a small fire on her left thigh and was starting to slowly spread.

With a agonized screech mixed with pure horror of being burned alive, the frail being who was naturally afraid of fire reached into her bag and pulled out Gumball's jacket that she kept from the night before (she was going to return it to him today, but she kind of wanted to hold on to for a while longer.) and used the red fabric to smother the flames that have already nearly burnt her leg off. She was successful in putting out the fire and preventing a painful death to herself, but she knew that her left leg was useless now because the only thing keeping it attached to her body was a few strands of living paper. It burned and Teri could already feel tears springing into her eyes as she checked herself for any other potential flammable hazards.

Realizing that she was okay and in no danger of burning, Teri kept her eyes on the two trucks in front of her before sliding underneath the first one that was labeled _Rainbow Factory Paint Schemer_ , possibly a delivery truck full of painting and various artistic supplies. It was the same truck she and Gumball hid under when Uriel first sent that stream of energy rings after them and looking at it now, the trailer connected to the cab was peppered with burnt, cigar shaped holes from where the projectiles entered and exited. Thinking about it now, she wished she could apologize to the owners of this truck about the damages caused by their scuffle.

Once she was safely on the other side of the vehicle and with the _Channax_ delivery truck in front of her, she slid off her panther and groaned when she felt another wave of pain crash through her, spreading from the burnt area on her leg. It was there when a sudden memory tore its way into her conscious, a time when she was about six or seven and in her house's living room playing with her toys. With her father gone at work and her mom at home in the next room over talking to a patient on the phone, little Teri was left without supervision and had managed to get herself in trouble after spotting a candle sitting on the picture shelf. She was quite curious and entranced by the small flame the lovely candle emitted and when she pulled herself up to it using a chair placed in the living room for guests, she tried to touch the flame with her index finger.

Obviously unaware of the dangers fire posed for her easily flammable body, Teri was given a nasty awakening when her finger caught fire and began to blacken and shrivel away by the intense heat. Her screams were heard by her mother, who came in to see a crying and panicking Teri desperately waving her hand, trying to make the flame go away. She of course was saved and her mother managed to make her a new finger to glue on, completely erasing the damage done to her hand by her carelessness.

Ever since that incident, she had been deathly scared of fire or anything related to flames and even came in second after germs.

With her left leg now burnt, she felt like a frightened six year old again and wanted to just scream and call for someone to help her. However, she knew no one was going to come rescue her and what's worse, was that the monster capable producing such horrifying flames was coming. He was still some distance away, but she was running low on time and the vengeful, multi-armed monstrosity was probably very eager to destroy her for killing his sister and supposed friends.

Panning her head around and observing her surroundings, she noticed that the sky was starting to get brighter, as if the clouds were about to break at any point and she realized that they must have very little time until there are no clouds left to shield them from the sun… and the giant focusing lens that was about to wipe out their little town in a flash of light. She wondered if such a horrible event would be painless and even if the weapon could capture a little sunlight and direct it in a small beam that will incinerate any object or unlucky person who happened to be in its way. She also noticed that it was eerily quiet, minus the angry shouts coming from the Nephilim as he approached her hiding place.

Teri growled, agitated by all his profanities and demands that she face him like a warrior,

" _Jeez, he really is like that virus Gumball, Darwin, and I encountered last year."_ she sighed inwardly as she shifted herself and climbed back onto her panther. Thanks to the gash Gumball left in the side of the company delivery truck, she had easy access to all the various papers within and she guessed that she could use the paint inside the other truck to create some runes on different surfaces to use as traps.

Problem was, she didn't know how to lure him over to such traps and shook her head in frustration as she squeezed her eyes shut as she racked her brain for any good ideas,

"Ugh! I wish he was like an actual virus, I could just spray him and make him... explode…" she slowed in her speech as she recalled something that happened earlier and her eyes popped back open.

She had an idea, a very crazy, very stupid idea, but it just may be her answer in defeating the Nephilim.

She was going to need some paint first, so she folded herself up and hopped through one of the thin holes made earlier by said monster. Inside was dark and musty, but she could see many paint cans neatly stacked up on each other with some being knocked over and smashed by the dinner plate sized rings that tore through the metal wall like a hot knife through butter. Locating a can of orange paint that was torn in half with the edges singed and blackened, but not tipped over, Teri lugged it over to the back of the trailer with great difficulty (mainly thanks to her injury.) and unlatched the door.

Getting even closer, Uriel didn't bother using any energy projectiles to strike the little one down because he could sense her injury and wanted to finish her off with his bare hands. Also, she seemed busy and if he were to guess, she was hastily putting together some kind of last-ditch plan to strike back at him. It gave him great pleasure to personally wipe out his most hated enemies, but he was kind of downstruck now that the battle was nearing its end.

In the end, the sun king knew he was never going to get any of his loved ones or friends back by doing this and his act of rebellion was going to no doubt land him in hot water with the higher ups back at home. He could just run away after this city was glassed, but where would he go? He supposed he could join up with general Gorothim's forces in Jerusalem. Maybe he could tell him what had happened and make a case for himself with one of the Nephilim's most respected generals backing him up? It seemed to be worth a shot and he was a soldier of the Babyloth Republic, so he wanted to continue on with the war.

While internally pondering his options, he almost failed to notice six very small objects closing in on him from the direction of the flat one's hiding spot. Spotting these strange objects approaching fast, his military training kicked in and the massive Nephilim was already sending tracking discs to intercept the incoming projectiles. The objects exploded in midair and the surprise attack was immediately eradicated.

Confused, but cautious, Uriel wondered what the purpose behind such a blunt and futile strike was. They were obviously enchanted, but they had absolutely no chance of actually hitting and even seemed unguided, given their trajectory. Was it some kind of distraction?

Nervous, the wheel-like silver giant scanned the area for anything or anyone approaching from behind and found two figures making their way towards the fence that seemed to mark the perimeter of this establishment. They were Earth children no doubt, he even recognized one of them as the scythe wielding maniac that left to pursue his puppet and was shocked to see him here of all places,

" _He defeated my third? How? Was he helped by that taller one?"_ he was shocked that such a thing was possible and when he extended his senses to cover the whole city, he could sense many souls, but not that of his puppet's which should have housed a fragment of his own.

He was gone and his plan to divide the group had failed spectacularly because now they have a new member.

He turned back to the truck and focused on finding the little one he had just spent the past few minutes dealing with. He needed to destroy her now before the other two arrived and gave him a hard time. Pushing the _Rainbow Factory_ truck aside with one of his lower arms, he formed his head again and checked the spot where she should have been. He found nothing but a large, triangular symbol with a smaller circle within one of its points painted on the ground. The girl however, was nowhere in sight.

He kept his distance from the symbol, knowing very well that it was a rune that these creatures were very familiar with and possibly a trap. Deciding that she was behind the other vehicle, Uriel proceeded to toss that one aside and burn her to a crisp. Taking one step forward, he was surprised when several triangular, airborne projectiles similar to the first ones she fired at him, but now doubled in number, came flying out from behind the vehicle he intended to investigate and circled around him. With it now being confirmed that she was there, Uriel spun around and repeatedly shot every paper airplane out of the air, making sure to not bat them away with his hands less he wanted to lose them,

" _Another useless distraction. What does she hope to accomplish by buying time? She can't possibly know the other two are coming now."_ he mused as he shot down the remaining explosive rigged projectile with his bident's energy disc.

Suddenly, he found that he couldn't move his upper arms as two tight appendages seemed to wrap around his wrists and pulled back with strength that very well matched his own. Words could not describe the shock and confusion that filled the mighty Nephilim warrior as he now found himself bound to one area and unable to move his upper arms along with his bident, most importantly. Turning his head back, he could see that it was none other than the paper girl of all fowl creatures who was responsible for his detainment and his confusion was quickly replaced with rage.

Sitting atop a massive origami made in the likeliness of a gorilla, matching also in height, was Teri, who manipulated two thick, elongated tendrils made from hundreds of rolled up sheets of paper all woven together and fastened to the gorilla's shoulders. Having gotten the idea from the blob monster created in the chemistry class and how it wove its tentacles together to form one massive limb that was able to easily knock Gumball aside, the talented paper crafter created a powerful beast with strong arms that allowed her to easily grasp and restrain the Nephilim. She sent the paper airplanes out to go buy her more time and it worked out wonderfully.

Now that she had Uriel where she wanted him and with the added benefit of securing the hand holding his deadliest weapon, Teri could proceed with the next step in her plan,

"You know, Uriel was it? You should probably show a little more _restraint_ before you mindlessly dash into these situations." she quipped, a triumphant smile complimenting her eyes which shone with victory while also sighing inwardly at the realization that she had sunken to Gumball's level in pun making. She would have liked to see his face though.

Snarling in utter disgust, the silver titan forced his arms forward, nearly pulling Teri and her modified origami gorilla off the truck. Luckily she thought ahead and packed her creation with as much paper as she possibly could, increasing its overall mass while also using her ability to add in as much detail as she could allow in her limited time, such as strong feet. All these combined attributes and she was able maintain her position along with her hold on the strong entity.

She let out a surprise grunt and another grin broke out on her face, this one now filled with malice as she eyed the struggling giant,

"You're not escaping! You're coming back here!" she shouted at the last word and with an order sent down instantaneously from her brain and into the mind of her abomination, the strong beast pulled a screaming Uriel backwards with a mighty heave.

Rushing in from the fence they cleared, Gumball and Rob, who was armed with a single-shot rifle and strapped with a harness packed full of enchanted bullets he labeled himself, reached the loading bay after spotting the forty foot colossus from afar and stopped when they bore witness to the amazing spectacle before them. As if linked, both the boys let their jaws drop and eye(s) grew as they saw Teri riding atop a powerful-looking gorilla/octopus origami and actually _pulling_ the Nephilim, which was twice the size of the one Gumball faced and several times stronger, backwards.

Lowering his rifle, Rob could only scratch his head and watch as the unthinkable happened,

"When the heck…" he started.

"...did she get so COOL!" Gumball finished, eyes glittering with awe as he brought his hands up to his mouth.

Rob looked at him with a dumbfounded expression,

"I was going to say "did she get so strong", but yeah, I guess what you said is better." he responded in agreement, as amazingly rare as that was.

Meanwhile, the sun king continued to struggle in this deadly match of tug-of-war, now resorting to using his lower arms in order to tear at the paper arms wrapped around his wrists and dragging his feet in order to slow his path backwards. Wrestling with the monster's tenacious strength, Teri continued her power match and with a quick peek at the ground below, she was almost screaming with relief when she saw that he was only one foot step away from her rune trap. Putting all her strength into this one command, the paper abomination in which she held dominion over gave one last mighty pull, enough to force the sizeable Nephilim to take step back after losing his balance and planted both feet into the triangle.

Upon his contact with the spell, the painted rune flashed a bright amethyst and from the feet up, Uriel began to turn to stone. As soon as the petrification reached up to his knees, Teri released her hold on him and hopped off the truck, watching the monster as he flailed about and tried to stop the spell's effect. She then noticed Gumball and Rob standing not too far away, with Gumball first watching the Nephilim turn to stone and then turning his attention towards his friend.

Overjoyed to see her safe and sound, Gumball began to make his way towards her, picking up his speed with every step he took. Returning the feeling, Teri slid off her creation, allowing it to lay still, and limped towards her incoming partner. It took about a second for him to reach her, but before he did, Gumball opened his arms and caught her in a tight embrace,

"I'm so glad, you're okay!" he nearly sobbed in her shoulder, having been worried sick the entire time he was gone.

Almost sobbing herself, Teri returned the hug and just spoke to him,

"I'm glad that you're here!" she returned, tightening her grasp on him.

They remained like that for a moment before they parted and took a step back, both their faces slightly red. It wasn't long until Gumball looked down and saw the ugly burn mark that left Teri's leg a dangling shred of paper connected to a stump. Taken aback, Gumball's eyes first dilated with horror and then sorrow before his gaze was raised to her face,

"You're hurt!" he exclaimed, his somber tone hard to hide.

Seeing where his concern was sprouting from, Teri's face fell and then she took a quick glance at Gumball's body before noticing his sweater was torn (again.), his shoulder swollen and hued with a hideous shade of purple, and he looked so tired, like he'd been dragged through a storm,

"Your shoulder!" she gasped, putting a hand to her mouth as she reached forward and pulled away the torn fabric to get a better look at the damage done to him,

"It looks real bad." she remarked, completely ignoring her own injury.

Seeing the seriousness of the given situation, Gumball tried to lighten the mood a little with a joke,

"Yeah well, you should see the other guy! You can say he's half the monster he used to be… minus an arm." he stammered with a nervous chuckle.

She rolled her eyes at the horrendous joke and Gumball took that as positive sign. Behind them, Rob inspected the Nephilim statue that now stood like a grotesque and out-of-place piece of modern art, wondering why it wasn't fading and burning like they regularly did when they died. He got some kind of answer when the ground began rumbling and cracks began forming on the stone monstrosity, cracks that glowed with intense, orange light.

Raising his rifle, Rob alerted the two kids, who looked just as confused as he was,

"Form up you two! This guy's not dead yet!" he shouted over the mini Earthquake that was causing the trucks and planes beside them to rattle violently.

The bear and cat understood and broke into a run, with Gumball grasping Teri's hand in order to pull her along. Pulling alongside the heavily armed, former student of the local middle school, the two kids got ready and watched as the petrified remains of Uriel exploded in a brilliant flash of light that caused all three to shield their sensitive eyes from the harsh brightness. Following the earthquake and the eruption of the giant freeing itself from its stone prison, Uriel's harsh voice began to rain down on the trio from above,

"Thought you could kill me with such a cheap trick, did you?! Well lucky for me, I still had one body left to use and was able to save myself by letting the other one die instead." he bellowed.

With the light gone now, the pre-teens were able to now gaze upon the Nephilim's form and saw that he was speaking the truth. Hovering above them, a twenty foot tall Uriel with two arms and a form resembling his smaller portion created from Gumball and Teri's combined attack regarded the defenders of Elmore with his empty, black hole, eyes as though they were an infuriating cockroach that ceased to die no matter how many times he smashed it. Despite his reappearance, Gumball, Teri, and Rob remained steady and prepared to take on whatever hell he was about to unleash.

With a furious swipe of his hand, the invader from beyond continued to mercilessly berate the motley crew,

"Well, it's been fun, parasites, but I don't intend to stick around for much longer! The heavenly shield that is the clouds is about to part and your nest and all the vile things that fester here are about to face oblivion!" he finished by placing his hands together, a sign that he was about to ascend,

"I will watch your doom unfold from my throne! Now sit there and die, murderers!" he shouted as his farewell before his head slithered back into body, returning to its ring shape and his thumbs connected with his index fingers, forming two interlocking circles with both hands.

Realizing that if he escaped, they won't be able to take the barrier down, Teri quickly turned to Gumball and spurred him into action,

"Gumball! His hand, cut it off now!" she desperately shouted, pointing at the silver Nephilim's interlocking fingers.

Without even questioning her snap judgement, Gumball allowed his desperation to draw up more power from his scythe and the boy was shooting upwards towards the fleeing monster. He still hadn't fully recovered all his energy and was a quarter of the way charged, but it was enough to allow him to catch his target. Below, Rob loaded the rifle's chamber with a copper bullet carved with a rune resembling an eye with a sclera made up of clouds,

"I'll cover him!" he shouted, cocking back the loading mechanism, dropping to one knee and raising the rifle while peering through the aligned gunsight.

KRACK!

The sound rippled through the air the moment he pressed the trigger and the gun recoiled, pushing the one-eyed marksman back a little. The bullet zipped pass Gumball and reached the Nephilim in little to no time. Upon contact with the unaware being, the bullet exploded into a veil of tar black, suffocating smoke that completely rendered the hollow humanoid's superior senses useless. Completely surrounded and blinded by the smoke screen, Gumball faced no issue once he reached the monster, being able to see a few feet in front of him thanks to the light of the silver flames, he spotted the monster's massive mits and twisted himself around in a hard spin, using his momentum and enhanced strength to easily cut through his unaware opponent's wrist.

With the power of flight severed along with his right hand, the skyborne Nephilim began to plummet to the ground with a certain blue cat falling not too far behind. They both exited the thick black fog, trailing a little bit of the smoke with them, and they came in contact with the ground not too soon after. With Uriel landing on the _Rainbow Factory_ truck, crumpling the metal vehicle like a soda can and Gumball landing not too far away on his feet (a true cat indeed!), Uriel switched straight to an offensive style of fighting right away and lunged towards the already tired out feline.

Teri watched as Gumball was put on the defensive, with him only using his power to dodge and deflect every punch and stomp the house-sized Nephilim threw at him. Not wanting to see her friend get smashed to a pulp, Teri began digging out some papers to utilize as weapons from her storage and set herself to work. She was interrupted by the boy standing next to her as he relayed an idea he came up with,

"Teri, can you create something that can fly and carry me as well?" the tall, lanky twelve-year-old asked, ejecting the bullet's empty shell casing and loading another into the chamber. He picked up the discarded shell and placed it within his short's pocket: best not to leave evidence for the authorities to find.

That definitely wasn't out of the range of possibility and Teri responded with a nod,

"Yes." was all she said before she went back to forming a helicopter capable of lifting the taller kid up in the air.

"Create a lightning rune too and drop it once your above Uriel, I'll take care of the rest. We'll keep Gumball from getting seriously hurt." he promised, giving her a reassuring smile when she shot a curious glance his direction.

Gumball let out a little _eep!_ when Uriel's fist came crashing down in front of him, leaving cracks in the pavement, followed by a sweep of his massive leg that he barely managed to block before he was sent flying into the paper delivery truck. Knocking his head and back against the metal surface, Gumball hissed when he felt his shoulder throb at the rough meeting with the solid material. It was bad enough that every move he made drained him of energy, but with the giant, rampaging soldier trying his hardest to kill him, Gumball wondered if there was going to be anything left to scrape off the pavement once this was over.

He was given another boost of adrenaline when he saw the Nephilim soaring straight up in the air and then descending rapidly with his foot bearing down on him. He dove out of the way just as the monster crashed into the truck, splitting the vehicle in half and scattering pieces of twisted metal and paper everywhere like some sort of bizarre tornado originating from an office building. Gumball seriously wondered why no one has bothered to investigate yet and a greater fear made itself present in his mind when he realized that someone could be watching them now. Unfortunately, this caused the already dwindling grey fire to go out like a candle during lights out.

Now he was running for his life, as the Nephilim with the central body wheel was after him again.

Up above, a paper chopper traveled through the air with a blocky, glitching mad inventor and wielder of various magics dangling with one hand from a skid. Standing on the other landing skid, Teri was in hot pursuit of the two down below with a paper shuriken in hand and a lightning strike with the Nephilim's name on it. Already waving his gun until it was directed at the violent beast below, he called up to the aircraft's pilot,

"A little lower, please!" he directed.

Teri allowed the aircraft to dip and she shouted back down to her dangling passenger,

"I KNOW!" she barked. No one likes a backseat driver.

Seeing as they were now in range, Teri pulled her arm back and tossed the paper throwing star directly at the sun king. The silver giant was preparing to raise his foot in order to squish the fleeing Earth child when a bolt of lightning tore its way downwards and struck the invader with a thunderous shock that left his body paralyzed with bolts of electricity. Hearing the commotion, Gumball stopped running and pivoted to see what had happened before collapsing in a relaxed heap when he saw that help had arrived.

Now with this golden opportunity, Rob eyeballed it and fired his next round downwards. The shot raced through the open space and transformed halfway from its intended target, forming into a multi-headed hydra creature made of sharp diamonds that tore its way through the paralyzed Nephilim, slicing him to ribbons. Reduced to shreds and burning pieces of debris, Uriel's final thoughts faded along with the flames,

" _Torax, Olaf, Raphael, Thundero, Brahkka, and Leliel, I'm so sorry. I should have waited…"_ his final regrets went up in smoke as his body burned itself out of existence.

Setting the helicopter down, Teri hopped off and rushed towards Gumball's resting form as he gave her a thumbs and stated that he was all right. While the two talked, Rob lifted his arm to his face and tapped the screen mounted to his wrist. The clock showed 3:18 and he quickly swiped over to his newly installed program, bringing up a screen that displayed the massive circular object in the sky. Thankful that it hadn't moved, Rob selected a few options on his menu and the cannon began charging up its electric coils.

After a moment, the gun cam's HUD lit up with positive signals, showing that his weapon was fully charged and he pressed the central button.

Another rumble was heard and Gumball along with Teri watched in awe as the sky lit up in a magnificent shade of green before fading shortly afterwards. Looking at his display, Rob witnessed the twin emerald dragons crash into the Nephilim's destructive throne, a satisfied smile forming on his face as he watched the weapon shatter and fade away from existence. He clicked off the phone and faced his comrades,

"Congrats guys, Elmore gets to live another day and with only twelve minutes to spare too, give or take." he happily reported, a little irony pressed into his tone.

Gumball just gave another thumbs up and slumped back on the pavement while Teri just let out a sigh of relief. With nothing else to do now, Rob decided it was time to bail and get back to his campsite to pack up. He needed to hop to it as well because he had to pick up Rachel once school let out and he knew it was best not to keep her waiting, less he wanted to spend _another_ night outside. (he was still a little salty about last night at thesince she was the one who invited him to eat with her and he also had to spend an hour last night erasing video records and blackmailing witnesses thanks to her little _temper tantrum_ over who got to split the check.)

"Alright, I gotta make like a tree and leaf because I don't want to stick around when the authorities arrive. Thanks for your assistance!" he waved them goodbye before booking it towards the fence, keeping true to his word.

They both returned his wave and thanked him for his help as well before taking a moment to just relax and collect their thoughts. Today was another close match, with both of them encountering great adversity and finding new strengths. They rarely imagined a scenario where they were bound to be separated and forced to face off against the forces of evil on their own. Like every villain that came before, this was going to be nothing more than a memory that will haunt them in their slumber and waking thoughts, which wasn't as bad as was actually dealing with them. They had long since gotten used to feeling like this and found comfort in the silence that came after the storm had passed.

This was their life now and there more surprises bound over the horizon,

Getting up and checking her phone, Teri noted the time they had left and ushered Gumball to get up,

"Come on, we have to get back to school. I can easily get us there before practice starts, if we hurry." she stated in her soft voice before turning towards her awaiting aircraft.

Sitting up and ignoring his body's demand to stay there and rest, the mischievous feline spoke to the retreating Pepakuma child,

"Before we go, I have one question for you." he said, stretching his arms, wincing again at his torn shoulder (it didn't seem to be broken, probably sprained or dislocated perhaps.) and yawning.

Whipping about, she wondered what it was he had to ask her and a single eyebrow made its way upwards, indicating her curiosity to the awaiting blue middle school student. He paused for a slight moment to tilt his head to the side and a playful smile formed on his lips,

"First I find that you can create living paper animals and objects to save and help others, then I find out you're a brilliant observer and planner, followed up by a skilled magic user and fighter, and now you can throw Nephilim around with no help whatsoever." he listed off, causing Teri to remained in a stunned silence at the stream of compliments being tossed her way.

He continued, this time with a red tinge to his cheeks,

"Will you ever cease to amaze me?" he asked.

Now it was Teri's turn to blush and she couldn't hide such a reaction in broad daylight where Gumball was obviously watching. That still didn't stop the red faced paper girl from trying to ward off the rising body temperature and the rush of happiness she was feeling. Seriously, how was he able to do this to her?

Looking side to side and fidgeting as she muttered a few incoherent words before spitting out an actual answer,

"Oh, it wasn't much, I mean, I figured it out after remembering that blob monster in chemistry class and I still got beat up by the way. You on the other hand, you're awesome too, you're quick to react, you are willing to risk your own safety in order to protect others, you ran several miles in under a few minutes, fought a Nephilim on your own and single handedly saved your sister along with an entire high school. Then you came back here with help." she responded while folding her hands behind her back and gently rocking back and forth on her feet.

Feeling honored to be receiving this kind of praise, Gumball took it in stride and got onto his feet. Hearing those kind of things repeatedly was actually starting to change his overall outlook on life and himself. He was starting to feel less like a screw up and more like someone who could do something right. Just goes to prove that Teri continues to amaze him and there didn't seem to be any slowing down.

However, he still had his faults and for once, he wasn't ashamed to admit them,

"Yeah, I even managed to control my scythe a little, but I still used up way too much energy and got beaten up because of it. I was actually really lucky that I carried two runes in my pocket and it was that luck that saved me." he admitted, stepping a little closer to her.

Finding his honesty admirable, Teri still didn't see him as a screw up like he seemed to believe himself to be and wanted to remind him of that,

"Hey, that's not too bad, you still did great and all it takes is practice, that's all. Actually we both need to practice." she let out a nervous chuckle while rubbing the back of her head.

Gumball found himself able to agree with that statement and was put in a better mood because of it,

"I guess that means we're the same then," he said jokingly, watching Teri's face contort in disgust.

"Ugh, I don't think so. You still don't wash your hands after eating lunch, so I wouldn't want to make that comparison." she regarded with her usual obnoxiousness.

With another eye roll and a sarcastic look, Gumball gave her a piece of his mind,

"I don't have to wash my hands after I eat. I wipe them with a napkin and that's just fine!" he proclaimed, standing by his beliefs.

Teri of course, wouldn't let this stand and was already spouting off what she knew about germs and the like,

"Um, no, you need soap or sanitary wipes in order to safely rid your hands of germs and the tables in the cafeteria are very unsanitary because other students have been eating there. Now let's hurry back to get patched up before we're really late." she remarked, grabbing Gumball by the hand and leading him back to the helicopter.

Gumball silently went along with her, knowing that arguing about cafeteria hygiene with the school neat freak will only give him a colossal head ache and frankly, that was the last thing he needed. While they made their way back to the awaiting aircraft, Gumball began to pick up on several sounds in the distance and he could from a distance, police cruisers making their way towards the airport. With the power back on, someone must have called the police and once again, Gumball found himself crossing his fingers and hoping that they weren't spotted and recognized by anyone here.

" _Well, at least no one was hurt and it's a Friday, so I'm pretty happy. I can't wait to see what Teri and Sherry are like together during squad practice."_ he thought to himself positively as he climbed aboard the small origami.

While they were lifting off, Gumball wondered about Rob and the unusual runes he used. They were definitely new and not just located somewhere they could easily find, like the library or something of the sort. As usual, it boiled down to Rob being his normal scheming, anti-social habits and Gumball was already prepared to face the consequences later down the road. He knew Rob was helping them protect Elmore, but he still didn't know the cyclop's goals and aspirations. He could only hope that it was something that would be a benefit to everyone because the only thing worse than a Nephilim is powerful maniac you wind up trusting.

 _-Elmore Junior High football stadium, 3:32 PM-_

"Yeah, there's no cheerleading practice today because everyone is, like, sick or whatever." came the moody response from the equally moody 8th grade cheerleader, Sherry, while she chewed her gum and texted on her phone, paying the two lower classmen no attention.

Struck dumb, Teri and Gumball just stood in place and swayed in the wind a little as a heavy silence drew over the three kids. After hightailing it back to the school, treating their injuries and rushing out to the empty football stadium looking good as new, it had somehow managed to completely slip their minds that Molly and Carmen were sick and injured along with many other students and without the cheerleading captain, plus nearly half the squad, there wasn't going to be any practice today. Now the two just felt really stupid standing there, staring blankly at the mermaid while she continued to chat up her friends and snap a large bubble she was blowing.

She kind of had the average American, teenage girl look with long, wavy, chestnut hair all tucked up in a ponytail, hazel eyes with nail polish that flashed a gorgeous aquamarine and an oversized, pink hoodie with jeggings. Like most of the citizens of Elmore, she was not human, having reddish orange scales instead of smooth skin covering her body, three gills on either side of her neck, webbed hands and feet, and a long wavy fin that ran along her spine, which was concealed underneath her baggy clothes. All in all, she was kind of pretty, in a unnatural way that made people do a double take when they first spotted her.

Realizing they had no further business here, Teri and Gumball decided now was the perfect time to make their exit and started towards the door, leaving the uninterested teen behind. Carrying both her pom poms in her hands that lay limp at her side, Teri's drawn on face was downcast and she dragged her feet. She really wanted to get some practice done today, it was one of the many mundane things she enjoyed and looking forward to with greater enthusiasm ever since the Nephilim started showing up. That and she felt very embarrassed that she didn't get show Gumball what they had learned so far.

While she thought about that, Gumball's mind was on other things and he too remained silent for a brief period,

"Umm, yeah, Sherry. She's um, not quite what I… expected." Gumball shakily admitted, having honestly never seen the girl before and only heard of recently. For some reason, he expected to look different and was kind of disappointed that she didn't seem all that friendly and sociable, because she seemed really nice at first glance.

Catching on to his comment regarding their newest member to the squad, Teri's head shot up and she looked Gumball in the eye while she spoke,

"Really now? And what exactly were you expecting?" she asked, trying not to sound too curious.

Taking in a deep breath, the blue, walking feline searched around for nothing in particular as he fished the words out of his mind. He was fortunate enough to find something to say and turned to his companion, who was waiting for his response,

"I was expecting someone a bit more radiant and outgoing and not like if Darwin and Carrie's love child from the future that somehow managed to fuse her hand with a phone and has a personality like a dill pickle." okay, maybe he could have worded that better.

To his surprise though, Teri only seemed to find his response amusing and erupted into a fit of giggles while Gumball only stared at her like she'd gone bonkers. After a moment had passed, she seemed to have collected herself and was standing up straight again. She seemed really happy about something and Gumball couldn't seem to understand what that possibly could be.

Seeing as he looked confused, Teri hurried up with her explanation and continued walking as she did so,

"You're right actually and I don't blame you. She seemed awesome when we all first met her, but then we quickly found out that she's a bit of an air head and well, that's what we got as our replacement." she chuckled, not wanting to mention the other person she was referring to by name.

Feeling as though he'd gained a better understanding, Gumball just rolled along with it and added in his own bout of laughter. Soon they were both laughing about nothing and just having a good time. They continued to walk and talk as they wandered around the school and into the parking lot, where Teri's parent's car was awaiting to pick her up.

Seeing as their time was short, Teri was quick to bring up any possible weekend plans with her furry companion,

"My mom's going to be gone tomorrow evening, do you want to stop by my place then and hang out for a bit?" she asked, starting to fidget with her fingers again.

Seeing no problem with that, with Darwin wanting to invite the other guys to play video games tomorrow afternoon, Gumball was more than certain he could squeeze out of there and spend some time with Teri,

"Yeah, for sure. Would you and your folks mind if I had another sleepover? We could get up in the morning and train for a bit before doing something else afterwards." he suggested, wanting to throw other options her way.

With a nod, Teri told him that it won't be an issue and that she looked forward to hanging out with him. They said their farewells and promised to message one another tonight before Teri began to head off to her awaiting parents. Once again, Gumball couldn't help but watch her leave for a second, her injuries were treated very well so she didn't have any noticeable marks and he found himself liking the way she walked to the car. She had this adorable little skip she would do every few steps and it just seemed like too much for the curious feline handle. He honestly believed that Teri had to be the cutest girl in the whole school and he felt so lucky to be able to hang out with her.

Deciding to text his mom and let her know what happened, Gumball soon had word that she was going to come pick him up. Thanking her and telling her that he'll be waiting outside, Gumball hung up and sat down on the school's front steps while staring off into the distance. He felt as though things were looking up and getting a lot better. He was really looking forward to this upcoming weekend.

Meanwhile, in the back of the Pepakuma family car, Teri was also looking forward to the weekend and was thinking pleasant thoughts while peering into her backpack specifically at the jacket that belonged to Gumball. Being a secret known to no one other than herself, she actually liked the jacket, it was very warm and it smelled like him. She knew she technically stole it from him on their ride back yesterday, but he hasn't asked for it back so she guessed it was alright if she kept it for a while. She was also feeling really happy for the fact that Gumball seemed less than impressed with Sherry and even though she knew it wasn't right to be jealous, she was just really relieved that she had nothing to fear. Then again, Gumball was really impressed with from the very beginning of this crazy adventure, so her fears and insecurities had no real substance to begin with.

What a relief, but she still didn't know how she actually felt about him.

She'll figure it out eventually, for now she was going to enjoy herself and be happy with the fact she was safe, Gumball was safe and the whole town was lucky enough to be able to see a lovely weekend. She never really liked thunderstorms or cloudy weather to begin with, but now she had a new respect for it. It was going to be stormy this weekend, which didn't sound so bad when she thought about it, seeing as she was more of an indoor person anyway and there were many fascinating ways for one person to pass the time.

 _-back at Elmore High-_

Hearing the car's passenger door slam shut besides him, Rob didn't even bother looking up from his smartphone in order to see who it was and just allowed the corner of his mouth to rise a little as a response. He had been waiting in the parking lot for several minutes now for school to let out and for Rachel to finish chatting with her friends before joining him. While he had been checking a list of items required for _Leviathan Book_ , the ultimate weapon he was planning on constructing, he noticed a pink bunny in an orange dress who couldn't be any older than five making her way towards the waiting line of buses and he realized that it was Gumball's little sister, Anais.

He'd completely forgotten that his long-time rival had a little sibling that attended the same school as his housemate and was quite amused by the fact that such a young person had the brilliance to be attending a school well beyond her supposed grade level. Maybe, he'd been competing with the wrong person this whole time and his real enemy should have been someone with such an advanced mind. It was kind of baffling to even consider that who he was watching was Gumball's baby sister and they all knew how much of a dunce he was.

Well at least he was persistent and filled his role as he should, but it left him wondering if he should continue being the villain. He's already met the true enemy of this world and it was more than any figure this town could offer. He could settle for some kind of anti-hero role and perhaps use that as a means to further break away from this predetermined act he was given.

It was still a mystery as to what he would do after that, but there were important things that needed to be done beforehand.

Hearing her breathe a relaxing sigh of relief next to him, Rob could tell Rachel had a long day and the ever so observant inventor put his phone away before she could see the contents displayed on his screen. Clasping his hands on the steering wheel, Rob checked the parking lot for any approaching vehicles and wandering teens that were too close. While twisting to peer out the back, his vision caught the form of Rachel, who was checking her makeup in the little, rectangular mirror hidden within the ceiling visor and he had to stifle a laugh. He knew she was a bit of a princess, but the sight of her fussing over her appearance always managed to draw a laugh out of him, especially when he knows her to be very bossy.

"Good day?" he asked, putting the car in reverse and slowly began backing out of his parking space.

Checking her curly, mixed colored hair for any split-ends, the blue teen answered the lanky middle schooler while keeping her attention on her reflection,

"It wasn't bad. I'm not looking forward to work and professor Ozgul needs a volume switch when he's talking about Geometry, man really loves his shapes." she sighed, pulling her hair back into a ponytail.

"So square!" Rob teased, looking over to see how she'll react.

As expected, she didn't take it too well and took no time to berate him,

"You wanna sleep outside again?!" she snapped.

"You want me to tell your manager that you were slacking off yesterday and caused a scene at the B and B?" he countered, glancing back at the road as he pulled out of the high school parking lot.

Crossing her arms and pouting, Rachel looked out the window,

"The frog face had it coming since he barged into our conversation and… and… ugh, was acting so nice and now I feel bad for losing my temper." she paused for a moment before adding in,

"And for making you sleep outside, although cheese does make you gassy." she looked back at him just in time to catch an eye roll from the younger kid.

"You're a real charmer, Rachel, and don't worry about it, I was able to get more work done." he said, putting on the brakes just as a traffic light went red.

Rachel let out a snort and soon found herself mirroring the cyclop's annoyed reaction. She knew very well about his "work" and his various projects he left all over his room and their garage. He's been working real hard lately and more often than not, she'd have to drag him out of his man cave just so he'd feed himself or shower or even wash his clothes since they'd smell like his work room too. Of course, she'd worry more about herself in any given circumstance and Rob would have to remind her to go to school or to trudge off to her part-time job while he ran his errands that helped put more money and food on the table.

In a weird way, they've come to really rely on each other and not just for their physical health, but for their emotional health as well,

"You really need to take it easy with your mad science projects or whatever monster you're planning on making because you're starting to phase out of reality and I mean that in a metaphorical sense." she warned, now moving her hands down to her lap and clasping her three fingers together.

"I don't need to take a break and it's not a mad science project, I'm not trying to doom the world, I'm trying to…" he caught himself before he finished that sentence,

" _...save it."_ he finished internally, resting his four fingered hands on the wheel and sighing.

He could feel Rachel's concern pressing down on him like a sack of bricks as well as her stare and he took a deep breath. She was right, he was obsessed with his work and he couldn't function like a person if all he did was seclude himself. Reflecting on today's events, he knew he hadn't been a necessarily good companion to his only two allies (more towards Gumball than Teri, to be exact.) and it was because of his mistrust towards them, not wanting them to get into his head and to know what he'd been up to.

He needed to open himself up to more options and maybe even live a little.

When Rachel began to ask him what was wrong, he cut her off by raising his index fingers while keeping both hands on the wheel,

"You know, I just remembered something." he started, facing her with a calm expression,

"During one of my roundabout trips through Elmore, I came across a wonderful spot in the forest North of Elmore and it's great for stargazing and watching the planets. What's say tomorrow evening, after you get out of work, we head on over there and check it out. I can bring my telescope?" he offered, feeling slightly odd for asking this to someone he's known for a long time as a close friend, almost a sibling really, to go do something this out of place.

Rachel seemed to be intrigued by this and even considered whether or not this was the real Rob she was talking to,

"You mean, like, you and me, in a remote spot, watching the sky through a telescope and not going to some fast food restaurant to argue over dumb things like where to store cute plushies or why plaid looks terrible with cowboy hats?" she questioned, sounding very suspicious.

Rob just shrugged and tapped the steering wheel with his thumbs,

"Or we could just stay home and not do anything this weekend, if the outdoors is not your thing, I mean I hate the woods myself, but I thought that it would be something fun that we could-!"

"Sounds like a great idea!" she interrupted.

Rob remained silent before slowly turning his head until he could see her clearly, scanning her face to see if she was pulling anything,

"...oh… okay. Why though?" he asked, now really confused.

Leaning back in her seat, Rachel felt pretty comfortable speaking her mind and spoke to the kid,

"Well, seeing as you're the one who offered, why not? Plus, like you said, we should go do something fun this weekend and even though, I too am not an outdoorsy person, stargazing has been a particularly interesting event that I would like to accompany someone with." she said, adding in a warm smile that Rob caught, but didn't show any reaction to.

"Oh, well, alright then. I will start gathering supplies tomorrow, maybe grab a mosquito net, some bug spray, and a portable-!"

"Hey Einstein, you should probably drive before the light goes red again!" Rachel suggested gruffly, pointing at the traffic light that Rob had been oblivious to for the past minute and a half.

Realizing his error, Rob floored the gas pedal while uttering a few curses and zipping down the main road before anyone driving behind them could complain. Being jostled around a bit, the headband wearing rainbow lass used a few colorful metaphors of her own to describe her discontent with Rob's rough driving and settled back into her seat when they eventually slowed down. Meanwhile, Rob was later cool enough to think clearly and brush off his little mishap while following the road signs back to their house.

He was definitely glad for this little vacation actually, although it was a little hard for him to keep his mind off of the Nephilim and his work. He was mainly concerned with defeating the Nephilim and finding his and Rachel's cure. At least he can worry about that tomorrow morning and afternoon while Rachel was gone at work and he was free to prowl.

Tomorrow he will study, work, and relax. Sunday, he will take another visit to the void and see what else he could find. After all, he had a book to write and an author needed as many materials as they could get their hands on.

 **(A/N:) And finished! Not going to do an extended outro this time because this chapter is already freakin long enough as it is, as well as this month. Anyway, thank you so much guys for reading and reviewing, it means a lot to me. The next chapter is titled "Fear without form." and it's probably going to be a good one. Don't know when it will be out because as I've learned recently, ANYTHING can come in and throw your whole schedule out of whack, but I will begin typing the moment this one is uploaded to you guys.**

 **See you guys in the next chapter, have a fantastic day and remember to post a review and like this chapter if it does good by you. See ya later!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Fear without form: Part one**

Teri x Gumball

 **Yo! Fellow TAWOG fans, Terball shippers, and people who are interested in this story! I am happy to bring forth the eighth chapter of the Romantic/Fantasy story Teri x Gumball: In between worlds and this one is going to be as exciting as ever. Gotta be real with you guys, again, I'm sorry for the two month hiatus. Lots of stuff happening in the world of the living and very little time for writing. It's probably going to get worse once Fall rolls around because hell, I mean, college. I also chose to read over the previous chapters to this story and after spotting several inconsistencies, I had to go through this chapter and make sure to eliminate anything that doesn't match up with the previous chapters. Sorry for the grammar mistakes and inconsistent storytelling by the way, I'm trying to fix this with effective and efficient editing techniques as well as taking notes on certain aspects of the story.**

 **I've also improvised some of the characters a little because when I read Darwin and Carrie's characters, I realized that they weren't actually doing much except worrying about what Teri and Gumball were doing or complaining about the strange events happening around Elmore. Actually that's pretty much what everyone else is doing in Elmore, so I aim to change that, obviously.**

 **Originally this chapter was going to be one long chapter, but once I reached page sixty I quickly realized that I wasn't even halfway done yet. With there being enough delays as is, I decided to cut the chapter into two parts for the sake of simplicity and to lessen my workload. I hope this doesn't disappoint anyone, but like I said there's a lot to write down and I hope the second half won't take too long to reach you guys.**

 **This chapter will focus on training for a bit, Gumball and Teri will be training with one another and Rob will be doing his own thing. We'll also be seeing Darwin and Anais talking about the events happening around Elmore, as well as the mentioning of a character that has appeared in the series only once. Can you guess who it is?**

 **Anyways, enjoy this chapter and leave a like or a review down below, I'm appreciating all the support and I will gladly take any criticisms you guys may have.**

 **(I do not own The Amazing World of Gumball. All rights belong to Ben Bocquelet, the staff, Cartoon Network, and other respective owners.)**

 _-Watterson residence, Sunday, Sept 22nd, 2013, 7:07 AM-_

Within the confines of his round, relatively small fishbowl, Darwin slept rather soundly and did not let the morning sun interrupt his slumber, even when the curtains to the rooms single window were drawn apart. Downstairs the television set blared with sound that only reached the sleeping goldfish as a mere muffle that spread through the water within his sleeping space and the eleven year old was barely disturbed by his adoptive father's morning routine. The only response he would give to all this commotion was a slight twitch every now and then before he would go back to snoring bubbles.

Yesterday was quite a party, for when he invited his friends Bobert, Tobias, and Clayton over, he was given quite the surprise when he learned that the boys had invited several others too and even brought along people who weren't initially invited. While this wasn't a major concern for the middle child of the Watterson household (he was a firm believer in the term "the more the merrier" and was quite pleased with the amount of people who showed up.) he did have to make sure that some of his classmates/friends didn't end up getting into a quarrel. This proved futile because when Ocho got wind that there was a game night happening at Darwin's house, he invited himself over and things took a slightly intense turn when he found his rival, Bobert, already there. Naturally there was an intense match between the spider sprite and the robot that ended up booting the rest of the players from the game. Soon, everyone was gathered around the television set and cheering while also placing bets, with Gumball naturally swooping in to control the flow of cash.

Then there was Tobias.

Normally when the rainbow lad came over for a game night he would act very laid back and would also remain intent on having a good time, as a group of teens and pre-teens hanging out usually would. However, the Tobias that came over last night was a far cry from the Tobias they knew. Even though he did his best to hide it from the others, Darwin could tell he was clearly stressed out about something and was worried it had something to do with Jamie or Tina perhaps.

When Bobert and Ocho's video game death match took over the actual playing experience for the rest of the guys there, Tobias wandered into the Watterson's kitchen to grab a glass of lemonade and Darwin took this as an ample opportunity to confront the multi-spectrum jock about what was bothering him. Turns out the answer was not what he had expected.

 _Tobias set the glass of lemonade down on the counter and sighed before turning back to the fish, the sound of Bobert and Ocho's virtual match drowning out any noise from the kitchen as everyone cheered for whomever they supported,_

" _No it's not Tina or Jamie that's got me worked up. I asked her if she wanted to come over and she told me that it wouldn't be a good idea because she wouldn't be able to fit in the house much less play a video game, plus she and Jamie are going bowling tonight." he began to run his finger along the rim of the glass, listening to the hollow ringing sound as his eyes wandered a little._

 _Darwin found this really surprising and his facial expressions lit up to match his intrigue,_

" _Wait, Tina and Jamie go bowling?" he asked, his flippers dropping from their crossed position to rest at his side._

 _Simply shrugging as his first response, Tobias slowly nodded and kept speaking while his digit continued to trace the edge of the glass,_

" _Yeah, they go every once in a while, it's kind of like their version of a girls night out. I was quite surprised when she brought it up too." he said, actually displaying genuine shock similar to that of Darwin's._

" _But, how does Tina bowl if her arms are too, you know?" Darwin asked, folding up his flippers until they were scrunched up like that of a T-rex's._

" _She spits the balls at the pins." was all he said._

 _The answer was so direct and simple, that Darwin was left in utter silence as he tried to decide whether he should react out of disgust or just understand why that would actually make sense. He was mostly disgusted because he would often go bowling with friends as well as family and now he couldn't shake the revolting image of Tina lobbing the spit covered bowling balls from her maw and onto the track. He felt a cold shiver run down his back as he perished the thought from his mind,_

" _Um, yeah, that's…" Darwin slowly started and trailed off as he fidgeted with his upper appendages._

" _Disgusting? Yeah, that was my first thought and then I learned that Tina is actually pretty good at bowling when compared to her friend. Most of the time Jamie would just chuck the ball as hard as she could down the bowling alley and break something in the process. It's also not uncommon for her to get frustrated real quick and just run down the track to knock the pins down herself, according to Tina at least." he uttered with a chuckle._

 _After picturing an angered Jamie getting sick of breaking things and rolling gutterballs to the point that she runs down herself to knock over the pins forced a laugh out of the two legged former pet of the Wattersons. They both shared a laugh for a bit before things returned to normal and the only thing that could be heard was the commotion happening in the living room. It wasn't long before Tobias' distress crept back into his features and Darwin was brought back to his original question,_

" _So what is wrong then?" his tone took a serious shift as opposed to his sympathetic, friendly one and Tobias found that he oughta get this over with as quickly as possible._

 _Squaring up his shoulders and releasing the breath he'd been unconsciously holding in, he turned to the eleven year old standing before him, patiently awaiting an answer,_

" _It's… (sigh.) it's my parents. They've been fighting at home." he finally muttered._

 _Suddenly the atmosphere seemed to grow increasingly dense and Darwin felt his lungs cease to function for the briefest of moments as the shock overwhelmed him. As things normally were with family members, Darwin knew right away that this was no simple matter and he immediately felt himself becoming cautious as he registered the situation. While he was no stranger to his adopted parents bickering and arguing over several things, the tone in which Tobias delivered this news coupled with the given stress, Darwin could already feel the dread and sadness that came with domestic conflicts._

 _Moving until he was standing besides the cloud-like humanoid, Darwin hopped up until he was seated on the counter and folded his fins on his lap, his pudgy face already laxed as his eyes focused on his,_

" _Do you want to talk about it?" he asked, trying his hardest to be as respectful as he could._

 _Tobias took the moment that followed Darwin's question to consider if he wanted to go through with this. On the one hand, this was a real difficult topic to discuss because he hated seeing and hearing his parents argue and fight one another. Bringing it up drew forth many unpleasant thoughts and feelings regarding those scary instances. On the other hand, he had been opening up quite a bit with both Darwin and Tina as of recently and whenever he did so, he did feel better._

 _He wasn't sure how talking to Darwin would fix this particular issue, but if talking to him about it would make him feel better, then might as well._

 _Taking a seat right next to him on the countertop, Tobias began to tell him what was happening behind the scenes at his place,_

" _To start off, I'm not exactly sure what they are fighting over." he started, he was staring at his hands which were also folded on his lap and frustration was already gripping his voice,_

" _My mom seems to think we've lost something or rather_ _someone_ _and she would often go through old family albums or drive to specific locations for no particular reason at all." he clutched his hands tightly and his lips twisted into a sneer as he tried to grasp what could possibly drive his mother to become so obsessed over something so vague._

 _Darwin also seemed to be quite vexed by this and couldn't quite put his finger (flipper.) on the matter at hand. It didn't seem to be such a big deal when he thought about it, he lost things all the time and when it came to people, sometimes he felt as though he would grow distant from someone he knew and would often come back to him as someone he lost. But these were simple things that could be solved with a little investigation, he wasn't sure how something like this could be the cause of such turmoil and the former pet of Gumball felt as though he needed more insight into the matter._

" _Um, does this happen a lot with your mother? Is it recent or has this been an ongoing issue?" he asked, keeping track of Tobias' expressions as he watched him formulate an answer._

 _The blue and orange classmate of his released the tight grip on his own hands before he disrupted the brief silence between the two of them,_

" _It's been going on for a few months. Before that, she never did anything like this and when she did start, first it was just a few instances of searching then she would disappear for several hours to a whole day even, searching for something or someone she can't even remember." given the increased volume of his voice and the apparent lack of calm written in his body language, this was quite upsetting for him to discuss and has been bothering him for quite some time,_

" _And what's worse is that whenever me and my father asked her who this person could possibly be, she would just respond with "I don't know, but it's someone really important and I can't stop wondering if they're out there." and that's how the fights between my parents would start. Almost every night, she'd come home late and my dad would confront her, sometimes accusing her of having an affair with someone else and I would just be in the living room or my own room, curled up somewhere just wishing it would stop!" he was nearly shouting at this point and his eyes were starting to well up with tears._

 _Having listened to every word Tobias said, Darwin could not help but feel sorrow and pity towards his friend. There was even a slight twinge of fear that blossomed like an icy rose in the back of his head, not for himself, but for the rainbow lad's uncertain future with his parents. He had met his mother and father on a few occasions and while, they weren't bad people in his mind, he knew of Mr. Wilson's possessive attitude towards his wife and kid. Problems like the ones Tobias had described plus a lifestyle that revolved around obtaining material goods to uphold one's status and ego would probably result in some horrific conflicts that could leave behind a divided household._

 _Placing a comforting fin on Tobias' shoulder, the two boys remained in absolute silence for some time as Tobias tried to ride out the storm that was occurring within his own self. They were both lucky that no one had come in yet and saw the uncomfortable situation playing out within the kitchen. While Tobias wiped away his tears and sniffled a little, Darwin just pondered some of the things that had been happening as of late and their effects on the people caught within them._

 _After Tobias seemed relatively calm, Darwin broke the uneasy silence with an apology,_

" _I'm sorry that this is happening." it was all he could say, really. There wasn't much else he could offer in terms of actual help._

 _Feeling very parched, Tobias picked up the glass of lemonade sitting temptingly by his side and downed the rest of the glass in a single gulp. Wiping his lips with his forearm and setting the cup down, his three fingered hands began to interlock with one another again and his shoulders slumped, all the tension having been released in his vocal rant. He still felt terrible and even though Darwin was doing his best to comfort him, there was still something he felt uncertain about and he needed to get it off his chest._

 _With another sigh, he turned to Darwin, but didn't exactly make eye contact with him. He never felt comfortable making eye contact with others while he felt this vulnerable and he didn't even like opening up to others either despite the fact that it proved very helpful to him. Guess his ego still needed to tampered with as well as his self-centered idea of masculinity that drove him to act the way he did in school. He understood that it was all a facade, but there were just some things he could never let go of so easily._

 _Regardless of how he felt towards his self image, he knew that he needed to talk to someone about this and one thing he learned to appreciate about Darwin was that he was good keeping other people's dilemmas to himself as well as helping others through them,_

" _Thanks." he started, as response to Darwin's sympathetic apology before starting onto what he was really getting at,_

" _However, there is one other thing." he looked up at Darwin, this time in the eyes and saw that they were wide with curiosity, indicating that it was okay for him to proceed._

 _Feeling as though a crushing force was lifted off of him the moment he resolved to speak his mind, the multi-colored member of the football club proceeded forward,_

" _I think I know what may have caused this. In the middle of the Summer, a couple of strangers came to our house and one of them said that they knew us, but my dad sent them off by threatening to call the police. One of them looked like that guy that appeared on the bus last year and the other was a girl that I swear I've seen before. I think mom may have recognized her too, but can't seem to place a solid identity, much less track down." he waited a moment for Darwin's response and when he didn't give one, he looked up and saw that he looked kind of confused/startled,_

" _I mean, it could possibly be that a very distant relative came to visit or something like that, but even I'm starting to have doubts as to who that fluffy haired girl could be!" he followed up while hoping that Darwin didn't see him as crazy._

 _Luckily for him though, this was not what Darwin was shocked by as he was instead focusing on the first person he described. When he said that one guy who appeared on the bus last year, he immediately traced his memory back to the time the entire class tried skipping school and was seemingly hijacked by their well-disguised parents and teachers. Of course, it was all a ploy set up by their arch-nemesis, Dr. Wrecker, in order to nab a million dollars for himself and defeat his adversary in one go. It was just one incident, but Darwin was certain that the person Tobias was referring to was undoubtedly him._

 _He hadn't heard much from the mad inventor ever since the end of Gumball and Penny's relationship and now the main question was, why was Doctor Wrecker showing up at the Wilson's place with someone else?_

 _Snapping back into reality from the palace of his thoughts, Darwin began to question Tobias a bit more about the strangers, one in particular,_

" _Yeah that's possible, but when you mentioned the first person, you said he appeared on the bus last year and I was wondering if you were referring to Dr. Wrecker?" he asked._

" _Are you talking about the blocky one-eyed maniac who tried to blow us up with a ticking briefcase?" Tobias shot back, unsure as to who this "Doctor Wrecker" was._

 _Darwin nodded accordingly and responded with,_

" _That'll be the one!"_

" _Hmm, yeah he was definitely there alright and the girl who was with him was tall, wore a white shirt, yellow skirt, had lots of fluffy yellow/blue hair and a stylish headband awfully similar to the one me and my mom like to wear. Do you know her by any chance?" he further inquired after his description._

 _Darwin thought for a moment, placing a fin to his lip as he tried to trace his mind for anything to go off of based on what he heard, but came up with nothing,_

" _Sorry, I don't have any recollection of her." he grumbled with a shrug trailed by a frustrated sigh._

 _Tobias seemed equally as frustrated, having the glimmer of hope that was present in his eyes being snuffed out by Darwin's honest reply. He wanted to find that girl too and help his family end their conflict by figuring out who that familiar stranger was. He knew there was something about her, but every time he tried to dig deep into his memory, it's like a black hole just formed in various patches of his mental scape, taunting him ceaselessly with the secrets hidden within the darkness. It was all void to him._

 _While Darwin was now sure that the strange girl he had heard about was important in some way, there wasn't much for him to go on and his only clue was that Dr. Wrecker had something to do with it. Unfortunately, before he could dig into this matter even further, two figures made their way into the kitchen and the two boys were quickly pulled out of their private spaces and forced to confront the two newcomers. It was Gumball and Banana Joe who decided to move on into the room they were occupying, both of which had an excited look plastering their faces as they pointed back into the living room,_

" _Guys, guys! Get back in here, you're not going to believe what's going to happen!" the first to speak was Gumball, who was barely able to conceal his energized emotions that ran rampant throughout his whole system._

" _Bobert and Ocho are tied now and are about to start their final match against one another. They can't decide on which map to play on so they want us to create a map in Ring's forge world!" Banana Joe shouted in his raspy dog voice with glee, jumping up and down on his stick-like legs as his pupils shook in his googly eyes._

 _Tobias was the first to react and masked his troubled emotions with an equally enthusiastic demeanor, the rainbow lad spared no time to jump off the counter and pump his fists up in the air as he whooped in excitement,_

" _Whoo-Yeeeaaahhh, let's lay a bunch of traps everywhere!" he shouted before making a dash for the living room._

 _Feeling the infectious energy brought upon him by his best pal, Banana Joe was quick to follow after him, also shouting with joy. Gumball was about to take off as well, but halted when he saw that Darwin hadn't left his spot yet. Marching up to him, Gumball grabbed him by the fin and began to pull the fish off the counter, surprising Darwin in the process, who just glanced up at him after being broken from his thoughts again,_

" _Come on, dude! We gotta make this map really difficult for them because Ocho is going to use his cheat codes and Bobert is using some gaming software he's been downloading." he exclaimed as he ushered his sibling along, completely oblivious to Darwin's faraway look as he continued to think about Rob, the mysterious girl, the strange phenomenon happening throughout Elmore, Gumball and Teri's disappearances, plus their constant injuries, and Carrie's odd sensations that correlate with certain events._

 _To the young fish, it seemed like ever since Summer had ended things have been really picking up around here and in ways he could hardly comprehend. He wanted to start investigating these things right away, but seeing as his head is already full from all these unknown variables that keep popping up so frequently, he wanted to just relax for a bit. Besides, everyone was together right now and they needed to make the most of the time they had._

Afterwards, they watched Bobert and Ocho compete against one another and the robot's superior programming proved to be unmatched by Ocho's old school cheat codes. Luckily the two took the argument outside and nobody was hurt by the fight that followed soon after… except for the mailman who was trying to deliver the latest set of bills to Nicole after he'd been held up in the hospital for a day. Turns out some crazy guy driving an old, purple geo metro ran into him while he was delivering some mail last Friday, but the most damage he received was a scraped elbow and knee along with a broken antler that he had to tape back on, his bike on the other hand had the back wheel bent after the car clipped it and was currently in the shop. Either way, Darwin felt sorry for the old guy and sent the two kids home after they've caused enough damage around the house.

He made a mental not to never allow Bobert and Ocho to occupy the same space or just never make contact at all.

The rest of the afternoon went by really fast and everyone had a pretty decent time, although another one of the people Gumball and Darwin never really invited, but showed up anyway which happened to be Sarah G. Lato, kind of creeped everyone out with her long winded speeches about how everyone here was such a great friend and how it would be a tragedy that all this would soon come to an end once they all started their own lives, leaving everyone to long for those precious days that will never return. After being thoroughly irked for several minutes, Gumball decided it was time for him to leave for Teri's place and wished Darwin along with the rest of the company a good evening before disappearing for the rest of the day. While Darwin wasn't quite bothered by Gumball leaving, he did have a few questions he still wanted to ask him, but decided that they could wait until he got back tomorrow.

The afternoon soon gave way to early evening and after playing several games with different members present at the house, Nicole and Richard soon arrived from their afternoon with the Yoshidas. Taking this as their cue to leave, the rest of Darwin's classmates took off and wished the fish boy a happy weekend before they left the Watterson residence. From that point on, Darwin continued to have a good Saturday with his folks, who had all sorts of funny and fascinating stories to share regarding their lunch with the family of clouds and eventually night came around, allowing Darwin to retire to his bedroom.

All in all, Darwin was very content with how things went yesterday and wanted to spend the last day of the weekend just relaxing. Gumball was bound to return sometime this afternoon, so all the questions he wanted to ask him regarding his connections with the anomalies could be brought up in their next meeting. As for Tobias, he may message him on Elmore Plus to check up on the junior high jock and perhaps meet him at school tomorrow to talk about family issues.

 _Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap._

Something or someone was tapping his fishbowl and he knew this because the sound was very close and he could feel his sleeping area vibrate through slight shifts in the water. Emerging from the dream that was immediately forgotten upon contact with the waking world, his eyes slowly cracked open forcing light into his sensitive pupils and causing him to blink several times. Once adjusted to the invading light shining in through his window, the sleepy middle schooler casually glanced about the room which was slightly blurred by the liquid medium he slept in and saw nothing seemingly out of place. The room was empty, save for all the furniture that hadn't been touched since yesterday and outside, the morning sun was already casting it's celestial glow from its rising position behind the horizon.

He didn't notice anything peculiar until he looked down and saw Anais standing there at the base of his dresser while holding a broom, which she had been using to tap at Darwin's fishbowl.

Seeing his little sister standing there with an expectant look present on her cute little bunny face warranted a few questions for the walking fish. For one, he thought that Anais was spending the entire weekend at Macey's place and also, if she needed anything, she'd normally get it herself since she was very capable on her own, despite being five. Unless of course it was something that she wanted to buy, but normally she'd pester Mrs. mom for things like that. Knowing full well that he wasn't going to be getting any answers 'less he actually ask her, the odd one out of the Watterson family greeted the pink bunny girl with a simple, yet tired _"morning, Anais."_ before he climbed out of his fishbowl and hopped down to the carpeted floor.

Finding a spot on Gumball's bed, Darwin popped a seat and began wrestling his shoes onto his bare feet. Still on the floor and standing beside him, Anais kept her gaze away from Darwin as he dressed himself (he was still kind of sensitive of having his feet exposed to the world and considered it the closest thing to being naked. This usually made very little sense to Anais seeing as a lot of the Elmore citizens wear very little to no clothing at all, but to each their own she guessed.) while she spoke,

"Um, hey, so you're probably wondering why I'm here and not at my friend's house." she started off before politely adding in,

"Also, good morning to you too!"

Having completed the task of covering his feet with the protective footwear he kept as a child, which he surprisingly never outgrew nor wore down despite having them for nearly eleven years ( **A/N: Forgot to mention this because I originally thought he was eleven and not ten, but his birthday was celebrated in June, a couple months before Anais turned five.** ) and returned his attention to his baby sister,

"That is quite interesting, seeing as you and Macey rarely seem to separate from one another. Why did you come home early?" Darwin asked, genuinely curious about Anais' early arrival.

Getting straight to the point, Anais began to pace the bedroom they all shared, her arms folded behind her back and her long ears dangling from the back of her head,

"Well, the first thing I want to ask you is, do you remember my first friend? The one you, me, and Gumball first believed we made up as an imaginary friend?" she quizzed, hoping that Darwin hadn't forgotten the event.

Darwin had to think for a moment in order to recall whom she was referring to before it quickly came back to him and his eyes lit up in recognition,

"Oh, yeah! The lonely toy that came to your party and was thought to be a criminal by the citizens of Elmore!" he exclaimed with surprising zeal before his expression switched to something akin to worry and his eyes faded in their luster,

"Is he okay after that whole incident with the police?" he asked, his normally upbeat voice reduced to a mere whisper.

Shrugging a little, Anais gave a swift nod and smiled a little in order to reassure her elder sibling,

"More or less. He was very happy to see me and he was delighted to meet Macey too. I was actually surprised that the two of them got along pretty well and that she didn't start freaking out at the sight of him. Turns out, she and her parents don't like to watch the news because of all the general negativity the media likes to force onto us. Oh! and I forgot to mention, he goes by the name Chimera." she stated, sounding very pleased at how things turned out.

This seemed to cause Darwin to lighten up a little, as his body posture seemed to deflate and his fins to stop fumbling around each other, however the worried expression he held remained unchanged,

"But, if the police are still after him, why would he risk coming back here to see you?" he asked, feeling uncertain as to whether everything was alright if their wanted friend suddenly showed up after being gone for half a year.

Turns out, the answer was just as unsettling as he thought,

"Well, actually, he wasn't really risking anything because Macey's family lives out in the woods just North of here. We found him by a riverbed trying to catch a crayfish and I seized the opportunity to catch up with him while also introducing him to my friend. It turns out he's been living out in the mountains ever since he left, not far from Hector's place to be exact. They're not close enough to see one another though, which is a good thing. Also both he and Macey like to search rivers for pretty stones." the entire time she spoke there was this gentle look on her face and her eyes seemed to be a little distant as though she were living through a happy memory. When she moved on to the next subject however, she snapped back into a serious composure and moved on to answering the second question,

"As to why he was there, he said he something strange was going on as of lately. He keeps getting these nightmares about monsters dropping out of the sky above Elmore and even saw a strange, black storm above the mountains several days ago that spat red lightning while also pulling snow up towards it. He was feeling worried so he wandered down here in order to check up on me." she explained.

Now was the part where Darwin had to pause and take all this in. If it weren't for the fact that this place was already as crazy as it gets, he would have considered Anais' friend to be schizophrenic and would recommend professional help to Chimera, perhaps a toy manufacturer or an engineer maybe? However, knowing that Anais wouldn't come home to just simply tell him that a friend of hers was having bad dreams while witnessing unusual weather patterns, he could only assume that something serious was going on and that his high school sibling was going to ask him to help her with something. Plus, with Carrie also having weird feelings every now and then, it wasn't odd to say that something could be actually happening right now.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out, Darwin was ready to hear what she needed to say,

"Interesting. I'm guessing you found something about his dreams that piques your interest?" he rested his head on his fin as he leaned forward with a listening ear.

With her smirk giving a clear indication that he was on the right track, Anais nodded and stopped pacing,

"Right on!" she exclaimed with a snap of her fingers,

"I asked Chimera to describe his dreams to me and when he did, I discovered that all his dreams take place in various locations around the city. It just so happens that all those locations happen to line up with all the weird anomalies that have been showing up in the past few weeks."

This was definitely becoming more interesting and the sitting goldfish was curious as to where she was going with this,

"So what are you going to do about these strange happenings?" he questioned, wondering if there was a point to her coming over and bringing this up to him.

It was right when he asked that question did Anais' face change from discovery to determination and Darwin was well aware this could only mean that she was going to take action,

"That's the reason why I'm here, I wanted to ask you to join me and my two friends on an investigation around Elmore to uncover the meaning behind these bizarre events." she folded her arms and awaited a response, one of her ears already lifting as a telltale sign.

This of course, was by no means a bad idea to the curious aquatic student and he certainly felt that having more people looking into these matters was a good thing. He felt that including Carrie would be a good idea, seeing as she could sense the unusual events in some fashion and having her on the team would also help them cover a lot of ground too. Then there was Gumball, who seemed like an obvious contender for this operation because he could be very diligent when searching for something, especially if it was unnatural, but then he thought about his odd behavior and Carrie's dismay yesterday about he and Teri possibly being up to something,

"That sounds like a great idea! Count me in and also, can we include Carrie in on the investigation as well?" Darwin chirped.

Raising an eyebrow, Anais asked,

"Why would you want to include your girlfriend in on this? I mean, I'm not saying that she's incapable or anything, I just don't understand why she would be interested." her questioning stare gave off a slight twinge of suspicion regarding her older brother's incorporeal girlfriend.

Understanding her skepticism, Darwin was quick to answer,

"The thing is, she's also been noticing things as of recently and not just as in dreams, but as in sensations, like a ghost sense or something. She wants to figure this out just as much as the rest of us and having her on our investigation team would be really beneficial as well because she's an expert on the supernatural, which in this case, the odd things happening around here can be just that and her teleportation ability can help us cover more ground." he explained thoroughly, making sure to list down all the pros of having a fifth member to help out.

Anais seemed to accept this as her critical stance seemed to deteriorate and reform into a tolerant figure,

"Hmm, okay, that's actually very practical and while I'm still adamant that anything is "supernatural", having her help us uncover any mysterious forces connected to these anomalies would be a definite benefit. Therefore, I accept your proposal to add her to our group." she concluded, displaying her approval with an affirmative nod of the head.

Darwin nodded in return and began to fidget once again. Now came the next question,

"That's good to hear! Um, there's something else: should we include Gumball and Teri because Carrie suspects that they're both linked to this, somehow?" he asked.

The room immediately went quiet and the sense of discomfort slowly began to fill the air. When Anais first heard the question, she wasn't quite sure how she should go about answering it, especially since she knew about her other brother's erratic behavior. She didn't see Teri all that much either, but given that she was real close to Gumball, she could only guess that they were in on this together. Seeing how her gaze shifted to the side and how her lips were pursed together, Darwin could tell right away that she was having some doubts regarding their feline sibling and to be frank, she had a good reason too,

"I'm not entirely sure that's… a good idea." she finally said, breaking the silence that had been choking the room,

"It's not that he's unreliable, it's just that, given how many times he's made excuses to cover up his strange behaviors, and I know they're cover ups just by his body language alone, I don't think he's going to be very cooperative when it comes to cracking this case. Sorry if you wanted to include him in, but I think we should leave him and Teri out of this." she explained, already appearing downtrodden by this unfortunate fact.

Already suspecting that would be the case, Darwin just let out a frustrated sigh and quietly agreed with her with a slow nod of his head,

"Yeah, that's what I thought, but if he and Teri are suspects, then what should we do about them?" he asked, already fearing what the possible answer may be.

Pulling the stool sitting in front of the computer desk until it was a few feet from the bed on which Darwin sat, Anais hopped up on it and placed herself down until she was facing Darwin once again,

"About that." she started off with an uneasy tone, already making Darwin nervous,

"you see, one thing I'm going to need you to do is to keep an eye on Gumball along with his friend and when you notice either of them doing something odd, keep track of them both or let one of us know so we can observe them ourselves." she explained, her brows knitted together in serious concentration while sitting upright on her stool.

It's just as Darwin had feared, she wanted him to keep tabs on Gumball and Teri like they were wanted criminals rather than their family and friend/associate,

"So you're basically telling me to spy on them." the goldfish replied, sounding very upset and rather hurt by Anais' request.

And there it was, Darwin's reluctance to do something that involved deceit because of his overall nature. While Anais herself admitted that was actually wrong in some cases, as she was literally asking her own brother to spy on someone else, a family member no less, along with his female colleague who also seems rather close to Gumball. It was selfish and also very invasive when it came to Gumball and Teri's privacy, but given the frightening circumstances the town was facing currently, Anais was willing to resort to such members if it meant solving this whole debacle once and for all.

Having already prepared for this kind of reaction, Anais selected a different approach,

"Yes and I know that's really bad considering that it is deceptive, but also taking in the consideration that Gumball is hiding something from us, I think the best way to help him out would be to find out what he and Teri have been getting into. If it's something really bad, then we can't let those two deal with it on their own. Trust me when I say, I'm not trying to hurt Gumball and Teri, I really want them to be safe, but we need to know what's going on first." she pleaded.

She wasn't lying, Darwin understood that and to be honest, he probably would have resorted to the exact same thing if confronting Gumball or the paper girl doesn't work. He knew something was up with those two and that they weren't being completely honest about their behavior. Every time they would come back with cuts, bruises, and even burns at times, it would frighten him and he didn't want to see either of them hurt or feeling as though they have to lie about what's really been going on.

He knew Gumball could be overprotective at times and if he was lying about whatever was causing him and Teri so much trouble, then it must be something really awful. Unfortunately, he didn't want to be in the dark on this, so he reluctantly agreed with Anais on the task she was giving him,

"...(sigh)... okay, I will." he started, but quickly stood up soon after he finished speaking,

"BUT, I will only do so if confronting them doesn't work." he snapped, using an aggressive tone that was unlike him.

While she felt the last part was a waste of time, the vexed bunny decided to go along with it as long as he was willing to,

"I doubt, there will be much success in that field, but I guess it's worth a try." she sighed before hopping off the stool and paced towards the door,

"I'm going to leave all that up to you while I get ready to interview some of the people who have been in the areas that suffered electrical failures in the last three weeks. Macey is with Chimera and she going to let me know if he's experienced any nightmares like the ones he has been as of recently. Don't forget to also contact Carrie!" she listed off while she walked and tossed a glance towards her aquatic older brother after mentioning the last line.

Pulling out his phone already, Darwin began to scroll down his list of contacts until his fin landed on the image of his spiritual girlfriend,

"Already texting her!" he chirped, typing out a message to Carrie saying he wanted to meet up with her sometime soon.

Satisfied, the youngest Watterson child continued down the hallway and towards the stairs that lead to the living room, her little feet lightly patting on the carpet in contrast to Darwin's heavier and longer strides as he walked beside her. She was definitely worried about the crazy turn of events that elmore was facing and while she initially had given her own sound theories as to why these things are happening, Chimera's nightmares, Carrie's sensations, Gumball and Teri's reported disappearances plus injuries and the additional fact that it's been happening all over the world, according to various news stations, Anais was more than convinced that something bigger was happening and that Elmore is the recent place to be swept up in it.

She wanted to know if this was something that could be a massive threat and if so, could it be stopped?

Today, they were taking their first steps into solving this conspiracy,

"Oh, yeah! Dad is making his breakfast special downstairs!" Anais announced while moving down the stairs.

Feeling overjoyed, Darwin could practically smell the waffles doused in chocolate syrup and picked up the pace,

"YESSSSSS!" was all he could shout as he made his way towards the kitchen with Anais happily trailing behind them.

 _-Teri's house, roughly two hours earlier, 5:37 AM-_

Dr. Fukijima Pepakuma was used to quiet mornings. With the only two women in his life (Yui and Teri, the only ones that mattered to him.) being rather silent like himself, he was always guaranteed a peaceful morning and especially on the weekends too, where there were usually less calls from the doctor's office. However, ever since a certain classmate of his daughter's started coming over more often, the forty-year-old paper puppet hardly knew a silent moment around here. Not that he minded having Gumball over, like his wife, he was more than happy to see Teri having a friend over more often and actually enjoying herself when she was around him, even though she seems to get into more mischief the more she hangs around him.

This particular Sunday morning was anything but peaceful, as the tranquil silence that filled the sleeping house was shattered when Teri screamed at something or rather _someone._ Hearing the angered shout (he knew it was anger because there were only two types of loud sounds his little one would make: fright and anger, both of which were usually directed at her rambunctious partner in crime.) tearing across the hallway and through his door. The rectangular bear growled in his sleep and squeezed his already shut eyes tighter as he prepared to open them to the morning he had hoped to sleep through.

Carefully opening his peepers, the oldest Pepakuma of the house sat up in his bed, which was covered in many documents and papers from both his and his beloved's work, before reaching over and retrieving a pencil from his nightstand to draw on his glasses. Being able to see the world clearly again, Dr. Pepakuma noticed that it wasn't really bright out yet, as the sky outside his window was a dark blue indicating that the California sun hasn't risen yet. When he checked his alarm clock sitting next to the mini Buddha statue, he saw that it was twenty minutes until six and he let out another agitated groan,

"Who needs an alarm clock when you have those two getting up early and squawking at each other." he grumbled to himself as he put his feet on the floor and slowly got up.

Drawing up a new attire for himself, Fukijima was eventually ready to emerge into the world from his and his wife's private domain. Looking back at the empty bed, the surgeon was reminded that Yui won't be getting out of work until six, which wasn't too long from now, but won't be getting home until eight once she's completed some errands. He was scheduled to go into work around nine, so once she gets back, he'll be taking off shortly after. Once she gets home, she'll no doubt need some rest and he was going to have to remind the two kids to keep it quiet once his wife returns.

With a ragged sigh, the older paper puppet stepped out of his room and quietly closed the door behind him. Once out in the little hallway that lead to the house's main entrance and into the living room, Dr. Pepakuma could very clearly hear his daughter angrily speaking to someone in the living room and went in to go investigate what was causing such a ruckus.

"...and how many times do I have to remind you that there are more germs on the keyboard than there are on a toilet seat?" she reminded him in a matter of fact, though her voice was still reaching a few high notes.

When Fukijima stepped into the living he was introduced to quite the sight, a sight so ridiculous that if he hadn't been Teri's father he himself would've thought it ludicrous and probably would have laughed it off as a joke. The living room was set up like any other in a typical suburban household with a large couch centered on a carpet floor, flanked on either side by two additional chairs and set in front of a television set. On the wall farthest from him was a glass sliding door that leads to a storage room which further lead to their backyard and on the wall opposite was a series of shelves holding books, family photos, and some old artifacts that meant a lot to the family. Tucked in the corner was a computer desk which sat an old computer that allowed the family to do some web surfing as well as important work.

Laying on the computer's keyboard was Gumball Watterson, all curled up on his belly with his paws tucked in and his tail curled around his sleeping form, like that of a typical housecat. It was an admittingly funny sight to see, a middle school student whom was well associated with his only child sleeping in such a bizarre fashion, but this also seemed to be the cause for Teri's dismay as well. Looking into the kitchen that separated the living room from the dining room, Fukijima could see the little paper bear standing at the counter with her arms crossed and wearing a sour face as she eyed the offending child her age with scorn. It didn't take a genius to put two and two together to know that Teri, being a colossal germaphobe and all, was not happy with Gumball's current choice of resting spots.

It was all too funny really and Dr. Pepakuma had to place a hand over his mouth in order to keep from laughing out loud as his daughter continued to shout at the fickle friend of hers,

"I know you can hear me, you scoundrel! That keyboard is not a bed, so get off before you catch an infection!" she argued, sounding very much like an angry cat owner talking down to her pet.

Gumball didn't really respond much, except for one ear twitching and cracking an eye open to look at her before lazily going back to sleep. He completely ignored her angry protests and judging by the little smirk that was playing across his lips, he seemed to enjoy getting on her nerves. Once a minute or two of silence drifted between them, Teri seemed about ready to strangle the little trickster when she spotted her dad standing by the doorway and looked up at him with surprise,

"Oh! Morning da-?" she was cut off by her father making a _shush!_ gesture by placing an index finger to his lips.

Teri remained silent as her father quietly made his way over to the coffee table resting in front of the couch and picked up the remote sitting on the corner before tossing it to her. Catching the household object, she looked up at him quizzically and saw the rectangular bear man making a clicking motion with his fingers before pointing at Gumball, who was still sleeping. It came to her all at once and she realized that her dad was referring to a particular feature the device had.

Pointing the remote at Gumball, Teri made sure the front of the device was aimed just below the chair at the desk and pressed a button. A little red light as big as a ladybug appeared on the floor where she was pointing at and with a sharp whistle followed up by a clicking noise made by her father, Gumball's eyes opened. At first, he didn't seem to understand what was going on or why everyone was so silent, but before he could have a look around the room, something very small and bright caught his eye and his head snapped in the direction of the little dot on the floor.

Seeing the little red spot of light rapidly moving in circles on the floor in front of him, Gumball's eyes became as big as golf balls, his tail began wagging with great ferocity, and he soon found himself in a crouched position, hind legs shifting as he watched the little object continue to dance in front of him. With a sharp flick of her wrist, Teri aimed the laser pointer at the other side of the room and the dot darted to said area. Upon seeing the fascinating spot quickly jump away, Gumball pounced after it, landing on the carpeted floor with a heavy _thud!_ before scrabbling after the runaway speck of light much like a housecat would.

Teri and Fukijima were both howling with laughter as she sent the cat boy all over the room, making him dart underneath the table, hop on the couch, scramble up the wall, and run around in circles on the carpet. All the while, Gumball would yowl very loudly as he could not seem to catch the flighty thing that has completely captivated his attention and would constantly swipe at the thing with his claws, only to have it appear on the top of his paws and race away once more.

Eventually Teri turned off the device, having laughed so hard that she couldn't even stand anymore and her father was in no position to remain on his own two feet either. Having been released from his cat craze, Gumball looked around the living room and wondered why he was on the floor before hearing two voices in the living room with him and spotting the Pepakumas drowning in laughter. Realizing that he had been duped into playing a silly game involving a laser pointer, Gumball felt his ears flatten on his head and his tail starting to swish angrily to the side.

However, his grumpy attitude was short-lived when he realized that it was probably Mr. Pepakumas idea and that it was indeed pretty funny; soon he found himself laughing alongside them,

"There you go, sweetie, I got him to move for you." Mr. Pepakuma said in between chuckles.

"It was definitely worth seeing because he went everywhere!" Teri laughed, replicating the experience by waving the remote around before setting it back down on the table.

Gumball also finished laughing at his own silliness and just rolled his eyes before looking at Teri's dad,

"Well, you were right on the dot, Mr. Pepakuma because Teri certainly had me on the ropes… and the couch… and the wall… and the table." he joked, counting his fingers as he listed off all the items in the living room he visited.

Both Teri and Fukijima found themselves groaning at Gumball's lame pun and expressed their disdain in different ways, such as rolling their eyes or shaking their heads. Last night before Yui left for work, they all had to put up with his lame dad jokes during their early dinner and neither of them were willing to put up with it now. What was really amusing to Fukijima was that, despite the short amount of time Gumball and Teri have been hanging out, Gumball has been over at their house so much that they jokingly started referring to him as part of the family.

Turning his head towards his only child, Mr. Pepakuma pointed towards the sponge lying besides the kitchen sink and spoke to her,

"Teri, take that sponge and throw it at him! We need to wash him of his lame sense of humor." he ordered.

Teri did as she was told and within seconds, the soft, brick-shaped scrubbing utensil was sailing across the living room and found itself landing square in the center of Gumball's surprised face. The dry sponge bounced harmlessly off of his face and landed on the ground without making any noise. Not being phased in the slightest, Gumball shrugged and cast a sinister glance in their direction,

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize that I had such a dirty sense of humor! You guys really know how to soak up all the fun!" he retaliated, knowing full well what was coming up next.

"Hit him again!" Teri's father shouted.

"Roger!" Teri responded, reaching for the rag used most commonly for drying dishes.

"I thought his name was Fukijima?" Gumball stated, feigning confusion.

Soon, multiple non-lethal objects were being tossed at the blue feline from the kitchen and the young middle schooler was forced to take cover behind the living room couch in order to avoid the wrath of the Pepakumas.

DING!

The sound of the oven's alarm caused an immediate ceasefire to Teri and Fukijima's barrage of soft kitchen utensils and the two watched as Gumball zipped from the living room to the kitchen with an eager look. With his hands safely sheathed in oven mitts, the cat baker popped open the oven door and reached in to retrieve a tray from the hot interior of the stove. Setting the piping hot tray on the kitchen counter, Teri and her dad could see that Gumball had made several cookies that were golden brown in color and smelled wonderfully sweet, like cinnamon.

"What are those?" Fukijima asked, his mouth already watering.

Pulling off his mitts, Gumball eyed his newest breakfast creation and turned to the older paper puppet with a smile,

"Oh, this? I noticed that you guys have a lot of oatmeal laying around, so I decided to make oatmeal cookies sprinkled with cinnamon. It was really easy to make, so easy, that I was able to take a nap afterwards." he said, already reaching for one.

His attempts to nab a cookie were intercepted when his paw was slapped by Teri's hand and the cat looked up at the girl with a baffled expression,

"Wash your hands first, you goof!" she snapped, getting behind him and pushing him towards the sink.

While Gumball struggled against the pushy bear girl, he called back to Fukijima,

"Feel free to have a couple, I made two for everyone-OW! Hey, watch it!" he said, disgruntled as he shot a glare back at Teri.

Given that he now had permission to make his selection of the six cookies laid out before him, the surgeon's hand hovered over a few that caught his eye before finding a particularly thick one and plucked it from the Aluminum foil wrap before bringing it up to his awaiting mouth. The fragrance was even sweeter now that it was a few centimeters from his face and the cookie itself was nice and warm. He eventually sank his teeth into it and the moment the breakfast food hit his tongue, a wonderful mixture of flavors began to swirl about his mouth and the rectangular paper bear man allowed his sharp shoulders to sink in content.

It was probably one of the best things he had ever tasted and what made it so great was that it was for breakfast too!

"Mmm! This is so good!" he exclaimed, his mouth still somewhat full from his first bite.

Having washed his hands thanks to Teri's "persuasive" methods, Gumball walked over to the counter followed by the aforementioned paper girl,

"Yeah? Thank you and I'm glad you enjoyed it." he responded gratefully.

He grabbed a cookie and passed it to Teri before grabbing one for himself. Teri bit into the gooey clump of oatmeal grains and dough and immediately allowed her face to melt into one of absolute delight. She never would have believed that oatmeal could have tasted this good and within a few minutes, she scarfed down the rest of it.

She saw that Gumball was enjoying his own and she smiled at him while she reached for another,

"You know what, Gumball? You're gonna have to say goodbye to your family because you're never leaving this house again." she proclaimed as she bit into her second one.

Mr. Pepakuma nodded in agreement and spoke to both of them,

"I agree! Your cooking is amazing and your here often enough to start living here!" he seconded before finishing his final cookie.

Gumball chuckled lightly at their possessive statements and shook his head as he began putting the dishes away,

"Well okay, but you're going to have to first fight my little brother, then my dad along with Anais, and finally my mom. And let me remind you that my mom is a complete force of nature on her own!" he explained, remembering all his mother's unbelievable feats of strength, skill, and tenacity.

Heading into the living room to pick up all the things that were strewn about following her and her father's combined assault on Gumball, Teri very nonchalantly challenged Gumball's claim,

"I'm pretty sure I can think of something. I mean, I am pretty capable of causing some damage." she said, giving Gumball a knowing wink that made the shorter friend of hers smile in mutual respect.

"The only damage you're capable of causing is a rupture to my eardrums." Teri's father corrected, folding his arms and giving his daughter a kind of stare that seemed to allude to something she did this morning.

Freezing up, Teri remembered her reaction this morning and hung her head low in shame,

"Sorry for waking you up like that." she meekly apologized.

Mr. Pepakuma simply shrugged and began making his way to the bathroom,

"You're forgiven, just try to control your volume next time someone is being pesky because if your mom was the one who had been awoken, I can assure you that when stuff starts flying around the living room, it wouldn't have been a laughing matter." he reminded her in a manner that sounded both harmless and ominous.

As lighthearted as it sounded, it was still enough to send a shiver down both the children's spines because even though Gumball had never seen Teri's mom get angry before, he remembered how often he, Darwin and Anais (and his dad, in some cases.) would be in for a world of hurt whenever they woke their mom up after a long day at work.

He explained to them that he was going to go take a shower and that Yui won't be back until eight, so he'll be hanging around until she gets back. After he left, the two spent the next hour tidying up the house, with Gumball handling most of the kitchen tasks and the living room as well and Teri doing the rest. While she was appreciative of him helping her out, she reminded him that he didn't have to do all of this because this was her home after all, and he was her guest, but Gumball insisted on helping because he wanted the process to go faster. With that being said, the two worked together in comfortable silence, only exchanging a few words to make small talk every now and then.

Once the chores were finished and Mr. Pepakuma stepped out of the bathroom, they decided to head out to the nearby forest in order to train. With their battle against Uriel last Friday, they've learned a few things during such an event and wanted to practice with the new skills they've learned. Teri's leg was also doing better and the mark left behind was barely even visible. Telling her dad that they needed some fresh air, Mr. Pepakuma gave them his blessing to leave the house on the premise that they be back relatively soon because once Yui finishes sleeping, she was going to need some help in the yard and Gumball was going to have to head home once that started happening.

Gathering their things, Teri and Gumball marched up to the door and were just about to step outside when Teri spun around to bid her father a farewell,

"Bye, dad! See you when you get back from work!" she waved to him.

He waved back and gave her a warm smile,

"Have fun you two and don't forget to be back soon." he reminded before shooting Gumball an icy glare that caused the blue cat to stiffen,

"And you, mister! Make sure nothing bad happens to her and that you get her home on time!" he said with an ominous tone that made Gumball tremble a little.

Standing as straight as a fence post and bringing his hand up to a salute, the nervous feline responded in a shaky voice,

"S-sir, yes sir!" he dropped his hand the moment the surgeon gave a subtle nod and spun around to face the door, avoiding his icy stare of death.

Sighing at her father's overprotectiveness and at Gumball's frightened state of mind, the paper girl grabbed the blue cat by the hand and dragged him out the door before giving her father one last goodbye,

"Bye, dad! Love you!" she called back to the figure relaxing on the couch.

"Love you too, Teri-bear!" came a loving response from Fukijima and Teri found herself going red with embarrassment at her parent's use of her nickname.

Hearing the front door swing shut, Mr. Pepakuma let out a sigh and settled into the couch. He remained in relative silence for a moment before grabbing the television remote and flicking on the television set in front of him. Switching to the news channel, the male paper puppet found himself feeling rather happy because while he may act a little stern around Teri's new best friend, he actually liked the kid and was amazed at how much he and Teri got along. He never would have believed that his tidy, shy little girl would have found someone she trusted so much and for that person to want to be with her as much as possible.

Such a friendship brought joy to his heart and he couldn't help but smile whenever he saw Teri being so happy.

While he pondered this among other things, the channel 6 news station was centered on the airport with the news reporter interviewing someone who appeared to work there. From what he was getting, there was some kind of electrical interference two days ago in the skies above Elmore that caused aircraft coming in and out of the airport to suffer unusual power surges, some even shutting down entirely. As if that weren't frightening enough, it also appeared that were several abnormal accidents that occured at the airfield including two random lightning strikes, a couple of trucks being damaged beyond repair, a power outage throughout the entire facility, and random scorch marks appearing on the runway.

Curious, Dr. Pepakuma kept his eyes glued to the screen as the figure being interviewed answered some of the reporter's questions,

" _And would you happen to understand the nature of these weird phenomenon?" the reporter, micr-O-phone asked, holding the mic (which also served as his head.) toward the worker's mouth._

 _The worker, a male background character with a circular, red head perched atop a stocky body clad in denim overalls and a white work shirt, thought for a moment before shrugging and answering the question,_

" _Not really, no. although, a couple of my pals that work in the terminal blame global warming, which is… probable, I guess?" he answered with another shrug and a raised eyebrow._

 _The micr-O-phone pulled his head mic back and looked directly at the camera,_

" _A fascinating statement! With climate change on the rise, maybe there is a possible explanation for all these strange electric disturbances. For about a month now, the citizens of Elmore have been suffering accidents similar to the one that happened last Friday afternoon and according other news stations along the California coastline, this bizarre trend in weather changes has also been affecting several cities and small towns, causing extensive property damage and even death in many cases." he explained before turning once again to the red airport worker standing beside him._

" _Is there anything else you would like to share? Any other unusual happenings around the airport?" he asked, holding the mic close to his head again._

 _The airport worker once again to a moment to think and recollect his thoughts from the last two days and let out a little sigh before placing his hands in his pockets,_

" _Not exactly sure what it was I saw, but while I was working up in the control tower, I did manage to see something on the runway."_

" _Something was on the runway?"_

" _Yeah, once again not exactly sure what it was, but it looked to be some kind of large animal that was orange and it was carrying something on its back. My eyesight is terrible and the other guys up there were too busy trying get the the power back on, so no one else really saw anything either." he responded honestly, sounding unsure as to what he saw._

" _Wait a minute, if your eyesight is terrible, then why were you working up in the control tower?" the news reporter asked, perplexed._

" _I'm a janitor. I was asked to clean up a coffee spill before the power went down." the airport employee responded with a deadpan look to the trench coat wearing correspondent._

 _There was an awkward silence before the mic head was brought back and facing the camera this time,_

" _Well, that's all the time we have, thank you for your time, Mr-?"_

" _Jimmy Que."_

" _Thank you mister- wait, is it Que as in the letter "Q" or like C-U-E?"_

 _The janitor sighed and spelled it out for him,_

" _It's Q-U-E!" he corrected, sounding as though he'd done this multiple times._

" _Thank you mister Que. Stay tuned for more channel six news and be careful folks!" he said, wrapping the news report and the camera cut to a commercial._

Being no stranger to this weird city and the bizarre happenings, Mr. Pepakuma was confused as well as very concerned for these ill times. When the reporter mentioned several disasters and untimely deaths happening all over the California coast, he thought back to the three unfortunate people who had passed away about a month ago, right when the blackouts and random acts of destruction started happening, and was still baffled as to how three people could show up dead at the place he worked with no signs of assault, shock, or any organ failures. They just dropped dead in the streets and that was that.

There haven't been any major incidents like that ever since, but it did leave him a little uneasy. Also, another thing that he just could not get off his mind was just how Teri and Gumball suddenly started hanging out, coincidentally around a month ago and at the same time this all started happening. The more he thought about it, the more he was able to pick out individual incidents that would occur with the two kids, like injuries or misplacing certain items, but he just chalked that up to Gumball's reckless behavior.

He liked the kid, but honestly, every time Teri (and Gumball occasionally.) would come home with some kind of mishap, he would nearly die every time from stress and he still wasn't sure if he could decide whether to keep the cat boy around because he had close, friendly relations with his daughter or send him off because of the many near-heart attacks that the kid would inflict on him.

To be honest, he did worry about his daughter's own protection, very often, and like any parent would, he tried to keep her as safe as possible. He knew he could sometimes be very strict with her and a bit overbearing (no pun intended.), he knew this, but there were layers to it too and he also wanted her to be happy, hence the strict homework and bedtime schedules. However, he did know that she had a social life as well and as much as the troublesome Watterson child worried him, he was glad to see something really good constantly springing out of this relationship.

One of the hardest things he learned about parenting was when to step in and when to let one's child move about on their own.

Settling into the couch cushion, Fukijima continued to let these little thoughts whirl about his mind space, pushing the rectangular paper bear into a deep sense worry for possible things to come and with all the crazy things happening to this town, he had all the more reason to be concerned. Working in an environment for almost two decades and seeing all kinds of terrible things happen to people and having to operate _on_ said people, really shakes a person's belief in security. He became a surgeon because like all bright eyed youths wanting to be a doctor, he wanted to help others get better and make the world a better place. He was amazed when he met his soon-to-be-wife, Yui Pepakuma, studying at the same college as him and sharing his dream of making the world a better place.

They did achieve their dreams of course, but they were also no strangers to death and accidents. The world is full of scary and unknown variables, but a doctor's duty was to focus on keeping the living balanced. Feeling as though he worked himself into a spiral, Fukijima pressed another button on the remote, causing the box to switch channels in a burst of static, and the moment he reached the anime channel, he could feel himself start to unwind.

No need to worry about work or the news or even death for now, just need to relax and enjoy life for a bit. His kid was fine and he was certain that Gumball would not intentionally bring any harm to her. At least he hoped.

 _-Elmore grocery store, 7:22 AM-_

The store was quite busy today with customers varying in shape, size, and species making their way through the various aisles. The cold, air conditioned building was filled with the rattling sounds of grocery carts being pushed through various sections, children playfully chattering and/or crying to their parents, and various adults making small talk as they sorted through the shelves for whatever fit their needs.

Taking her time in the arts and crafts aisle, doctor Yui Pepakuma selected a few stacks of drawing paper as well as ten sheets of extra large paper and placing them within her shopping cart. These of course, were for her daughter and she was quite surprised at how fast she was going through all these sheets of paper. At this rate, an entire forest was going torn down by next month and she didn't even know what Teri was using these for.

With all of that out of the way, the tired paper puppet began heading over to the meat section and wondered if she should grab some pork slices in order to make Tonkatsu for tonight. It was a simple dish for her to make and Teri loved it while her husband was usually fine with whatever she made. While that seemed like the most ideal option, she thought about others that might sound delightful and while lost in thought, the raven haired doctor heard someone speak to her while passing by,

"Oh, hey! Are you Teri's mom?" a feminine voice asked and Yui's head snapped upwards at the mentioning of her only child's name.

Standing besides her while pushing a cart full of various cleaning supplies and food, was a woman strongly resembling Gumball in appearance wearing a white work shirt with a pin that displayed the rainbow factory colors and a grey mid length skirt. She had kind eyes and sounded very polite despite the tired look she wore, giving Yui the sense that this woman was a very hard working individual who did her best to hide any stress her life may give her. It took Yui a few moments to pull herself out of her thoughts and formulate a response to the other woman standing right next to her,

"Oh, um, yes I am!" she responded positively before reaching out to shake her hand,

"I'm Yui Pepakuma, are you Gumball's mom?" she asked after introducing herself.

Reaching out and taking her hand, Yui was surprised by how unbelievably strong her grasp was when she gave it a firm shake,

"That would be me, my name is Nicole Watterson, it's a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Pepakuma." she said with a chipper tone and a friendly smile,

"Wait, you work at the hospital, right? Do I refer to you as doctor or Mrs. Pepakuma?" she asked, forming a quizzical expression.

Having been used to these kind of questions, Yui was quick to respond,

"You may call me Mrs. Pepakuma, if you wish. My husband is also a doctor, so we use those surnames in order to avoid confusion." she explained, waving a hand while she spoke.

Nicole brought her hand up to her mouth and chuckled a little,

"Okay, _Mrs._ Pepakuma. What do you and your husband specialize in?." she asked politely, a noticeable twinge of curiosity within her voice.

Seeing no reason not to answer her question, Yui felt herself relax a little and began speaking in a light tone,

"Well, I'm an allergist and Fukijima is a surgeon. I never know how he manages to put up with such a job, having to be extremely careful with his operations and having to… cut people open." she shivered in disgust as the idea forced its way into her head,

"It just makes me _so_ uncomfortable and I've seen some severe allergic reactions, mind you!" she stated, holding up a finger to Nicole's face in order to emphasize the serious point she was making.

Seeing her point, Nicole couldn't help but agree with the ebony haired paper doll about the whole surgical process. Having driven through the outer parts of town before and witnessing different kinds of roadkill, all of which made her queasy, seeing any living thing's innards was not something she particularly enjoyed. Even thinking about it now made the blue cat woman turn as white as the person standing beside her,

"Yeah, I second you on that. I wouldn't want to be a surgeon either because I wouldn't make the cut." she replied, another chuckle escaping her lips.

" _Just like her son."_ Yui thought with a roll of her eyes,

" _Does everyone in that kid's family make puns as bad his?"_ she asked herself quietly as she giggled a little at the possibility of all the Wattersons at a family dinner just firing off jokes and laughing wholeheartedly the entire time. That was something that _definitely_ wouldn't have run by at her parent's place and the thought of them placed a small, barely noticeable frown on her face.

Nicole continued on after seeing Yui giggle a little, seeing that as a positive sign,

"Actually, I'm not sure if I was ever cut out to be a doctor anyway, despite my name being Doctor." she added in, feeling slightly down now at the reminder of her parents high expectations.

Yui didn't quite get what she was saying, was this another joke of hers or was Nicole actually being serious? This left the paper woman feeling very confused,

"Wait, I thought your name was Nicole?" she asked, scratching the top of her round head.

Clearly understanding the female paper puppet's puzzlement, Nicole continued to laugh it off as she explained,

"Actually Nicole is my middle name. My parents had such high expectations of me that they named me "doctor" and, boy, did that lead to some confusing times." she stopped laughing and heavily exhaled,

"It was one of the many things that bothered me about them, but we're on good terms now and I now see my first name as kind of an odd joke." she wrapped up the explanation with another sigh before looking up to see that she seemed to have lost Yui amidst the explanation and couldn't tell whether she should just walk away or just laugh.

"Oh! I apologize, it's just when you told me about you and your husband using your surnames instead of doctors as a means to avoid confusion, it kind of brought up that little tidbit and I kind of launched right into it. Sorry, if I made this awkward." she apologized, scratching the back of her head nervously.

Given her explanation, Yui was able to understand that she was just trying to make small talk and decided to let this person's bizarre story slide. She let out a little laugh of her own, shocking Nicole a bit before she seemed to realize that the black haired, bear woman didn't mind her at all. This was further proven when the doctor spoke to the Rainbow Factory worker, sounding very friendly and amused,

"No, no, no, well, okay it was a little weird, but I can understand the whole strict parent thing because my parents were stuck in their ways and didn't appreciate deviancy that much either." she said, her laughter dying down a little.

Feeling somewhat relieved with Yui's reaction, Nicole began to relax and felt somewhat curious about her now,

"If you don't mind me asking, is that why you became a doctor? Just curious." she asked, slightly unsure if she was prying too much into her backstory.

Luckily, she didn't seem to mind all that much and answered without much hesitation,

"Not really, no. my family and I used to live in Sapporo, a city in the Hokkaido island of Japan, and my parents worked as shrine keepers for one of the few temples located nearby. This was an ongoing tradition, as that's what my family bloodline has been doing for generations, that was until we moved to the United States. I was six years old at the time, but I knew I had a grandmother that lived on the California coast and after her husband passed away, we moved to the states in order to be with her because my parents were firm believers that no Pepakuma family member should be left alone. We stayed in the U.S. for a very long time and when my grandma eventually followed her husband to the grave, my mother and father wanted to move back to Sapporo and they wanted me to come with them." while telling her face remained pleasant, but her eyes were a little dim,

"I was nineteen at the time and studying at the University of San Francisco to become a doctor, but I didn't want to give up the life I had here so, I refused. They didn't take well to my decision and we had several massive arguments that usually went nowhere. Eventually they went back home, back to their jobs as shrine keepers, and not long after I met my husband at college (he was known as Fukijima Ikari back then.). After I met him, we were always together and he was always supportive, even when I felt as though my decision to stay was the wrong one. It was thanks to his aid that I later got my doctorate, married him, eventually moved to Elmore and settled down before bringing Teri into the world. Never been any happier with my decisions." she concluded, sounding happier even though it sounded like she was hiding a little resentment in her tone.

Nicole could relate to her situation pretty well, as it kind of happened to her and while she suffered a lot of hardships for her choices, she wouldn't take any of it back if she were given the option. She was also happy that the rift between her and her parents has been mended somewhat, but given Yui's attitude towards her folks, she hasn't reached that stage yet and there were probably a lot of reasons as to why that was, most of which she could only speculate. If there was one thing she knew, it was that families were very complicated and not all problems had one easy solution.

Acknowledging the paper doll's statement regarding herself and her past decisions, Nicole began to open up to her a little,

"Yeah, you can kind of say I've been there too." she felt her shoulders slump a little as she began to recall her troubled history with her folks,

"I grew up here in Elmore, I was pushed into striving for success by my parents and it made for a difficult time growing up because I couldn't make any friends, nor could I relate to anyone. It was a very lonely childhood, but I was able to excel in many areas, something that was a greater help later on. That all changed though, after I met Richard in middle school." a warm smile crept across her lips and her overall appearance seemed to brighten up a little,

"He was the biggest dork in the entire school, even the other teachers considered him a loser. At first, I didn't think much of him during the first semester of sixth grade, but then I kind of bumped into him on an eventful day and it was the first time I actually just sat down and talked to someone. A lot happened afterwards, one thing lead to another and I kind of started drifting closer to this big oaf of a student." she chuckled to herself and Yui could already guess how this story was going to end.

She continued on, but with a serious tone this time,

"After spending enough time with him, my parents started to notice and kept on suggesting I try making friends with more "sophisticated people". There were many nights where we would argue, scream at one another, and sometimes I would just stay away from home all together. Eventually High school was drawing to a close and neither Richard and I were doing so well. So we both dropped out, worked odd jobs here and there, eventually got married, and had a kid along the way. Now I work at the Rainbow Factory while raising a horde of children… and a husband." she said.

There was a quiet moment between the two and they both just remained where they were contemplating their life choices while a couple of shoppers passed them by. It never occurred to either of them how easy it was to compare their lives and the decisions they made to others and while they both looked happy and well off, there were always those little moments they would think about constantly. Both were amazed to find someone else with completely different lifestyles and yet, share some common misfortunes.

Finished with weighing in her circumstances, Yui turned to Nicole on a positive note,

"But you and your parents made up in the end, correct?" she asked, remembering her mentioning her folks earlier.

"Yeah, we did, but even that was quite an ordeal." she responded with a shrug.

Yui couldn't help but feel a little envious of the cat woman. She never really got around to contacting her parents and she'd be pretty impressed if they ever decided to leave their safe zone to come over and actually _visit_ her family. Then again, perhaps impressed is not the right word to describe how she would feel if they ever decided to leave Sapporo…

"I'm guessing you've thought about contacting your folks every now and then?" Nicole questioned, stirring the paper doctor out of her thoughts.

"Hmm? Oh! Not necessarily, actually, I'd rather just keep our distance and let them stick with their "traditions". It doesn't really bother me too much." well that was an obvious lie, she was actually very resentful towards her parents and didn't bother contacting them because she feared that nothing good would come of it. What made things worse was that she carried a little bit of their strictness into Teri's childhood, although she keeps telling herself that it was for a good reason. She wasn't too sure if this has caused any major problems with her daughter, but she seemed to be doing fine right now. She was excelling in so many areas and she was happy, right?

She caught Nicole carefully scrutinizing her face and realized that she may have been a little obvious given her tone and the way she worded that last statement. She hadn't expected to go so far into her own past and was shocked that after just meeting someone who was a complete stranger to her, she was able to open up this much. Maybe it was because she was Gumball's mother and that because he was so polite she got the impression that his mother is someone she can trust.

Lady luck seemed to smile upon her at that moment because even if Nicole suspected anything, she didn't show it and didn't pry any deeper,

"That's understandable, I mean I don't fully know what's going on between you and the other members of your family and I'm not going to tell you what to do either." she said respectfully before jumping to something else,

"That's a lot of paper by the way. Does Teri have a project or something?" she asked, knowing full well from Gumball and Darwin that Ms. Simian was issuing out more assignments than usual because, well, she's a grouch.

Directing her attention to the piles of paper sitting at the bottom of shopping cart, Yui could guess that seeing such a large amount of paper would seem like project material to an outsider and Yui quickly turned her attention back to Nicole,

"Um, actually this is… I'm sorry, this is probably going to sound weird." she warned after pausing to think about how she was going to explain herself.

Nicole raised an eyebrow and cocked a smile,

"Come on, we live in a city where a tree can have a casual conversation with a crocodile at the bus stop. I doubt whatever you're doing can top the diversity of bizarre our place currently carries." she said lightheartedly, giving Mrs. Pepakuma a bit more reassurance.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Yui then allowed Nicole on one of her family's strangest secrets,

"Well, you see, Teri has the ability to control paper just by simply touching it- actually, here let me demonstrate for you!" she said, quickly reaching into the cart and withdrawing a single sheet for herself.

Nicole's gaze went from Yui's face to the piece of paper she held between two fingers and watched in amazement as Yui began to exert her control over the flimsy object. The paper seemed to move about on its own as it twisted and folded multiple times within the doctor's grasp. Within a few seconds Yui was holding an origami cat in her hands and Nicole was relatively impressed by the feat, not blown away, just impressed.

Yui handed the paper construct to the motherly feline, who took it in her paw and inspected it thoroughly,

"This is incredible! You said Teri can do this too, so does it run in the family?" she asked, flipping the tiny paper cat around as she eyed the beautiful craftsmanship.

The Pepakuma mother just shrugged, seeing what she did as no big deal and just spoke like she was explaining something mundane,

"Only on my side of the family. My husband has never shown any kind of ability quite like that, but he does have his own talents." she said with a smile,

"Your son's very good at cooking, does he get that from you?" she asked, having tried Gumball's breakfast bread once and finding it very delightful.

Nicole stopped inspecting Yui's paper construction and looked up at her with a curious expression,

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, kind of. We used to bake stuff together when he was little and then he started experimenting as he got older. I'm glad he's gotten better at that skill." she said, sounding pleased.

Yui nodded in agreement and responded kindly to her statement,

"Yeah, his breakfast bread was really good!" she said as a compliment to both Nicole and her eldest son.

They both shared a pleasant back and forth conversation about their families, telling a few humorous stories about who did what and other activities that they've cherished. Once again, both found themselves amazed at just how well they got along despite the brief amount of time they knew each other, but didn't let that bother them and just continued to enjoy the conversation. After several minutes had passed, and multiple shoppers walked on by, some slightly puzzled at the sight of two people talking, yet not shopping, the conversation took a slight turn when something came up in Nicole's mind and the tall, Cyan furred cat brought it up once Yui finished her story regarding a time she found Teri and Fukijima at home, playing with her husband's action figures,

"That's so adorable!" Nicole nearly squealed before her face quickly changed from delighted to seriously concerned,

"Um, Mrs. Pepakuma, I don't know if you're aware of this or not and I'm sorry to bring this up now, but sometimes when my son comes home, he has… multiple injuries, like bruises, scratches, and burn marks even. Now I know my son can be "careless" at times, but it seems that this has increased significantly ever since he started hanging out with Teri." she explained.

Teri's mom immediately stopped chuckling and put on a worried face of her own. It was very subtle at first: leading with disbelief, then fear, followed by a sense of dread and genuine worry. Nicole picked up on this and realized that what she said was suggesting something very bad, even though that's not what she meant,

"U-uh, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with your daughter! She seems very nice and I don't believe she would hurt Gumball, or anyone else. I'm just worried that there might be something else-?" she was in the middle of reassuring Yui that she wasn't jumping to any conclusions when the paper woman held up a single finger, politely demanding silence,

"I know. I've also been noticing Teri coming home with several injuries of her own at times and I was worried too, but she keeps telling me that they were all 'accidents' and I want to believe her. However, I don't believe that your son is the one behind this, given what you've told me right now and the fact that he does show a lot of care for her." she said, dismissing Nicole's concern for possible abuse between the two.

To Nicole, it's a scary thing to live through, having to see your own child come home from school covered in injuries and lying about the cause. She flipped her lid once when she found out that Tina had been picking on Gumball while he tried covering it up and she swore her hair would turn grey every time she heard about Anais coming back home from high school after getting picked on by Justin. Every time. She already knew it was possible that her eldest son held a lot of affection for Teri, but having to picture something terrible possibly happening behind the scenes was just as horrible as any nightmare she could sleep through.

She was glad that those two were not harming one another, especially since they seemed so close, but now she needed to know why they were getting hurt so often,

"Okay… so if they're both getting hurt, then it may be possible that someone else is hurting them. Does Teri have any known bullies or perhaps a history of people picking on her?" she asked.

This called for some serious analysis on Yui's part, while she knew that Teri was sweet and caring, she had obsessive traits that could be considered obnoxious by others and this definitely opened her up to being harassed by others. The first person that came to mind was Jamie and Tina, two well known bullies at Elmore Junior High and though she hadn't met them personally, she had her fair share of awful stories from Teri herself. Then there was that one incident with Masami a few years back, but from what she heard, both Teri and the cloud girl were on good terms.

Alas, she could only draw up the conclusion that it had to be Jamie or Tina,

"Yes, unfortunately." she answered slowly, hating to admit so,

"Throughout most of her life at school she would often come home with stories on how Jamie and Tina would pick on her, she even came home with a missing leg once because Jamie used it to lob spitballs at her." she was nearly sobbing at this point.

Seeing the distress on the poor mother's face, Nicole quickly went over to comfort her and gently placed a hand on her shoulder,

"I know how you feel. My children also have had their fair share of… encounters with Tina and Jamie. It's rough and I don't like seeing them coming home injured both physically and emotionally." she paused for a moment, her own feelings of distraught and fear welling up within her before she was able to stifle it down enough to continue what she was getting at,

"Listen, if that's the case then I'm going to have a talk with my son as soon as I see him again and I will help you get to the bottom of this." she proclaimed, still keeping a hand on her shoulder.

Yui was silent for a moment, the full grown paper doll needed a moment to collect herself before she turned to the blue cat with a slightly more upbeat look,

"Okay. I will have a talk with Teri too as soon as I see her." she said, agreeing with the mother of the three Watterson kids.

A small smile crept onto Nicole's face as she nodded and gave Yui's shoulder one gentle squeeze before releasing her hold,

"We'll help them get through this." she declared before making her way back to her cart and the two began walking down along the meat section while they continued to talk.

"Thanks for the talk, by the way. I'm really glad to have met you today, Nicole." she said, still appearing happy.

Nicole nodded in agreement, also appreciating bumping into Teri's mother today,

"Any time. I was really shocked to see you here and I wanted to formally introduce myself in a decent location instead of at your workplace." she responded with a chuckle.

Selecting a few sliced pork chops wrapped in plastic and examining them before placing them in her cart, Yui looked over at the cat woman walking next to her with familiarity,

"Oh now I'm starting to remember, didn't you bring your daughter in one time because she kept kissing a frog?" she asked.

Nicole let out another chuckle, this one more nervous than the last one as she looked off to the side,

"Yeeaahh… that's her alright… she's smart, but can be a little delusional sometimes. You know how little girls are with princess movies, right?" she questioned, still looking embarrassed at such an event.

She had to remember that with Yui and her husband working at the hospital that all their family accidents were going to reach the Pepakumas somehow.

Yui let out a brief laugh and a story regarding her own daughter came to mind,

"Oh you're so right! I remember this one time when Teri was eight, she learned about the tooth fairy and when she found that she couldn't lose any teeth because she was made of paper, she went to the playground and kept asking the other kids to give them one of their teeth." she recalled with another bout of laughter.

Nicole felt her former embarrassment quickly fade away and was replaced with humorous curiosity,

"Really?! She actually tried doing that?" she gasped, putting a hand over her own mouth to contain her laughter.

Mrs. Pepakuma continued to retell Teri's humorous little experience,

"Oh yes, and she even tried paying some of the kids with her lunch money!"

Now they both launched into a fit of chortles that could heard all over the grocery store and everyone close by stopped to stare at the two laughing loons. The two women didn't seem to mind the attention one bit and continued to laugh out loud. They eventually settled down though and continued to exchange embarrassing stories regarding their children when they were younger.

Soon enough, both Mrs. Watterson and Mrs. Pepakuma found friendship within each other's company.

 _-Forest close to Teri's neighborhood, 8:35 AM-_

Gumball dropped to the ground, panting and drenched in sweat. He was really glad for the cool morning air because both he and Teri had been going at it for almost a couple hours now and his body was really starting to heat up. Right next to him lay the garbage can lid with a red bullseye painted on the interior, he'd been running around with that thing and playing target with Teri, who had been throwing paper shurikens at him while trying to hit the target.

On their way here, she had been complaining that her accuracy was way off and that she could only hit the Nephilim because they were huge, but not specific areas unless she was close enough. It was Gumball who came up with the idea of running with a bullseye hanging off his wrist because he saw it as killing two birds with one stone: he can work on his evasion skills and Teri can improve on her throwing. Also, there was the added bonus of getting a run in too, so three birds actually.

Before they did that, they spent about an hour working on basic combat and team building exercises for better cohesion. The rest of the time up til now was spent running through the misty forest, her trailing behind on various origami animals and repeatedly hurling paper projectiles at the moving trash can lid. Gumball stared up at the morning sky, which was obscured by the rolling fog that covered the entire forest, leaving nothing but a dull grey that covered his vision. He lazily reached up with one arm and wiped the sweat from his forehead, he also had a sharp metallic taste in his mouth and it was really bugging him. He could feel his chest and lower abdomen thump with every heavy heart beat that pounded in his thoracic cavity. It goes without saying, but the last few minutes have brought him quite the workout and he was fairly confident that when he got home the first thing he'll be doing is taking a nap.

He heard a shuffling sound not too far away and Gumball could tell that Teri was coming in for a landing. Sure enough, the moment he propped himself up, he could see the figure of an angular sparrow with a bear-like person riding atop of it emerging from the fog and setting down right next to him. Gumball watched Teri dismount from the paper bird and unfolded the creature before reforming it back into a folded rectangle that she slid into her bag.

Skipping over to him, the paper girl that shone like a white beacon through the dark, grey mist grabbed the blue kitty by the hand and helped him to his feet,

"Nice job!" Gumball greeted while dusting himself off,

"Out of the two hundred and twelve projectiles you've hurled at me, I think seven managed to strike the target." he teased, flinching when Teri swatted at him with her free hand.

"Oh, shut up! It's hard to see someone or something so small from way up in the treetops through this heavy fog, while also keeping in mind that the person I'm training with keeps forgetting to raise the lid up high like he's supposed to!" she remarked, shooting him a glare.

Gumball merely snorted at this and stood his ground,

"Well, I wouldn't make it any easier for you because the Nephilim sure haven't made things easy for us." he defended himself despite knowing that he was actually just tired from all the running around.

Teri seemed to notice this too and a snarky smirk made itself present on her cute bear face,

"Maybe you just need to do more push-ups?" she shot back.

Crossing his slightly toned arms, the offended cat boy played it off as cool as he could by switching topics,

"Yeah well, speaking of making things easier, how's the research on the Nephilim going?" he asked, keeping his stance straight and his arms folded,

"And I did seventy five push-ups this morning before you got up, so I say I'm pretty good when it comes to working out thank you very much." he half muttered sarcastically. ( **A/N: this is a really bad lie, his highest record was thirty two before he fainted from exhaustion.** )

The air grew very quiet as Teri paused for a moment to think, allowing for the birds and insects of the forest to be heard through their chorus of songs. Truth be told, she hadn't gotten very far on her research because she found most sources regarding the ancient giants to be unreliable and would often quit out of sheer frustration after hours of exhausting research both at school and at home. Then there were all her responsibilities that got in the way as well and if that wasn't overwhelming enough, she could say that the emotional crisis regarding the lack of progress they were making in halting the Nephilim's attacks was enough to topple the young monster fighter.

Inhaling deeply, she let out an exhausted sigh and allowed her shoulders to slump forward,

"No… nothing much. There's nothing online or in the library that says anything about the Nephilim or how to defeat them for good." she was clearly bummed out about this and Gumball couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

He'd done his own research as well, whenever he could at least, but like his feeble friend, he came up blank,

"I'm sorry. I wish I could say that I've found something useful, but I'm just as in the dark as you are." he stated glumly. There was no real reason for him to apologize, but he was sad and disappointed that neither of them have gotten anywhere and Teri was the one who was working the hardest out of both of them.

There was some good news that Teri had to share though, well, actually she probably wouldn't consider it 'good' by any means, but at least she had something. Checking on her shorter companion, she could see that he was looking down at his feet and was quite somber. Clearing the silence with a cough, Gumball's head snapped up and he was checking to see if something was the matter, which gave Teri an ample opportunity to speak,

"But, I did find something else or something interesting I should say!" she declared.

Intrigued, Gumball stood up straighter, his ears shooting straight up and his hands found their way behind his back as he eagerly listened.

Teri reached into her book bag and withdrew a pencil from the side pocket. Within a moment, she drew a pocket on her blazer and pulled out her paper flip phone (Gumball was curious as to why she kept that type of phone instead of updating to a touch screen, but chalked it up to it being a preference of hers.) while making her way towards him. Standing next to him now, Teri held the phone up so they could both see and selected a news article she found online,

"After I had given up trying to look into the past for answers, I decided to look into some recent events and I kept coming across some peculiar articles, like this one here: Plane crash over Oregon, no survivors! It says in the space below that the airliner lost power mid-flight and went down with all its crew and passengers. Nobody survived." she explained, allowing Gumball to read through the clip.

Gumball studied the image carefully, it was a gruesome sight and it struck the anthropomorphic cat as sad when he saw the shattered remains of the airliner. There were bits and pieces of the airplane scattered across the forest the plane crashed in, some were recognizable like a few engine modules and the cylindrical fuselage which was torn and crumpled like a used can of soda. While the report officially says that it was a complete engine failure that sent the plane down, the fact that it happened at random seemed a little suspicious and with everything that the two had been through, it seemed less likely that this was an accident,

"I'm guessing a lot of people onboard were killed by circumstances that didn't involve the crash?" he inquired, rubbing his chin and prying his eyes from the screen in order to look at Teri's face for an answer.

With a swift nod, Teri continued to scroll through different articles that she saved on her phone,

"Exactly! Most of the victims seemingly died for no apparent reason and with minimal injuries from the crash itself. However, this is not uncommon, multiple incidents like have been happening all over the world, but concentrated in a few areas such as: the western and eastern coast of the United States, the Mediterranean, the United Kingdom, several countries in the middle east, and several areas in Russia." she listed off the names of the most common locations where weird phenomenon akin to the ones in their own town while showing Gumball all the articles and pictures taken at such places.

This did not surprise Gumball in the slightest because he already knew from Rob that the Nephilim were attacking the world at large, but it still felt slightly unnerving to know that this was going on and that the world remained completely unaware of this threat. Every report he was shown merely dismissed all the incidents as natural disasters and there even some attempts to explain the strange events being covered in science articles. There was one thing that stood out to the pre-teen though and he brought up his concern to Teri,

"Okay, I understand why they would attack these areas, but they seem so random and they haven't even caused any major damage, yet. If this is an invasion then shouldn't they be coming in at full force?" he scratched his head in confusion.

Teri heard something snap behind them and she turned around to see what it was, only to find a pair of squirrels chasing each other up a tree. They probably broke a twig before they reached the tree's trunk and Teri realized that she was a bit jumpy today. She guessed that talking about the Nephilim must be setting her nerves off. With that little distraction out of the way, she returned to answering Gumball's question,

"Mmm yeah, you're definitely right about that. This is pretty tame as far as an apocalypse goes, but these attacks do have meaning behind them, I think." she explained, now pulling up another tab with another newsletter attached to it.

Gently grabbing her phone from her, Gumball read through the recent event, which happened to take place on August 6th, 2013, and was quite surprised by what he pulled from the page. It turns out it was about a woman in Seattle who was deemed insane after being caught several times in the streets wielding a staff-like weapon during times of power loss and fighting "invisible opponents", forcing the Seattle police to restrain her and lock her up shortly after.

There weren't any pictures or videos showcasing the event like normal newsfeed on the internet often would, but there was an image of a human female being arrested by several officers while carrying what appeared to be a type of bo staff, typically used for close quarters combat. When Gumball further inspected the image, he could clearly see there was some kind of writing on both ends of the staff and if he didn't know any better, they could be runes like the ones he, Teri, and Rob used. Teri went on to show him more images of various people all over the world wielding different weapons with supposed magical properties and all information covering these enigmatic figures state that they always appear during mass power outages, acting very strange and fighting unseen adversaries.

So there were people like them and the world knew too, but they saw things differently.

While he was glad for the fact that they weren't alone in this conflict, this did leave the skinny twelve year old with several questions aimed towards those very people. If they knew about the existing threat, were they contacting one another? How serious was it in other cities? Was it possible they could find any of these people if they ventured out into the world? Should they seek out these other extraordinary individuals?

While he silently sorted through all these troubling thoughts within his grey matter, Teri quickly drew her own conclusion regarding her search into recent matters,

"The thing is, all these attacks are not random, they are being directed towards Nephilim hunters. All the planes that had crashed, had people who've been resisting them onboard and all the attacks happening all over the world usually had something to do with people like us." she explained, watching as Gumball slowly began to understand what she was getting at.

"Gotcha. So what are we going to do then?" he remarked.

"What do you mean?" she replied.

"If they're targeting people like us, then shouldn't we try contacting them? I mean, clearly this has been going on for quite a while now and I remember one of the Nephilim in the Storm Sphere mentioning something about fighting the NEA. So maybe there's a resistance of some sort that can help us with this mess." he pointed out, placing both hands on his hips.

While the prospect of getting even more help sounded nice, Teri wasn't sure if there was any way they could contact these people and leaving Elmore to seek out help was not a good option,

"No, I don't think so, I mean any form of help would be more than appreciated, but we can't exactly leave Elmore in order to hunt down these individuals. The three of us can barely fend off the Nephilim currently and leaving the city even if it's for a day just sounds too risky. I'm sorry, but until things show signs of improving I think we're on our own." she knew this barely sounded helpful, but three people have already died and she wanted to do everything in her power to prevent that casualty list from rising. There was also the fact that if there was an organization or resistance group fending off the Nephilim in various areas, then they may have to be cautious when approaching these groups because if their existence was discovered then that may lead to trouble later on, like their town getting invaded by militant individuals or worse, the three of them are forcefully indoctrinated into their group.

Gumball kind of figured Teri was going to stick with the cautious approach and he knew it was a good idea, but there was something else he'd been meaning to bring up,

"Hmm, I see, but what about our class field trip to San Francisco? If we go, then we'll be leaving Rob with the task of defending Elmore on his own." he asked, feeling slightly worried for their ally, despite knowing how crafty he could be.

However, the situation wasn't so grim to Teri and the paper puppet had already thought about it in advance,

"It won't be an issue." she stated with absolutely no concern,

"The school trip will only last from morning and we won't be back until six, which is when Rob's shift usually ends, so we won't be overstaying. If it just so happens, that the enemy is too much for Rob to handle, then we can just fly back on a paper rocket or something." she watched Gumball's worry visibly melt away with satisfaction.

"That's good to hear and I'm guessing we're not doing any investigating while we're there either?" he added in while raising an eyebrow.

Taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Teri put her phone away and started walking away,

"Precisely." she responded after a brief period of nature-filled silence,

"You've gotten better at controlling your grey fire, correct?" she asked, changing the subject and looking back at him while she awaited an answer.

Good question. The battle on Friday showed significant improvement for the young scythe wielder as his enchanted weapon was no longer able to control him as long as he maintained his objective,

"Mmm, yes, though it still uses up too much energy if I use it long enough." he looked away for a moment as he recalled his solo fight with the Uriel clone that resulted in a very narrow victory for him. The fight itself couldn't have been more than four minutes long, if he were to guess, but he wasted most of his energy chasing him so it was hard to tell what his actual limit was.

He eventually found his gaze meeting hers again and shrugged his shoulders to let her know that he wasn't entirely sure. The taller female classmate of his acknowledged this with a nod and proceeded to make another origami. Once she was finished, Gumball found himself staring at a grey, paper monkey with very long limbs meant for swinging through the treetops as well as a long tail to assist in said climbing. She put quite a bit of effort into crafting this creature as it actually had fingers instead of pointed tips like her origamis normally had and the selection of grey paper was definitely intentional as it helped the beast blend in more with the forest.

While Gumball admired her crafting skills, he had a distinct feeling in his gut that the training Teri had in mind for him was going to be very difficult and possibly dangerous.

Before he could ask, Teri began to explain as though she were able to hear his thoughts,

"Seeing as you're probably well rested at this point, why don't we get started on increasing your stamina." she hopped atop the light ape and the creature stirred to life under her touch, moving about on all fours around the pre-teen cat boy.

While already knowing that this was coming, Gumball wasn't exactly onboard with the actual purpose of this exercise,

"Stamina?" he looked up at her, waiting for an answer.

Sensing his confusion, the flimsy girl proceeded to clarify her statement,

"Well you said you keep running low on energy the longer you use your scythe's magical powers, correct? So theoretically the best way to improve your overall usage of the weapon would be to use it as long as possible and to keep conditioning yourself until you can use it for longer periods of time. It's no different from working out." she explained from atop her paper mount.

That made sense and Gumball was sure that being able to use the scythe's unusual properties for extended periods of time would have many unforetold benefits. He still didn't know what the other two symbols on the scythe meant, the one that looked like a sun with a line cutting through it was the only one he utilized in his fights, but the other two have never made themselves useful during those times. The middle rune was a circle within a circle with six arrows bordering the edge of the outer circle and the final one farthest from the handle was the most gruesome looking, resembling a human skull with sharp fangs. Neither of them made any sense to him and given what he already could do with weapon's first rune, he was slightly worried about what they were capable of, especially the final one.

Removing these thoughts by thinking only about what he did have, he sought about improving himself and looked to Teri for further guidance,

"That makes sense." he mentioned agreeably before moving on to his most important quirey,

"So how are we going to do this?" his wide eyes now scanning the forest around them, but found that the mist still shrouded everything.

Moving the monkey towards the tree closest to them, the paper bear sat herself and her creation down at the base of the trunk. Using her pointer finger to direct Gumball's attention to the top of the forest, Gumball felt a shiver work its way down his spine and his tail was already swishing side to side as his anxiety began to climb. While Teri herself was used to heights, she knew Gumball wasn't a particular fan of high places, but hopefully this exercise will help him not only master his power, but also his fears,

"Simple, I'm going to climb up this tree and move about the treetops. Your goal will be to find me and catch me. Normally this would be quite difficult on your own, plus the heavy fog here will make it harder to find me, but your scythe should give you the advantage you need." she told him as though she were explaining the rules of a simple game.

Gumball gulped audibly and cracked his knuckles nervously, this sounded very dangerous and while he didn't mind activities as dangerous as this one, there were a lot of potential things that could go wrong with this exercise. However, given the gist of the activity, this was actually a viable solution to increasing his overall stamina, plus his awareness if he were to factor in the searching aspect of Teri's plan. Swallowing his fear of what could possibly go wrong, the blue cat just pulled out his collapsed crescent moon blade and brought it out to its full extent with the click of two buttons.

Seeing as he was ready, Teri ordered her paper monkey to begin climbing up the tree. With its fingers clenching onto the barks rough surface, the paper animal easily made its way up the mossy, vertical surface of the gargantuan structure and the two eventually faded into the mist. Remembering something, Teri turned her head and called back down to her male companion,

"Oh, one last thing, you can't start the hunt until five minutes have passed!" her voice rang back down to the cat below and Gumball returned her reminder with a joke,

"I'm guessing failure to comply is _tree_ -son!" he smirked mischievously as he braced himself for Teri's snappy comeback.

A tick mark formed on Teri's head and she felt another groan making its way up her windpipe,

"Would you _leaf_ your puns and take this seriously!" she snapped.

Not being able to help himself, Gumball laughed at her angry retort and responded once again with another joke,

"Are you saying you want me to _branch_ out to other forms of humor or are my puns the _root_ of all your problems?" he snickered again and waited for another furious reply.

What came back was predictably another punny remark from the ascending paper girl and something else,

"You're _bark_ ing up the wrong tree pal, now taste my sharp wit!" she shouted.

Her reply was quickly followed by a spinning object making its way towards the blue feline and the cat moved back just in time as a paper shuriken embedded itself in the dirt three inches from his foot. _That was really impressive!_ He thought to himself before adding, _the shuriken was cool too, I guess._ Turning his head upwards and cupping his hand over his mouth, he called up into the gray haze that blanketed the treetops,

"Nice one, Teri! Your puns are getting better, but your aim still needs improvement!" he said in a sarcastic manner he knew Teri would pick up on.

As expected all that came back was a weak laugh that symbolized the paper bears distaste in Gumball's comment. Gumball loved hanging out with Teri, she was so much fun to pick on and the two often had the weirdest back and forths with one another. He had his odd conversations with his other friends and family for sure, but he had to admit there was something special about this germaphobe that had recently come crashing into his life. Everything exchanged between the two of them just felt so comfortable and he found it very hard to be awkward around her when they just spoke to one another.

He waited in relative silence for five long minutes and wasn't entirely sure where he should begin. He could no longer pick up the sounds of the branches rustling as the paper monkey shot across the orange-red canopy that lay behind the veil of fog and with his sight rendered nearly useless in this weather, Gumball had lost track of her a while ago. It made Gumball understand how she probably felt while she was chasing him through here and felt the slight sting of karmic justice when he remembered how he said he wasn't going to make things easy for her,

" _Should've watched what I said back there, now this is going to be a fun game of hide and seek mixed with tag… in the trees, hundreds of feet above the ground while running amuck with a dangerous weapon."_ the cynical sarcasm of his inner voice could not be any more present within that statement.

Once he checked the clock on his phone and saw that five minutes had indeed passed, Gumball readied himself for the hunt. His first step was to analyze the tree and figure out the best way to scale it. Obviously he needed to be quick, so he was going to ignite the scythe's grey fire to give him a boost and as for climbing, he could use the claws on his feet to gain some purchase on the bark's rigid surface.

The next step he needed to get past was activating his ability and that took a couple tries. As he already knew, the scythe wouldn't produce its flames unless the wielder was in a desperate situation and trying to replicate a desperate situation when everything was fine was slightly harder than he imagined. After a minute of trying his hardest to ignite his blade, the solution finally came to him in the form of picturing Teri's origami monkey as a Nephilim and was trying to make a getaway with its prisoner.

That seemed to the trick as the curved blade sitting atop the dull, metal handle was immediately engulfed in a blazing, silver inferno with a rage that matched the user's.

Keeping the enchanted device secured within one hand, Gumball set his focus on scaling the tree and finding his friend. Crouching down into a running position, Gumball's claws extended themselves from the pads of his feet, curving downwards and into the dirt, the white nails gleamed in the silver light produced by the cackling flame. With his head clear and focused, put all his weight into one leg and launched himself forward, kicking up a massive cloud of dirt behind him as he closed the gap between him and the tree in an instant.

Once he reached the massive trunk that rested in front of him, the empowered pre-teen planted a foot onto the tree's cool, bumpy surface and allowed his claws to sink into it. Feeling as though he had secured himself, Gumball pressed off the small foothold he had and shot upwards several hundred feet, disappearing into the fog and eventually making his way into the massive canopy of leaves. His rapid ascension didn't take him much time and he was quite shocked to see how much air he was able to gain in a single bound.

It all happened so fast that he nearly smacked into a large branch above him, had he not reached out in time and grasped a stray tree arm, allowing him to swing around in a sharp circle before his feet found a solid surface to stand on. Balancing himself on the slender branch that now served as his platform, Gumball heard the tree limb creak a little and bent a little under his weight. Luckily it held its own and didn't give way under the slim cat boy, allowing him to relax.

The scythe's flames extinguished themselves as his head spun a little from the close call that nearly knocked him out cold. He had no idea how much power he was actually wielding and when he took that single leap, he cleared the ground entirely before finding himself in another world full of orange maple leaves that announced the coming of Fall along with gnarled, twisting branches that spread out in every conceivable direction. One more jump and he could easily launch himself out of the forest and maybe even get a glance of the clear sky,

" _That was way too close for comfort!"_ his jarred mind frantically spat as his eyes kept darting from branch to branch. His heart was thundering in his chest and a cold sweat running down his back as the child tried to calm himself,

" _I could have easily hurt myself there, how can there be so much power packed into this little thing?"_ his eyesight found itself focusing on the still weapon resting in his paw. He continued to muse about his current predicament and it never really occurred to him that there was a limit to his power that he didn't understand. Then again, thinking back on how strong the Nephilim were and how he was able to go toe to toe with them using his enhancement, no wonder this scythe was crazy strong. He'd been taking the power he held for granted the entire time and never tried to understand what he actually had.

He now understood that despite how superhuman strength is often portrayed in comic books and cartoons, it was a lot harder to do ordinary tasks when each jump could possibly send you beyond the clouds.

Once he felt calm, he decided to rethink his next course of action and kept his hearing sharp for any particular sounds. He completed his first objective, getting up to the top of the tree albeit with a slight scare to himself, now all he needed was to find a way to track down Teri and pursue her without using too much power. She was most likely long gone now, but he assumed that she wouldn't stray too far away, especially since she needed to teach him to extend the length of his scythe usage. With that possibility in mind, Gumball now focused on trying to locate her,

" _Okay, I can't just run around with this thing turned on full power, that'll leave me tired and useless. Darn, she could be anywhere at this point."_ he peered into the dense foliage and swirling clouds of mist, finding absolutely nothing to his frustration.

Growing ever more frustrated, Gumball wracked his head as hard as he could, but with every second that passed, he felt as though she was slipping further away from him,

"Ugggh! I need a better vantage point! I can't see past this fog and all these leaves either!" he growled to himself, interrupting the chorus of bugs that chanted throughout the entirety of the woods.

He thought about climbing to the top of the tree at first, believing that would somehow buy him a better field of view, but then another idea came to mind. At first, it didn't seem to make too much sense to the desperate cat, but when he actually thought about it, it could give him both a better viewpoint and a superior advantage over his fleeing opponent. Thinking about Teri getting farther and farther away from him, Gumball's scythe roared to life in its vibrant display of fire and the bipedal cat crouched down once more.

And with a mighty force delivered to his legs, Gumball leapt from the branch he was on and shot straight out of the forest's colorful ceiling with a trail of broken branches and leaves following close behind.

Like a rocket, all Gumball could do was go up and up, with speeds that forced him away from the clutches of the Earth. The feeling was like that of true freedom, he was just flying, gravity meant nothing up here, a hundred feet above the forest and with an immense sea of orange and grey that spanned below. He could see the morning sky clearly now and it was quite a liberating sight in contrast to the dense fog and foliage his earthbound self was restricted to several minutes ago. The sun was already up, but not too high and the sky was a brilliant sapphire blue with another storm front looming over the horizon, like a predatory giant stalking the city of Elmore towards his back.

Eventually Gumball's ascension slowed down gradually before coming to a slow halt and the flying cat took that time to survey the ground below. His eyes darted from one pocket of trees to another, but in the few moments he was up there, he didn't catch any movement or other telltale signs of Teri's progress through the woods. This could be due to the fact that he was too high up to see her or she could have stayed below to canopy in order to remain concealed even from a glance from above or it could simply be that he missed her, seeing as he had only a few seconds to look around before he started falling.

After remaining still within the empty space above the forest for about an instant, physics once again took their toll on the airborne child and he immediately began to plummet back into the forest. While gaining a bird's eye view was a smart move that yielded little results in his first attempt, one problem Gumball hadn't looked into when he concocted this plan was his landing. The air pressed into him as he rapidly descended from his jumping peak, causing his face to stretch a bit from the force of the intense air resistance and his loose fitting gym clothes to billow about in the wind. It was very hard to see thanks to all the tears that were pooling in his eyes as the rushing stung them and Gumball began to wonder if this was actually the right thing to do.

He fell for a small amount of time before the branches from the tree that separated him from the ground began scraping past his face, arms, legs and torso, causing several small scrapes and cuts before he spotted a large branch racing towards him. He reached out with his empty hand and used it along with his scratched-up legs to brace himself against the landing impact. He landed with a jolt, but failed to extend his claws and ended up slipping off the branch and plummeting further down the tree. Desperately scrabbling for something to grasp, Gumball screamed while he fell before he finally struck another branch big enough to support him. This time he was able to gain a better grasp on it and remained where he was.

With his adrenaline kicking into overdrive and his mind abuzz with primitive drives to stay alive, Gumball remained where he was and was uttering an endless stream of curses and garbled nonsense as he tried to get ahold of himself. He was safe at least and aside from a few scrapes he obtained from his klutzy landing, he was physically okay, but It didn't help that his attempt to see his target from above was a failure. Not only that, but his weapon's power was still active during the fall and he could already feel slightly ragged and weary.

A few broken branches fell all around him and Gumball recognized them as the ones he broke when he entered the canopy from above. He jumped a little when he saw a few burning branches fall too and faded into the grey ocean that covered the floor. Evidently these were also the branches that his weapon touched during his unpleasant descent and he could already tell that he was going to have to do something about the burning debris.

Glancing upwards, Gumball checked to see if there were any tree limbs above him that were set on fire and he did spot a few of them flickering with bright tongues of fire. Cursing himself mentally, the big headed cat boy prepared to jump up and smother the flames when he stopped himself. He looked at his scythe and thought,

" _If I jump now with this thing at full power, then I will be sent flying again and I will cause even more damage to the forest."_ it was a real issue and while he could just climb up without his power, it would take him a while and who knows what kind of damage the flames down below could be doing, seeing as there were mostly dry leaves covering the forest floor.

There was only one option that quickly made itself present in his mind: he had to use his power, but not at full strength. This actually came as a brilliant decision to Gumball and he nearly found himself slapping his own face for not thinking of it earlier. Now the next question was how could he achieve this feat?

The forest was still quiet and while he knew that he should be looking for Teri, he wanted to focus on this obstacle, not only for the sake of saving the forest from a potential wildfire of his own doing, but also as a means of discovering a solution to his energy problem. Seeing as there was nothing to distract him at the moment, Gumball held the scythe up with both hands, the curved blade to his right and facing outwards, pointing away from him. He closed his eyes and concentrated, he felt the danger of the flames growing and spreading throughout the woods and began to feel the power resonate through him, feeding strength into his body and burning through the ancient weapon secured in his grip. To him it felt like his body was an engine, somehow providing excessive energy that was being released through the scythe as exhaust, even though it was the weapon providing him the energy. Maybe the rune inscribed on the blade drew energy out of him and amplified it? Gumball wasn't sure, but it definitely didn't feel like the power was coming from the scythe he'd grown accustomed to for the time he used it.

Feeling the weapon drawing out massive amounts of energy, Gumball remained focused and tried to think of a way to lower the energy output. He first thought about calming himself down, thinking that perhaps his emotions tied into the scythe's energy consumption and it made sense, seeing as it only activated when he was distressed or trying to achieve something. However, this did not succeed in the slightest as his flames cut out entirely and the immense energy within faded.

His eyes snapped open and he growled in frustration, he knew this was his first attempt, but he didn't like the fact that this was taking too long. He looked up and saw that the fire he accidentally started in several of the branches above him were starting to spread and had even consumed some leaves that happened to be in its path. He had to hurry and with that in mind, he closed his eyes again and his silver inferno burned to life once more.

He tried multiple times with the calming effect and even used different emotions, but with no such luck. Intense and powerful emotions tended to make him slip away mentally and collected ones tended to put out the flame right away. His mental state determined how his power would burn, but not how much energy he could put out. It always remained the same, wild and unyielding.

He shouted and swore several times after his fire was put out again after nearly losing his mind and he swung the serrated edge of the weapon until it cut a branch in front of him in two. He felt like doing more damage to anything around him, but stopped himself when he realized one wrong move could cause him to lose his balance and fall. He also knew that getting angry wasn't going to fix the problem he just started.

Slowing down his breathing and sitting himself down on the branch, he began to recollect his thoughts while he rested his exhausted self. Ran a paw through the coarse hair on his head, already hardened by the sweat that was produced during his early exercise training with Teri when they first came here, and let out a ragged sigh,

"Gosh darnit! Why is this so difficult?" he fumed to no one in particular,

"Exercise my butt! If this were anything like running and doing push-ups, then I could just slow down if I were going to fast and… and…" he thought at first that he was just running himself into a circle that got him anywhere, but a solution. However, the moment his rant slowed down, he began to realize something and when he looked down at his scythe again, a rational idea sprang into his head, forcing him back onto his feet.

He had been going about the wrong way and now he needed to test something out. Resuming his stance again, Gumball allowed for the activation of his ability and let the natural energy burn on the deadly end of his weapon. He focused on this energy, not his emotions, but the energy itself and when he visualized it, he saw it as an actual fire, like that which you would see at a campsite. The flames were burning hot through the consumption of the wood and oxygen as its fuel, it wouldn't be long until this ravenous creature sated its appetite on the limited supply it sat upon before dying out entirely. This is what his body was doing with all the energy the scythe was drawing out of him.

Now he needed to control those flames, he needed to reel it in and cut down on the fire's rate of consumption before it devoured everything. He pictured one log instead of several being fed to the fire and the once proud and roaring, conflagration was reduced to a simple, yet steady blade of silver that was still being fed, but at a slower rate. Now the flame was under control, no longer spritely and untouchable.

When he opened his eyes again, he noticed right away that his body was no longer tiring at an increased rate, instead it felt as though he were using at least a quarter of the immense energy he once left unchecked, and his ears found no cackling sound whatsoever from the item he had with him. Checking the blade itself, Gumball was blown away from what he was seeing before him, the two foot serrated end that stuck out horizontally from the weapon's shaft was no longer producing flames and looked as though no power was being used. At a second glance he could see that the sun-like rune was glowing grey like the flames itself, as if it were a kind of signal that the power was turned on and Gumball was pleased to see to this kind of detail.

Shifting from awe to determination, the successful twelve year old checked the branch's progress and saw that the fire had grown, but hasn't spread too far. Setting himself on the simple task ahead of him, the blue feline readied himself and leapt off the branch he was standing, shooting upwards at heights that still outdid humans. He almost overshot the branch he was aiming for, but with a quick swing of his scythe, the curved blade caught the tree-limb and he gracefully swung around before landing carefully on the tree itself,

" _Not bad."_ he thought to himself, feeling pleased at his relative success,

" _This is definitely way better."_ he pulled his sweater out from his bag and used it to smother the growing fire.

Using his newly refined power, he did this with every single branch that was being burned and even made it down to the ground with very little issue. Once the threat was completely purged, Gumball began to ponder his next move while he raced along the ground and kept close to the tree's bases. He needed to locate his paper friend, but still found that locating her is still difficult because the forest was enormous and the fog still hasn't lifted.

He wasn't sure if there was a time limit to this exercise, but he knew for a fact that Teri would probably contact him on his phone once a certain amount of time had passed. While his little side task didn't take up too much time, probably seven minutes tops, he didn't want to waste even more time than was necessary, so he figured now was a time to rethink his overall strategy. While he knew he couldn't possibly find her on his own, maybe he could find a way to lure her to him and ambush her. The question was how?

While racing at incredible speeds throughout the nature infested area, Gumball came across a pile of leaves and paused a moment to stare at them. He knew that Teri was in the treetops somewhere and if she were keeping an eye out for him, she'd probably head to the top to get a better view and that would mean she would be able to see the entire forest. It was entirely theoretical, but Gumball had a feeling that this was likely and with a devilish smile that reflected his equally wicked antics, he started towards the pile of leaves with his scythe already starting to burn again.

 _-Teri's location, two minutes later-_

While Teri was sure that she hadn't strayed too far from Gumball's general vicinity, she was slightly concerned for Gumball's well-being. She knew that getting him used to using his abilities was indeed very beneficial, she was also aware of the dangers his weapon posed for the environment and himself. If he wasn't careful this whole place could up in flames or he could tire himself out and make a mistake that causes him major damage. She was ready to run away when she spotted him, but also ready to run towards him in case he needed help.

She hadn't even erased the pocket that held her phone, wanting to be ready to answer in case he called.

Hanging by its prehensile tail, the origami monkey that Teri rode upon remained stationary underneath the branch while its operator remained on the lookout for her friend. Her black, drawn on eyes had grown used to the misty forest, being able to track the slightest of movements within her field of view and her ears remained sharp, picking up anything from the smallest disturbance of leaves down below to the soft whoosh of a bird's wings as it flew over the leafy roof of the woods. One of the things she despised about her two dimensional anatomy was the fact that she could only see forward, not to the sides, unless she folded one half of her head and allowed one of her eyes to peer in the particular direction. However, she felt pretty confident in her ability to sense Gumball or anything else coming before she was spotted.

Scratching an itch that made itself known on her cheek, the paper bear kept waiting in complete silence while she anxiously wondered what Gumball could possibly be doing. She hadn't heard anything breaking or blowing up or even a scream from her close friend (she thought she did a couple times, but she was on the move at the time and didn't quite know if it was an actual scream or something else.) and presumed that he might be lost. She was tempted to call him, but wanted to give him a few more minutes.

Feeling bored and a little jumpy to admit, she decided that she'd best check the tops of the trees to get a better lookout and maybe perhaps spot where he might be,

"Might as well, seeing as he hasn't made his presence known yet and all this waiting is just making me anxious." she sighed, and commanded her flimsy beast of burden to start climbing.

Having easily scaled the trees with the ape's long arms and flexible tail, Teri's climb lasted no longer than a minute as the skilled EJH student had crafted her creature with great care and it showed significantly. To be honest, Teri enjoyed the ride through the forest, the feeling of swinging from tree to tree with such ease was freeing and exhilarating at the same time. Flying was also amazing and while she never used her origami as much as she did before the Nephilim showed up, one of the things she would do in her free time while she wasn't burdened with responsibilities was just simply create a paper bird and soar through the skies for just a little bit. To her, it was freedom, simple and beautiful liberation from the troubles of the Earth below.

The monkey's hands grasped the single bare branch that stuck out from the canopy like an oddly bent antenna and the lightweight creature pulled itself up along with its rider, offering Teri a complete view of the vast, seemingly unending ocean of orange above the low rolling fog of the ground. Feeling somewhat relaxed by the sight of a brilliant sky, Teri began her search for any signs of Gumball whether it be him leaping across the tops of the trees or the shaking of several branches as he disturbed them throughout his journey. She didn't spot him, but after searching for a second or two, she spotted something else:

A pillar of smoke rising several hundred feet from her current position, slightly further from where she left Gumball.

"Oh no, that can't be good!" she gasped, placing a single hand to her mouth.

Snapping into action, the paper ape sprang from the branch it was perched on and caught itself onto a nearby branch, gracefully moving from tree to tree as an extension of its rider. She kept to the higher branches so that she could keep an eye on the black plume billowing upwards while praying that Gumball was alright. She left him alone with the assumption that he could handle himself and seeing this could only mean that something went wrong that could spell potential disaster for her beloved friend.

While she was aware that forest fires were dangerous and that as a paper person, she should definitely stay clear of them, she needed to locate Gumball to see if he was okay. Afterwards, they could deal with the inferno that could possibly consume the whole forest. She swallowed a lump in her throat, her fear of fire rising up once again as she drew closer to the smoke stack and she was sure that if Gumball was okay then she was going to seriously reprimand him for causing so much trouble.

It didn't take long for the feeble paper girl and her equally fragile mount to reach the site of the fire and when she did, she was quite surprised at what she found. There was indeed a fire, but it was set only on a large pile of leaves with the area around it being void of any flammable materials. The more she surveyed the area, the more apparent it became that there was no danger and that whoever started the fire did so with unknown intentions.

She watched as the blaze continued to eat away at the pile of dry leaves, cackling and spewing up cloudy ash as it did so, while she tried to wrap her mind around this debacle,

" _There wasn't anyone else here in the forest when both of us arrived, we both made sure we were alone, plus no one else really goes here anyway."_ she ruled out any potential intruders and campers because no one would start a fire with a pile of leaves and leave it unattended,

" _This was definitely Gumball's doing, but the only reason he would deliberately start a fire is if he were somehow trying to get my attention…"_ it all came to her within an instant and she realized that she had walked herself into a trap.

Before she could check her surroundings, something moved, causing Teri to freeze and snapped her head in the direction of said movement. She didn't get a good look at what it was, or rather, _who_ it was, with all the fog impairing her vision of course, but she could definitely tell that the mysterious figure was small and fast. She saw the disturbance occur in the tree across from hers and she could already start to feel her heart rate increasing.

She was going to have to run now.

With her fight or flight instincts kicking in, Teri maneuvered herself around the tree that she was on and began making her way deeper into the forest. She knew it was Gumball, somehow, although she wondered why she couldn't see the grey fire of his scythe, seeing as he was obviously using his power to move quickly, but that still didn't stop her from feeling dizzy with fear and excitement. She had been caught after all and now she needed to evade him for as long as possible.

Passing in between all the gaps the trees possessed, Teri kept all of her senses attuned to the surrounding area as she thought of a plan,

" _He saw me and is tracking my position, no doubt. Maybe I should transform the monkey into a hummingbird and weave through the forest that way. It would be a challenge for Gumball, but I never said that transformations were restricted either."_ she thought to herself with wicked glee. She was going to get back at him for tricking her like that.

Searching for a particularly large branch to rest upon, Teri spotted one to her right, just a few feet ahead and was thick enough for the paper master to reform her origami without feeling too cramped. The paper ape sprang up from the tree limb, caught it with both arms and wrapped its tail around a branch hanging from above, allowing for it and Teri to swing upside down and towards the desired location. The moment she was inverted and facing the direction from whence she came, she found herself peering at an adorable kitty face mere inches from her own.

While a million different thoughts conjured themselves into Teri's head, two things happened within the real world: first, she let out a startled shriek and then, in her panic, the monkey's tail released its grip on the brown appendage it was hanging from, causing both to plummet to the ground. With both of them being very light, thanks to their material makeup, the bear and the monkey did not fall very fast, giving Teri enough to time to react and catch herself on a passing branch using the dull colored monkey's hands to do so. Pulling them both back up, Teri sat and tried to catch her breath as she tried to force the images of her entire lifespan from her mind. That was a bit startling for the seventh grader and she swore that she just lost ten years of her life.

Unfortunately, she wasn't given much time to collect herself, as she felt the tree branch shake a little and when she turned around, Gumball was already sitting behind her in a crouching position. The first thing she noticed about him was that he was covered in multiple scratches that criss crossed his arms and face, so something definitely went wrong somewhere. The second thing she was able to spot was that his scythe wasn't engulfed in silver flames, rather one of the runes closest to the base of the blade was glowing in the moon-like color. She wasn't quite sure what had transpired earlier, but he definitely figured something out and given the straight-forward, determined look that decorated his features, he wasn't worried in the slightest about exhausting himself.

This was all analyzed in under a second, as the paper girl needed to act fast because not too long after the blue cat had leapt down from his position in the canopy above, he lunged forward with a single hand outstretched and aiming towards her shoulder,

"Gotcha!" he shouted triumphantly as he flew towards her.

Using the only move she could in this situation, Teri bent her whole upper body backwards, pretty far since she doesn't have any bones, and allowed the scythe wielding cat boy to fly over her with a confused look on his face,

"Huh?" was all he could say as he unintentionally flung himself to the leaf covered Earth below.

Twisting his body around, Gumball was reoriented well enough to land on his feet and when he felt the leaves crunching underneath his pads, he spun around to see a grinning Teri peering back down at him,

"You know, I'm not used to bending over backwards for others, but I can say that it worked out for the better this time around!" she remarked teasingly.

Gumball chuckled along with her and began nonchalantly polishing his scythe's blade with his forearm,

"I'll admit, maybe my approach was a little too direct, but you can't dodge forever because only spineless people would do that." he shot back, earning a sinister glare from his companion.

"Touche, my thick headed friend!" she said in a snippy tone.

Gumball took slight offense towards her comment regarding his big head and stuck his tongue out at her. She copied his action in a child-like fashion and blew him a raspberry too which caused them both to laugh afterwards. They could really get on each other's nerves sometimes, but such things were trivial when it came to their childish conduct.

When things were quiet again, Teri cleared her throat and spoke to Gumball,

"So what's the deal with your scythe? Are able to control it now or is this something else?" she asked, curious about the enchanted weapon.

Looking down at the object in his hand and then back at her, Gumball waved the weapon in the air above his head,

"I can control the level of energy my body is emitting!" he announced in an excited tone reminiscent to that of a gamer who achieved a new level in an RPG,

"I realized that the reason I was getting so tired was because I was using one hundred percent of my energy every time I activated the rune on my scythe, so I just cut the power down to twenty five percent instead! Now I'm using even less and I can still use my super speed and strength, although with a lot less power this time." he simply explained.

Feeling a little shocked, Teri nodded slowly once he was finished explaining and spoke up once he lowered his weapon,

"Gotcha, so you're seventy five percent slower and weaker than you were when you first activated it. How are you going to fare against the Nephilim with such little power?" she placed her finger tips together as she leaned on her monkey's head and listened to his response.

After a brief pause, Gumball shrugged and met Teri's questioning stare,

"Honestly, it's better than being at zero percent most of the time and at a hundred while exhausting myself within a few minutes. You and me both know that taking them head on doesn't help us, so having a slight boost while outsmarting them is definitely helpful in my opinion and also, I won't stop training with this until I can go at full power. I also haven't figured out what the other two runes do either and I wonder how effective they'll be?" he asked aloud.

Teri knew he was referring to the other two symbols his weapon carried and was also eager to know what they could do. If they were anything like the first one, then the fight against the giants would probably turn in their favor or at least become slightly less stressful. Another thing she noticed about Gumball's runes was that it took some time for them to activate, while whenever she and Rob used theirs, they activate within close proximity of a Nephilim. Gumball's grey fire rune activated roughly a week after the Nephilim first invaded their town and the remaining have yet to display their power.

She could speculate why such things were so, but was sure that given time, Gumball would be able to master his own weapon,

"It seems that your scythe takes time to activate." she said, repeating what she had just concluded in her mind,

"Also, did you just say that your body is giving off the energy? I thought that it was the scythe that empowered you." that was the other thing she heard him mention and she was intent on figuring out what he meant.

"Yeah, that's what I thought too." he stated, wasting no time to answer her question,

"But recently I found that it draws energy from me and amplifies it. I know it sounds bizarre, but that's the best way I can describe it." he said.

Hearing all she needed to hear, Teri nodded in acknowledgement and pulled out her phone to check the time. They've been out in the woods for a while now and Teri's stomach was already starting to grumble. However, she still wanted to do some practice runs with Gumball, so she decided to continue their exercise, with some new stakes of course,

"Okay, we've been out here for almost three hours now and I'm starting to get hungry. If you can catch me within five minutes, I'll buy us lunch and if you can't then you're paying. Also, if you lose, you'll have to bake me something for tomorrow." she said, adding the baking part as an extra benefit to her.

Feeling all the more excited for this challenge, Gumball's ears pricked up along with his tail and he could already feel himself moving about a little from where he was standing. He had been meaning to ask her if she wanted to go grab a bite to eat somewhere in Elmore and now that she was offering, Gumball could not refuse this trial. There was also the fact that he wanted to see what he was really capable of while at twenty five percent.

Seeing no need for a verbal response, Gumball just crouched down and got ready to jump. Noting this, Teri readied herself as well, taking a moment to reconfigure her monkey into a hummingbird and taking off from her branch. Gumball understood the advantage Teri possessed, obtaining flight as a means to escape would prove quite challenging for a pursuer who could only remain on the ground, but Gumball had a few tricks that may help him out.

The game started the moment Teri took off, zipping through the forest on her nimble construct with no obstructions to slow her down and Gumball was forced to give chase. Rather than immediately head for higher ground, Gumball stayed his course and remained on the ground while pursuing his target from down below. One issue that made itself clear right away, was that Teri was really adept at flying and her hummingbird made it ever so easy for the paper bear to weave her way through the treeline with its tiny wings being able to make sharp turns and all. If it weren't for his incredulous speed, Gumball would have already lost her.

For the first minute, all Gumball could do was follow close behind and observe as Teri continued to flee. He was watching for any noticeable patterns in her flight path and his patience was finally rewarded, when he figured it out. She would turn and maneuver her way through the forest, but otherwise her path was rather linear and didn't deviate too much, usually just a few changes in direction in an attempt to throw him off.

This could just be due to the fact that he was on the ground and not in the trees, at her level, allowing her to keep an eye on him so she could adjust her flight path if needed. He could most likely catch her if he increased his power output, but that was still considered to risky, also he didn't want to accidentally injure her if he put too much force in it. His best option for now would be to break off and ambush her later.

" _Perfect."_ he thought and quickly shot to the right where he disappeared into the dense cluster of trees.

Watching as every single natural obstacle flashed by in an instant, Teri felt assured that she could not be caught and found some enjoyment during the wild ride. She kept below the upper portion of the treetops, away from the dense orange foliage that was starting to burn brighter with the sun's continuous path across the blue ceiling and even the mist was starting to clear away, giving a sharper view to the entire forest. With her position as it is, she knew she was susceptible to interception by her pursuer, but at least she still had breathing room down here.

Keeping an eye on Gumball and the path ahead of her was rather difficult, so she could only afford the occasional backwards glance and readjust her course whenever she spotted him in order to lose him. She was impressed that he managed to figure out what would happen if he were to try to climb the trees and catch her from behind, having taken him as someone with a more direct approach to his problems. Looks like he was learning to be more clever and this forced yet another smile on Teri's face. If he caught up to her in the analytical department, then she was really going to have to try harder to remain as a vital member.

However, he wasn't going to win at this rate, figuring out what not to do wasn't going to be enough for him if he was just going to remain where he was.

After banking around another flora obstacle, Teri peeked behind her and quickly realized that Gumball was no longer behind her. When she first made this discovery, she was tempted to slow down and search the area again, like common sense would dictate, but instead opted to make another turn. Hoping that changing directions would throw off any potential ambushes the cat had in store for her, Teri continued to fly at her regular speed while keeping her guard up and wondered how much time they had left.

After a few moments of relative silence, Teri checked her moving surroundings and saw no super powered twelve year olds flying about the forest, giving her a good opportunity to check her phone's stopwatch. She set it for five minutes after she started the chase and looking at the time now, there were only two minutes remaining. This was pleasing to her, if she was successful in losing him then she was getting a free lunch. Poor Gumball.

She put the phone away and right when she did, Gumball came exploding out towards her from the left side from above, catching her completely off guard! If it weren't for the fact that she stopped the minute she saw him, he would have smacked right into her and sent both of them to the forest floor. She watched the blue blur shoot by and rebound off a tree opposite from his jumping point, using his hand and both legs to bounce back off and towards her again. What reaction time!

Seeing nowhere to go but down, Teri forced the hummingbird to close its wings and dive, Gumball's fingers grazed her backpack handle as she descended. While she was in free fall, Teri felt the air rushing by her and could hear Gumball's laughter from behind as he continued to give chase. He was enjoying himself and with a giddy laugh escaping her lips, Teri found that she was also having fun. This was like rough housing back at home, only taken to another level.

Birds and tree dwelling animals were disturbed as two blurs, a grey/white one followed by a blue one raced through their homes as the two bound from tree to tree in their amazing game of tag. Gumball, in close pursuit of the flying Pepakuma, was blown away by her reflexive movements and became all the more enthralled to outmaneuver her in the narrow space above the ground and below the thick veil of leaves studding their various branches. He never strayed too far from her when he defected from his original path and just when she let her guard down, he took that opportunity to ambush her.

Now that he was really close to catching her, Gumball began mapping out the path of oaks in front of them and set up a new route that would allow him to encircle her. Taking a gamble, Gumball decided to add more fuel to the fire in order to get ahead and once the effects took place, Gumball was already bouncing over several dozen yards. Sadly, his greed for an easy win cost him dearly as he placed a bit too much power into his legs and before he knew it, his noggin had connected with a stray tree branch, sending him tumbling downwards.

While he felt no immediate pain from his head bump with the unforeseen obstacle, he was quickly driven with fear as he began to fall, which lead to his power fading once again and gravity's effects became more evident as he began to drop like a rock. He wasn't too high up to die from the impact, but if he did hit the ground, he was probably going to sprain something or worse, break an ankle.

The worst did not come to pass though, Teri, having seen Gumball's fumble and recognizing the danger present, forgot about fleeing from him and moved to intercept the falling boy. Spotting her closing in, Gumball opened his arms and the two close friends were brought even closer in an embrace that wound up saving the kitten. Worried beyond belief, Teri continued to hold Gumball tightly as she flew towards a branch to sit upon,

"Are you alright? I saw you hit your head and then you started falling and then you were screaming…" she trailed off, the stress in her voice was evident and her volume was raised to a concerning level.

With his fear gradually passing, Gumball soon found that it was replaced with shame as he realized that despite his best efforts he fell to fear once again and messed up. Why couldn't he ever learn to just keep a cool head when doing something this dangerous? To make this even worse, he caused Teri unnecessary stress again and his foolishness was also making her worry.

He wanted to bash his head against the trunk of one of these oaks and end it right there, also he didn't remember screaming as he fell. Was it blotted out by his concern of striking the ground? It didn't matter, what did matter though was calming Teri,

"Caught you." he whispered, a wobbly grin slowly creeping across his face.

Teri was frozen for a minute before she realized that the goof was alright and returned her own snarky comeback soon after,

"It's the other way around, dummy!" she laughed, somehow squeezing him tighter than she already was.

Gumball reciprocated the hug and felt a better measure of security when he did. He was so glad to have someone like her watching his back and to prevent him from doing stupid things to himself. Now he needed to work on thinking ahead and maybe all these little moments won't have to come after something so traumatic.

Nestling itself on a branch that was almost twenty feet from the ground, the grey hummingbird went limp as the two kids climbed off and sat down on the space next to it. They were very close to one another and both just took a minute to catch their breath. Eventually Gumball was able to break the silence that enveloped them both,

"Okay, so since you technically won that exercise, is there anywhere in particular you want to go to grab lunch or would it be brunch, since it's not even noon yet?" he asked, looking at her and raising an eyebrow.

Realizing that he had a point, (the match was technically hers since she caught him instead of the other way around, albeit it was an accident.) the origami wielder began to ponder her options and considered any possible cuisine that would sate her appetite. The problem was, she didn't know what she wanted, there were so many options and not enough pocket cash to get them all. Bowing her head in despair, Teri whispered to her companion,

"I don't know exactly, there are too many good options that I want to try out." she whimpered, sounding completely distraught.

With a dilemma that sounded all too familiar, Gumball knew a solution that will immediately bring resolution to this problem: pick the first thing that came to mind!

And without much thought he knew just the right place,

"There's this one restaurant down at the mall that I know of, it's a Japanese restaurant that sells all kinds of cool dishes and the sushi there is really great too!" he stated, already drooling at the thought of sushi.

A frown made itself present on the girl's face and she shook her head in response,

"Yeah, I'm not really in the mood for anything Japanese right now, mainly because of mom's dinner last night. Also, isn't it weird for you to be eating fish since your brother is… you know…?" she asked, feeling slightly unsteady asking that question.

Understanding her concern, Gumball shook his and waved his hands in the air,

"Oh, no, not really, no. I asked him about that once and he said that it wasn't really that upsetting since fish eat other fish in the wild. However, I still don't feel comfortable eating fish around him, so I only eat sushi when he's not around. Also, everyone else's eating habits are weird, I mean Sarah eats ice cream, Doughnut Sheriff snacks on doughnuts, Darwin eats potatoes and Idaho is fine with it, so yeah, this town is weird." he finished with a small shrug and realized saying all those things out loud did not make them sound any crazier. Maybe he really should reconsider eating fish.

Teri tried not to think about the uncomfortable facts too much and fought a wave of nausea that appeared as a reaction to the thoughts she desperately tried to banish. Thankfully, there was one option that finally came to mind and Teri's head was clear once again. Turning to her sitting partner in crime, Teri popped her question,

"Ooh! How about we get lunch at that downtown bakery, _Siren's Lure_ I believe is what it's called." she suggested, her face lighting up soon after.

Gumball recalled such a place, it was a small bakery that wasn't too far from his the mall and also served as an outdoor cafe as well. Larry worked there as he did with the various other jobs in Elmore, so it stuck in his mind a little. All in all, it was a nice little place to grab a bite and hang out for a bit.

Shrugging, Gumball found himself agreeing with Teri and joked around with her a little,

"You just have nothing but pastries on the mind, don't you?" he chuckled.

Teri grinned from ear to ear and bashfully nodded as she stood up,

"You made them popular at my house, so it's your fault, actually." she said.

Can't argue with that logic, although Gumball found it funny that he was heading out to a bakery to buy them both lunch coupled with the fact that he had to bake her something for tomorrow as well. It didn't matter to him though, it seems that she loves pastries (one's that fit her lactose intolerant standards at least, though Gumball had a sneaking suspicion it was all in the germaphobe's head.) and seeing her get excited over sweets was just really adorable. Even the slightly embarrassed look she gave him when he brought up her addiction to baked goods made it hard for him to resist taking her down to the _Siren's Lure_.

Without any further discussion the two hopped aboard the origami hummingbird and sped out of the forest, the paper creature's wings creating a loud hum as it did so. Both were satisfied with what they had learned today and the mark of progress was a great boost in overall morale. Now they must end a productive morning with a fitting reward before the rest of the day's mundane tasks caught up to them.

 _-Rob's duplex, 11:02 AM-_

Reaching out with one hand, Rob hit the _record_ button on the camera and sat back down in his seat. He was sitting in front of his desk, alone in his room surrounded by various inventions, projects and sketches while in front of him was a single sheet of paper with a petrification rune drawn onto it. On the symbol was an iron cog he pulled off of one of his useless devices and was being used as an item to transform. This was part of an experiment he had been conducting all day and he felt as though he were getting closer to producing better results.

He wiped at his face as he shook his head, an attempt to rid himself of fatigue. He wasn't dirty by any means, so he didn't know why he was wiping his face, but the action helped clear his head a little. Placing his hands together, he glanced up at the camera lens that was staring emptily back at him and cleared his throat,

"All right this my seventy second recording and my eightieth attempt at remotely activating the rune. Several days ago, I came in contact with the troll witch, Mrs. Jotenheim and she explained to me that like most magic, runes were activated by the soul." he kept his voice low because his roommate and only real friend, Rachel, was sleeping in the next room over and while there was a considerable distance between their designated sleeping quarters, the drywall was very bad at blocking out sound, plus she was a light sleeper too.

After Saturday, she was given Sunday off, so of course she was sleeping in today and after yesterday's trip out to the woods, Rob could understand why she would be so tuckered out. After she had gotten out of work, the two immediately went home and spent an hour or two packing. After they made sure they had everything they needed, they immediately set off to the northernmost section of the city and found a spot to start their hike.

It was a harrowing and tedious journey to say for sure, while they had enough mosquito spray to keep the airborne pests off of them, there were still lots of bugs that kept annoying the both of them. There were also multiple hazards that made travel really difficult for the pair and every time one of them stumbled or tripped over an obstacle they would scrape a knee or receive a bruise or cut every time. It also didn't help that they would both laugh at each other's expense which led to multiple heated arguments that would shut down after a few minutes.

In the end, all that hard work paid off when he and Rachel reached a clear mountaintop by sunset and broke out the camp gear to begin their stargazing. After everything went dark and the stars began dotting the infinite sky above them, everything was just simply fantastic from there on out! With Rob's telescope they both got an incredible view of venus, which gave rise to some commentary from Rachel about the Roman goddess of love and beauty that she was studying in one of her history classes. This brought them both into an engaging conversation about the ancient Greeks and Romans, with Rob focusing more on the discovery side of things and Rachel reading more into the mythology that surrounded most of the ancient cultures.

After viewing any celestial bodies they could with the telescope, Rachel snapped a few photos with her camera for her photography class and the two eventually settled onto the blanket they brought with them, just viewing the nighttime sky and having pleasant small talk every now and then. It was just simply peaceful and Rob enjoyed the time away from Elmore, his projects, the Nephilim, and the regular dregs that came with living in an urban area. He wanted to do this kind of thing more often and when he brought it up to Rachel, she seemed rather excited about the idea,

" _Are you kidding, of course we should do this more often! Heck, we should scraped together some money and leave the country sometime! Like go to the Bahamas, or Morocco, or, oooh, how about Florida?" she exclaimed, stars in her eyes as she gazed at Rob hopefully._

 _Rob froze up for a moment and glanced at the sky. He was pretty sure that going on a vacation anywhere in the world would be a wonderous experience for the two of them, but when he looked into recent events happening globally, the Nephilim threat seemed more present in areas outside of Elmore. While Elmore had it's fair share of invaders from other worlds, cities all over the planet were frequently overcome with "accidents" that happened more randomly. Either way, venturing outside of Elmore seemed to welcome disaster and Rob already had his hands full with the crisis that was happening in his hometown,_

 _Eventually finding the correct words and putting them into his mouth, Rob covertly objected to the idea,_

" _Umm, I'm not a huge fan of travel per say and I'm fine with just staying here in Elmore, I mean this place is already crazy enough as it is and I don't want to see what other places are willing to do to top our place. Also, for the record, Florida is in the United states. You should pay more attention in geography class." he snickered as Rachel slugged him in the shoulder._

" _Oh poo on you, I know what I'm talking about and yeah, now that I think about it, Elmore is the safest place for us. I hear that some countries are still controlled by humans and don't necessarily accept Bizarros all that well." she muttered uncomfortably, turning a little so she could lay on her back._

 _Rob was also aware of this fact and it didn't sit well with him either, mainly because he and Rachel were already sort of outcasts. But at least they were still seen as ordinary citizens, with this city being mostly populated Bizarros (the exception being Richwood high, having humans amongst cardboard cutouts.), they fit right in. However, having other cities and even whole nations run by humans that treat their inhuman counterparts as second rate citizens, was very disturbing to think about._

 _At least there was some good news in that a lot of western countries appreciated the Bizarros and their unique gifts that helped their economies prosper. It did help that in the western world there was a significantly higher population of Bizarros when compared to humans, so a lot of changes that benefited their kind were easy to put in place. When he did some research though he found that several groups opposed these unbalanced circumstances, groups like the Human Front for example believed that humans should remain in prominent positions of power within most societies in order to keep things fair._

 _While Rob didn't disagree with fair representation in any governing authority, he didn't really like the Human Front's narrow minded stance on keeping humans in power, especially when regarding some of the group's sketchy activities that have been brought up in recent events. He didn't delve any deeper into the subject of species politics, for it was a long and complicated history that stemmed all the way since the beginning of civilization. In his opinion, the Bizarros were just as human as the homosapiens that lived among them and that the human race was just another odd group mixed into this odd population that covered the planet._

 _Maybe he should conquer the world after the Nephilim were defeated, that way he could treat all the Humans and Bizarros as mere subjects, maybe that will get them to get along, right? Probably not, but it would be fun to see both factions unite against him in order to take him down. Actually, now that he thought about it, maybe the Nephilim invasion isn't such a bad thing after all given that such an existential threat would bring all the nations of Earth together in order to stave off the invaders._

 _Then again, the Nephilim weren't exactly dumb and wouldn't invade if the odds were stacked against them, so they must have a plan of some kind to deal with all of the creatures living here._

 _They both remained close to one another, with Rob thinking uncertain thoughts of the future and Rachel just watching the sky with awe. It was a chilly evening and Rob was glad to have thought ahead in order to prepare against such unfavorable conditions, having brought a couple sweaters and blankets for him and Rachel to share. However, the blankets seemed rather overkill as their close proximity with one another transferred enough heat to keep both of them comfortable. Rob was well aware of how close he was to the blue skinned teenager, but was not bothered by it as the two would often sit close to one another on the loveseat they had back at the duplex while watching whatever television program that happened to grab their attention. It did bring him some comfort to have someone to be with and there wasn't a whole lot she could do to make him feel uncomfortable or awkward in the slightest._

 _Even when he was wrought with worry, it didn't feel so overwhelming right now and he was able to enjoy this peaceful moment. He felt Rachel stir beside him and he turned to see what she could be doing. When he spotted her dark eyes gazing into his only one, his single eyebrow lifted a little to reflect his vexed feelings,_

" _Something up?" he asked, keeping his mismatched hands propped under his big, blocky head._

 _At first, Rachel was hesitant to answer, almost putting off the question entirely, but curiosity got the better of her and refused to let her back down,_

" _Well, I was thinking… since we can't figure out who we were back before the… the "incident" and chances are we're never going to get back to normal any time soon…" she trailed off, taking a moment to brush a lock of curly, magenta hair although the look on her face showed that she was having trouble continuing the subject._

 _This prompted Rob to encourage her to continue the line of dialogue she was stalling on,_

" _Yes, is there something you have planned for the future?" he asked, feeling as though this were accurate given what she was talking about._

 _This seemed to break her out of her internal stalemate and the rainbow lass continued with a huffy sigh,_

" _You see, what I was trying to get to was that if we can't figure out how to piece everything back together, then maybe we should just focus on moving on with our lives, you know, thinking about the future and whatnot." she explained, fumbling through her speech a little._

 _Rob's eye widened a bit and his thin lips pressed together in a thin line, he was very concerned as to where this conversation was heading,_

" _Are you saying that one of us should move out and start on different paths?" he croaked out, trying not to sound to upset, although he wasn't sure if he was or not._

 _Having taken notice of the misunderstanding, Rachel was quick to dismiss what he was thinking right away,_

" _Oh no, that's not what I meant at all!" she quickly sputtered, waving her hands back and forth,_

" _I want you to stay with me, if you choose, because you're the only person I can relate to and you're the most reliable friend I've ever had. What I'm saying is, rather than try and fix what's wrong with us, why don't we just move on with our lives and focus on building a life together." her voice lowered into a more gentle, yet serious tone as she finished explaining her intentions to the cyclops, who had just calmed down and was listening more carefully._

 _This came as a bit of a shock to the cyclopean inventor, not because this seemed too out of the ordinary for his outgoing roommate, he knew that she was struggling with her identity and the fact that the people they believed to be her relatives held no recognition of her at all, but the fact that she was indirectly asking him to give up on his quest to repair the damage done by the void just seemed so… draining to him. On the one hand, if they focused on building a better future for themselves, then they could probably do it. If he actually tried, he could possibly reintegrate himself back into the education system, get himself a diploma, go to college and utilize his engineering skills to further his own career, then yes, he and Rachel could live happy lives regardless of the void's corruption. Provided that the world was still standing of course._

 _However, while that was the simple solution, Rob could not accept it. The main reason being simply that he did not want the void to triumph in their lives, to forever haunt them with the damage it has caused and leave them broken for the rest of their lives. He needed this triumph because for all he knew, he never did anything significant throughout his life and the universe taunted him for his irrelevance by tossing him into the space where forgettable people are left to rot. His journey to cure him and Rachel wasn't just about retrieving something that they had lost, it was about standing up to an injustice the cosmos itself has thrust upon them._

 _Bringing his attention back to the present, he knew that Rachel just wanted to find peace in her life after everything that has happened and that outright disagreeing with her might bring about a conflict that could not be solved so easily. Technically speaking, he was already at odds with her, but she just wasn't aware of it and he didn't have to drag her into it either, especially since it tied into several other unpleasant realities that he had to deal with. Thus, he was able to form a compromise without having to argue with her,_

" _Well, I'm glad you want to keep me around and I do appreciate your company, so I will stay with you as long as you want me around. If you think that moving forward is the best solution for us both, then I'm sure that's the direction we must take." he stated, already feeling guilty for not admitting how he truly felt._

 _Studying his face, Rachel appeared satisfied with his response and a content smile played across her lips,_

" _I'm glad you think so too and I really mean it, you are my best friend. I want you to be happy too and since you've done so much for me in the past, the only thing I can do is remain by your side." she proclaimed, feeling a little blush fill her cheeks._

 _Rob spotted her facial features darken to a navy blue causing him to do the same, though it was his static that darkened rather than his cheeks. His body was really bizarre and somewhat annoying to him because it was hard to hide things from the people he was closest to. Disrupting the tender moment by clearing his throat, he quickly went on about something else while quickly turning his polygonal noggin to the stars again,_

" _Pssh! That's fine and all, but you don't even know what job you want to go into and I doubt working at a gas station is going to get you far either." he muttered jokingly while Rachel became enraged with the way he changed the atmospheric tone._

" _Jerk! I'm still a Freshman, so I still have time and I don't see any viable career options for you either since your only source of income is selling devices you frankensteined together out of the scrapyard!" she shouted in protest while slugging him repeatedly in the shoulder, making the cyclops flinch every time she did so._

 _Rob tried to wave her away while he spoke about his future plans,_

" _Ow, ow, ow, hey! I'll go back to middle school next year alright! Sheesh!" he shot back causing her to stop._

" _Really?" she asked, her small mouth agape,_

" _That's awesome and also convenient because I can pick on you for being a few grades below me!" she rubbed her hands together in anticipation while a twisted grin full sharp teeth etched its way onto her face._

 _Rolling his eye, the preteen cyclops just waved off her act of superiority and took a moment to jeer at her,_

" _So what? We're only three years apart in age (_ _ **A/N: Rob's turning thirteen soon, so it's pretty close to three years.**_ _) and I'm still taller than you, so take that!" he proclaimed triumphantly with a bit of condescending attached._

 _This brought forth another barrage of attacks from the multicolored teenage girl at the mentioning of their height difference and she spewed out a number of insults directed at the reactive companion of hers,_

" _Oh, who cares how tall you are! You may be smart, but you're also a wimp! I'm still going to boss you around, stringbean, because I'm stronger and older!" she shouted back at him while repeatedly punching his shoulder, which was starting to ache from all the abuse it was getting._

 _Rob internally added in that she was louder too and just rolled with the punches while she let her fury out on him. It honestly didn't affect him that much and he knew that she was just puffing out her chest. Eventually she did settle down and was just quietly resting beside him, allowing another content expression to form on her face and her body to relax. She was quite the ball of energy and Rob was certain that one of these days her overly reactive side was going to get him injured one day, but he was glad to have her extroverted personality to balance out his introverted one. Even if such a relationship lead to some of the most ridiculous arguments that he ever had the misfortune of being a part of._

" _I'm glad that we have this, it's better than nothing." she spoke directly to him while remaining transfixed on a star somewhere above the moon,_

" _Thanks for bringing me out here, this was really fun." she whispered softly._

 _Rob couldn't have agreed more and found his own goofy smirk becoming prominent on his grey face,_

" _Yeah, no problem, this was a great experience for me too and I'm glad we have the time to do this." he responded kindly, watching with awe as a meteorite shot by in bright ball of burning debris._

 _He heard a quiet chuckle coming from her and a silent response following short after,_

" _We have all the time in the world." she said as she scooted closer to him, feeling herself warm up even faster._

 _Rob definitely felt happier now than he was at the end of the week and he was looking forward to more opportunities like this one. The world was indeed a messed up place and what happened to them was in fact very harsh, but this was a storm they could ride out together no doubt. He just hoped that the storm didn't become a powerful hurricane that would blow them all away before they could really anchor themselves down._

As soon as the memory ran its course, Rob felt a sense of peace return to his exhausted self and he continued on with the experiment. As soon as they got back home, which was around midnight, Rachel immediately retired to her private domain while Rob began to conduct more research for his newest and greatest weapon, _Leviathan Book_. Of course, there was a major obstacle he needed to overcome and that was the remote use and activation of the runes he yielded in his arsenal. After a brief nap to make sure no Nephilim threats were present in the foreseeable future, Rob got straight to work and decided that once he was done with his experiments, that he will journey to void once again to gather more runes and with the translation spell Mrs. Jotenheim gave him, he had a whole evening to translate the newest material he would gather.

However, the tests have been rather unsuccessful and while he was starting to get a feel for the Nephilim's ancient magic, there was just something that he wasn't quite getting. That's what he was aiming to find out right now and with that being said, he began the experiment,

"Okay, so I've been going about this trial by using emotions, but that's been rather unsuccessful. However, after giving it some serious consideration and redirecting my approach, I think I may have found the answer." he was still looking at the camera, but was now placing his hands around the cog while he went over his theory,

"We briefly touched upon a specialized rune my associate, Gumball Watterson, possesses that enhances his own physical assets, but he has to remain fixed on his objective in order to do so. With that in mind, I'm going that same logic here and hopefully, hopefully, it will work." he closed his eye as he finished and concentrated.

He placed his hands around the triangular symbol the cog sat upon, sort of allowing him to better visualize what he was doing while undergoing intense concentration, and focused on creating an objective. He obviously wanted to turn the metal gear into stone, but that simple desire had no effect, so there must be a deeper meaning to it. So he decided to come up with a reason behind the abnormal act and summoned within his mind the people he cared about. First, he thought of Rachel, the person who mattered most to him and his greatest friend. Then he thought of Gumball and Teri, his two companions in arms that remained as his allies during the Nephilim attacks. Finally, he thought of Hector and Mrs. Jotenheim, two people he met for a brief time, but has come to a kind of understanding and also aided him in a time of need too.

As soon as he envisioned these individuals he thought of a desperate situation that involved them and it wasn't that hard either. He thought of a Nephilim attacking them and they were in trouble, the only way for him to save them would be to turn the cog into a stone and throw it at the beast. He thought about this, concentrating as hard as he could and when he visualized Rachel being approached by the monster she could not even notice, something happened.

He felt it through the table and even saw the purple flash through his closed eyelid, indicating that something had happened. When his orb opened, he saw the object his hands were surrounding and to his satisfaction: the once iron cog was now a simple, stone carving that sat on a blank sheet of paper. After many attempts to activate a rune on his own that left him completely exhausted throughout the night and early morning, he did it.

A shaky smile carved onto his face and he let out a weak laugh, so weak that it sounded more like a gasp as he flung his hands up in the air and scooted his chair back in pure excitement. He jumped up and down a few times as he grabbed the piece of stone and inspected it closely, carefully scrutinizing and finally confirming that it was in fact petrified. He was completely ecstatic and so caught up in his success that he nearly forgot that the camera was still recording his activity.

Quickly setting back down and bringing his nerves to grinding halt, Rob was composed as quickly as he was excited. Placing the gear down on the desk again, Rob wiped his face with both hands and looked at the single, optical lens staring emptily back at him. He was really tired and burned out from all the earlier attempts that he just decided to end the video recording on a short note,

"Alright, the experiment was a success and I'm going to do more tests like this, using some other runes on a smaller scale of course. However, before I do any more of that, the first thing I'm going to do is go to Joyful Burger once because I am famished and afterwards, I will journey to the void in order to obtain more knowledge." he reached out to the camera and clicked the "stop" button. Ending the recording immediately.

He then proceeded to get ready to leave the house, gathering some materials he would be bringing with him to work on while at the restaurant and wondered if he should wake Rachel in order to tell him he was leaving. He eventually decided against, thinking that letting her sleep was better and that he wouldn't be gone for long, so there were no major concerns. With all that being decided, he swiftly left his room and was out of the house soon after.

 _-Watterson residence, 11:22 AM-_

Disappointment. It was more than just a word, rather an intense feeling that may seem minor at first glance, but can gradually grow into a deeper form of misery. For a certain unlucky blue cat heading up the porch to his own household, this was the most prominent feeling that stained his heart. He never could have believed that he could be so unfortunate as to lose Teri and right before they were about to have lunch too.

To the reader who may be concerned, nothing terrible has happened to the eldest child of the Watterson family or Teri for that matter, rather just as they were completing their two hour walk from the forest by rounding the corner where the _Siren's Lure_ sat with its delicious aromas taunting and capturing the minds of passerby's with the effect of an actual Siren from mythology, Teri's phone began to vibrate and when she checked who it was, they were both surprised to see it was Carmen. One short phone conversation later, Teri informed Gumball that most of the cheerleading squad has recovered and Carmen was calling an emergency cheer session in order to catch up on the practice they missed on Friday. While Gumball was saddened at having their little outing cancelled, he wished her a good time and waved goodbye as he set off for home while Teri made her way back to school.

He knew it couldn't be helped, things always popped up when people least expected them and such was the way of life. Still, Carmen couldn't have just postponed practice for at least another hour or perhaps a day even? He knew he was being selfish, but he was really looking forward to eating with Teri at the bakery and just the thought of both of them being together while enjoying pastries was enough to lighten his mood. Only to have that light extinguish every time he remembered what happened and he grumbled at his misfortune.

When he reached the door, he placed his paw upon the brass doorknob, but didn't twist the handle, instead opting to pause for a moment. Letting out a sigh, Gumball allowed his frustrations to slowly leave his system as he reasoned with himself and thought about what he could do at home. Teri was at cheerleading practice with her friends, the ones caught up in that chemical monster incident two days ago were okay, and he was happy that she was going to have a good time. Now he began to list off of things he could do once he got inside: he was definitely going to take a shower and a nap first, then when he woke up, he was going to watch whatever was on TV before checking on any of his assignments (he did them at Teri's place when he went over yesterday, but it wouldn't hurt to double check. _Groan!_ ) and then he was going to work out for a bit, gotta show Teri that he could actually do seventy five push-ups before she got suspicious.

Oops, there he goes thinking about Teri again, Gumball was surprised that his thoughts looped all the way back around to her and he shook his head. Something was definitely up with him as of late and it always had something to do with his paper friend. Thinking of another activity, Gumball considered baking and thought about the various recipes he could use that used very few dairy products or suitable replacements. He could surprise Teri with a raw blueberry cheesecake or some raw thin mint peppermint patties, the amazed expression on her face would be so adorable… and there it was again! He was thinking about her being happy with him and it was making him feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

Well, whatever it was, Gumball was sure that it was a positive thing and that he should start baking as soon as he woke up from his nap. He may have failed to buy her lunch, but he did promise to surprise her with something seeing as he lost the challenge fair and square. Feeling more sure of himself, Gumball twisted the knob still locked within his grasp, only to have it turn the rest of the way on its own and without warning, the door swung open!

Startled, Gumball jumped back quickly in order to clear the doorway before whoever it was that was leaving the house could bump into him and gazed within the wide door frame to see who it could possibly be. To his confusion, the person standing before him was a tall, slender human woman rather than any family member that lived here, or at least that's how it appeared at first. The woman had short brown hair done up in a stylish beehive, golden hourglass-shaped earrings that hung from her lobes that somehow matched her 80's inspired green coat and skirt, and wore red heels that further complimented her outfit. Now while this thin woman in her early forties could have been seen as a complete stranger here, Gumball knew exactly who it was once he got a better look,

"Why hello, Samantha! How do you fare on this fine afternoon?" he greeted in a polite tone, even giving his voice more of an accent to sound more sophisticated.

The elegant-looking female chuckled while ever so delicately placing a hand on her prominent cheekbone, she looked incredibly bemused by the kitten's greeting,

"Oh Gumball, my darling son, I am doing quite well, thank you so much for asking. I guess you've caught me just on my way out to meet Angela and Maria, what are the odds!" she exclaimed, her lipsticked smile never wavering once as she let out another charming laugh.

For those who had never actually known the Watterson's personally, no one would have believed that this striking woman was actually Gumball's father and when Gumball and Darwin found out about it the first time, they didn't know any better either. Once several misunderstandings were cleared up though, Gumball and his little brother came to the realization that their dad, a man who'd rarely leave the house, was in fact very lonely when their mom had gone off to work while the kids were elsewhere and sought out some friends to help rid him of his solitary situation. Finding no solace amongst the men of Elmore, Richard came across several mature women his age and found his social circle shortly after when he impersonated himself as one of them.

It came as a big surprise to everyone that two out of his three female companions were actually men too, who were indeed suffering from seclusion when it came to their male colleagues and once it was decided that the odd quartet could stay together in relative comfort, Richard eventually came clean to Nicole and unveiled his secret activities to the rest of the family. Gumball would never forget the look on his mother's face when he revealed to her who "Samantha" truly was as it was pure amusement and baffled curiosity that sent their mother howling with laughter before running up and hugging her husband, who was almost as pale as the moon when upon witnessing his wife's reaction. The story had a happy ending to say the least, as Nicole accepted Richard's unusual double life, provided he no longer kept secrets and that she was invited to their get togethers every so often while also accompanying her as an additional "girl friend" to their meetings with Yuki.

Without a doubt, everyone was pleased with this outcome and it became a normal occurrence to find their dad cross dressed for an evening with his female social group.

Back to the present, Gumball slipped into the house as his father reached over and retrieved his purse, quickly pausing to make sure all the required contents were inside, and watching as Gumball began to make his way towards the living room couch. Gumball flopped down onto the cushion and sank into the cushy surface as his sore body began to relax. He was surprised that none of his siblings were home, seeing as it was nearly mid-day, but shrugged it off when he figured they probably had some important matters to attend to. Guess he was going to have the place to himself then, which wasn't a big deal and the blue cat allowed his bag to slide to the floor as he slumped further into a relaxed coma.

Having made sure that he had all his things, Gumball's well-dressed father began to head out like he intended to, turning his head back to let Gumball know a few important things before he left,

"Oh and Gumball, I'm going to be gone for a while and I'm not quite sure when Darwin and Anais are going to be back, they said something about a "secret mission" and that I wasn't supposed to mention that to… oh, pardon me, forget I ever said anything." he said bashfully, covering his mouth in a truly lady-like fashion,

"But your mother is going to be home at around two, so if you need anything by then, she's the person to go to." he reminded, flashing him a gentle look, which Gumball responded with a thumbs-up and a swift nod before his arm flopped back down like a puppet cut from its strings.

While he was curious about Anais and Darwin's "secret mission" that his father was so careless to slip up on, he was concerned as to why his father was staying out so late. He asked him and for the first time since he got home, his father's appearance suddenly became somber and Gumball was already starting to feel some twinge of despair when he saw that look. The dark eyes that set themselves upon the floor, tightly clasped hands, and the heavy, sorrowful sigh that followed, Gumball knew something had happened to someone and it was undoubtedly someone close.

He listened with a heavy heart as his dad spilled the terrible news,

"Violet or Marvin, I should say, has passed away." he said, his voice growing heavy with every word that came tumbling out of his mouth, as if the very sentence itself was made of lead.

Gumball was wrought with silence, he wasn't exactly sure what he was to say about this, he knew Marvin a little from some past experiences and the occasional encounters throughout the neighborhood. The elderly red blotch was part of grandpa Louie's friend group and the senior citizen somehow managed to fit himself into the woman's quartet that his father was a part of as Violet, a slightly air-headed blonde who the constant target of Angela's teasing and witty comebacks. He wasn't sure how close his dad was to him, but guessing by the pained look he wore plainly on his face, they must have been pretty close.

A very long and dread filled silence hung in the air as the two waited for someone to eventually speak, which Gumball did as he now had something he wanted to say. He wasn't sure how it would help, but it was all he could think of,

"I'm sorry." was all he said, his only condolences to a friend of his father and grandfather that he barely knew, yet, still felt the sting of the pain that his family member was clearly displaying.

With a slow nod, his disguised father accepted his son's move to comfort him and slowly wiped a tear from his eye with a slender finger,

"Thanks." he replied, his charming feminine voice finally giving way and revealing his higher pitched, course voice that belonged to his real father underneath all the makeup and fancy clothes,

"I mean, we all knew that he was getting to that age and that he wasn't probably going to… he already was showing signs of heart complications and other issues that were affecting his health and… and… I don't really know! It all came so sudden and even though it was a month ago, it still feels like yesterday he was just with us, laughing and making dumb comments that would lead to Angela firing off more snide comments." at this point more tears were falling from his eyes and Gumball forced himself off the couch to go over by his father's side.

Being as short as he was, Gumball could only wrap his arms around his mid-torso while his father continued to bawl, he could smell his perfume from being so close and when he took a better look, he saw him eventually reached into his purse to retrieve a handkerchief in order to blow his nose. He was in shambles at this point and Gumball could do nothing except feel sorrow for him, he never knew how much Marvin impacted their little group until now. Staying with his father, Gumball waited for him to calm down and when he did, Gumball felt a slender hand caress the top of his head, on the spot in between his ears and Gumball felt slightly better, although he felt as though it was his parent that needed comforting. Casting a glance upwards, the little boy could see his dad looking down at him, already putting on a brave face, although his makeup was a little smeared from his emotional outburst,

"Thanks, son." he said gratefully as Gumball nodded and slowly parted from him, feeling assured that his father was somewhat better now.

With the terrible news and the negative feelings that came with it out of the way or contained at least, the heavyweight bunny man masquerading as a petite human woman gave Gumball one last head rub before turning his attention towards the door again,

"I need to visit the two of them now, especially Maria because she's the one who's taking it the hardest of the three of us. We're just trying to get through the worst of it together right now." he muttered as he slipped out the door.

Gumball still felt terrible for what had happened to one of Richard's closest friends and understood why his sudden need to leave. He stepped out to wish him farewell and to tell Maria and Angela he gives his condolences. Accepting his message, Richard is about to get in his car and drive off, when Gumball was struck by a sudden realization and called out to his dad one more time,

"Wait, dad, hold up! You said he died about a month ago, correct? When and how did Marvin, er, Violet die?" he shouted across the lawn and to the driveway.

Richard paused before he was fully inside the vehicle, not exactly sure why his oldest kid wanted to know this specific information regarding the senior citizen's death, but passed it off as a harmless gesture to pay his respects,

"He passed away on September 8th and no one is quite sure what the cause of his death was, he was just sitting out on his front lawn, stargazing presumably, when his organs just failed him along with his heart and wasn't discovered until later on that night when your grandpa Louie came out to bring him back in. like I said, it was very sudden and very unpleasant to think about." he gave him one last wobbly smile before he waved again and hopped into the driver's seat.

Watching the yellow station wagon pulling out of the driveway, Gumball was struck with the horror of what actually happened to Marvin and an even greater sorrow filled his heart. Marvin had been one of the victims of the Nephilim's first attack on Elmore, with Teri having informed him that three people had perished while Silver Twelve pursued her and nearly lead to the deaths of more people. While Gumball understood that there was nothing he could have done at that point, for starters he wasn't even aware of the Nephilim's existence before Teri woke him up and also, he was asleep during that time, but he still felt bad that someone close to his father had been caught up in a terrible event that he couldn't have possibly known about.

Thinking about stuff like that really filled him with malice and bitterness towards the invading spirits. All those people who have died, were just ordinary citizens trying to live their lives and the Nephilim just snuffed them out, just like that and without a care too. This has been a constant reminder for him every time they encountered the vile beasts from beyond, with them mercilessly attacking and even looking down upon the people here as meager pests. It was just so mind boggling and unreal that such mighty creatures would be so heartless and cruel towards people who didn't even do anything wrong in the first place.

It didn't get any better with every news flash that revealed more death tolls as unnatural anomalies sweep the planet, causing death and destruction in their wake. It made Gumball feel completely hopeless when he listened to events like this and whenever that happened, it just seemed to flesh out his own weaknesses even more. He wanted to find some better way to help everyone around the world, but with it just being the three of them stuck here in Elmore, there was not much they could do except defend their lot of land.

Already feeling tired from thinking such depressing thoughts, Gumball decided that it was best he went to bed and later wake up to do something nice. He turned off the TV, got up from the couch and strolled all the way upstairs to where his room awaited him. Still in his gym clothes, Gumball decided that he would change after he woke up and took a shower. With that being decided, the tired boy fell to the comforting embrace of his mattress and allowed his big, furry head to bury itself in the pillow. His clock read 11:30 when his eyes shut and what followed next was another nightmare.

First Gumball dreamed that he was back in the industrial sector while being chased Window Hopper and with no weapon to use, the only thing the frightened cat could do was scream and run. The bronze snake would leap from window to window, stalking him as a shadow on the glass before leaping out to attack. Gumball would keep running, but he knew that it would eventually catch him and tear him to shreds.

However, the dream took a turn to something even more horrifying when he found himself in the landfill during a rainy day and something was in the sky above him. When he got a better look, he saw that it was a crack, no not a crack, a Nephilim portal and it was tearing itself open, as if the sky itself was breaking. What came next was a small object that flew from the darkness of the portal, followed by an amorphous substance that fell from the interdimensional opening and landed not too far away with a splat. It wasn't very big, maybe ten feet in height and it was silver in color, but when it hit the ground it began to reshape itself.

And that was when Gumball's dream ended, he saw it take a humanoid shape before everything went black and he was returned to the waking world.

Flinging himself from his bed, Gumball was already on his two feet and the first place his eyes set upon was the clock on his dresser. It read 11:50, meaning he had until 12:10 to get Teri and head on out to the designated area where the monster would appear. Gumball knew that Tina and her father lived in the landfill, so destroying that monster was a definite must.

With his mind set on the objective, Gumball rushed downstairs where his backpack awaited him and retrieved it, pulling out the mystical scythe before heading out the door and into the cool afternoon air. He noticed that there were storm clouds gathered overhead and that it was going to rain eventually, meaning some areas in the landfill were going to be slippery and possibly hazardous during the fight. A useful thing to note and Gumball thought of other possible factors that could affect them during the fight while he pulled out his phone.

Before his thumb could land on Teri's number, Gumball froze and thought about something. Teri's practice was going to be going on until 2:00 and chances were she wasn't going to notice her phone ringing. He could use his scythe's super speed to run all the way over and fetch her himself, but the interruption may cause quite a commotion and if Teri had to suddenly leave without explanation, the others might get suspicious. He could call for Rob's assistance, but as usual, that blockhead could be anywhere, doing anything and ignoring his phone.

With his tail swishing side to side as a result of his climbing anxiety, Gumball figured the best option at the moment was to take on the Nephilim himself. He knew this was very dangerous in of itself, but when he thought about it, he did take on a Uriel puppet that was twice the size of the monster he saw in his dream and he has gotten better at using his scythe, so this shouldn't be too difficult to deal with. He was just going to have to be very careful was all and combine that with his experience, the Nephilim was surely good as dead.

Taking a look around, Gumball could already see a few drops of rain beginning to fall and there was no doubt that when it started raining people were going to remain indoors, allowing him to run at high speeds without any risk of being spotted. He also knew of several backroads that lead to the landfill that avoided the main city roads and Gumball knew that he could reach the target before it started wreaking havoc throughout the city.

Feeling confident in his own abilities, Gumball wasted no time in activating his power and taking off from the house, clearing the block in less than a minute. He quickly dropped the power usage to twenty five percent using the visualization technique he learned in the forest and while his speed did in fact decrease, he was still moving fast enough to keep up with motorized transport. One thing he was weary of though, was that using twenty five percent against the Nephilim may not put him in favorable odds, but he could bump it up to one hundred percent if he needed to. He really needed to work on using that powerful slash so he could take out his opponents at a distance. He grumbled as he thought how in the world was he going to train like that? He obviously wasn't using it in the forest, the desert maybe?

However he used his power, he hoped that the fight would end quickly and that nothing will get out of hand. He knew in the back of his mind that he should probably let Teri know what he was doing at the very least, but he kept to the idea that this wasn't going to be a big deal. Besides, she had all this stuff going on in her life, there was no need to add further stress to the paper puppet and Gumball told himself that what he was doing was a great thing.

He continued to weave through the backroads and alleys at speeds that hardly made him recognizable to any casual passerby. The path he was taking was leading him to certain danger against an opponent he had no idea in the slightest was going to give him one of the most horrifying fights in his life. Another thing that he didn't see coming was another person that was going to get involved very soon.

 **(A/N): And that wraps up the first half of Fear without form, the next half is already underway and will hopefully be published in the nearish future. I know this one didn't have much action in it, but I'm glad that there was a lot more character interaction and behind the scenes stuff. Also, I wanted to reintroduce Richard as "Samantha" again because I found that episode very enjoyable and added a bit more to his character. I'm kind of bummed that not a lot of fanfiction writers ever show that side of him because there are so many funny paths that people could go with.**

 **Anyway, the next chapter will have lots of action and some more character interactions. I know that Gumball and Teri are getting very close, but are not quite at the romantic level yet and trust me when I say, there aren't very many chapters left until they finally confess. I have all the chapters of the story outlined and ready to be written so I'm very eager for that moment too, but I gotta build it up just right.**

 **Also, we're going to get some more Nephilim lore next chapter too, so be prepared for that.**

 **And lastly, thank you all so much for reading and leaving your reviews as well as liking and following my story. They all mean so much to me and I'm glad you're all enjoying this story. Please have an awesome day and enjoy life as much as possible. The next chapter will be finishing up this minor arc in the story and I can't wait for it to be released.**

 **Have a fantastic time!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Fear without form: part two**

Teri x Gumball

 **(A/N): You know what I smell? The final part to a long chapter, that's what I smell! That's right Tawog fans and Terball shippers, we're now finally wrapping up Fear without form and let me say that I'm just so excited for this chapter. As promised there will be lots of action and without further ado, let's dive right in.**

 **Side note: Tartarforas - the fear of God.**

 **Also, I would like to mention that I've noticed some artwork attributed to my Fanfiction has been posted on DeviantArt and I gotta say, I'm very pleased with everything that I've been seeing. Seriously, it's crazy to see other people making things like drawings to express their likings towards the fan story I'm writing and I can't simply express how happy all this support makes me! TobiIsABunny and OzneSnitram, if you guys are reading this, you guys are freaking awesome and thank you, thank you so much for what you guys came up with, I really enjoy looking at stuff like that. Your drawings are amazing!**

 **You guys are all awesome for supporting me, I keep getting positive reviews and messages regarding the story and it's all just marvelous. You guys have a rockin' day!**

 **(I do not own The Amazing World of Gumball. All rights belong to Ben Bocquelet, the staff, Cartoon Network, and other respective owners.)**

 _-Elmore Graveyard, September 22nd, 2013, 12:05 PM-_

Carrie just loved dreary, rainy days and where better to spend such an abysmal afternoon then at the graveyard, of course! Today was a rather special day for her as her mother had dropped by from the realm of the dead to talk to her and her father. The three of them exchanged some lighthearted stories with one another and when Carrie brought up the trip to Transylvania, her mom became even more intrigued, leading to her parents talking about past experiences long after the trip was discussed. She got to learn a few new stories about her mom that she didn't know of and it was honestly a wonderful thing to know, seeing as she rarely got to see her.

Once her mother returned to the Underworld, Vlad told his daughter that he was off to conduct some paranormal business with an old colleague of his and left through the mirror shortly after, wishing his daughter a good evening. Knowing that he could be gone for about a day or so, Carrie decided to take the time to relax and do some things she personally enjoyed. Before the rain clouds settled in this afternoon, the little ghost girl had travelled throughout Elmore, pulling ghostly pranks on several classmates that she hadn't talked to in a while and hanging out at the record store to listen to some new tunes, one of her favorite bands being _Broken Asylum_ , an emerging heavy metal group that had caught her attention and earned its place as one of her favorites.

When the storm finally began to bring in a light shower, Carrie decided to go to her favorite hangout spot and reflect on the morning's events. One such event being the message she received from Darwin and how it related to Gumball and Teri. When he asked if he could meet up with her some time soon, she politely declined, having got the message just after her mom popped in to say hello and just before she put the phone away, Darwin quickly responded with a request that she didn't see coming,

 _Darwin: okay, I see that you're busy, but before you go, I need to ask you something else._

 _Carrie: K?_

 _Darwin: I had a conversation with Anais this morning and she told me that she believes the anomalies are somehow connected with Gumball and Teri, kind of like you said last Friday. She wants to start looking into these matters and I was wondering if you would like to join our investigation team?_

 _Carrie: Certainly! If there's any way I can help, I'd be glad to pitch in. Are you guys going to confront our two enigmatic friends about it?_

 _Darwin: Yeah, I will. It's just that, Anais doesn't think either of them are going to be cooperative and that I'd have to keep my eye on them._

 _Carrie: So, basically spy on them._

 _Darwin: I really don't want to go to such lengths, I mean he's my brother and Teri's a friend and it just feels so dishonest, but I really just want to make sure that they're both okay._

 _Carrie: I know how you feel and I don't like it either, I mean I spy on people for fun, but I won't do anything that's harmful, but if it helps, I can confront either of them myself and get to the bottom of this._

 _Darwin: For real!? Thank you so much! I love you!_

 _Carrie: Yeah, don't worry about it, I know how to talk to people and if I can just corner one of them, then getting them to spill the beans won't be difficult._

 _Darwin: You're not going to do anything spooky or terrifying are you?_

 _Carrie: No, no, no, but I am going to be very persistent._

 _Darwin: Whew! Once again, thank you! Oh yeah, before I forget, Anais' friends know about this too, just wanted to let you know._

 _Carrie: Thanks and it really is no big deal, really. Have a good day, see you on the bus tomorrow. I love you._

 _Darwin: Love you too and tell your parents I said hello!_

And that was how that conversation went. Now Carrie was figuring out how she wanted to approach the problem because Gumball and Teri were both very crafty with their escapes, most of which just involved events that went entirely in their favor. She learned from her boyfriend that Gumball spent the night at Teri's house and was probably going to be there today as well. She could just visit them herself and ask them privately, but that could lead to disastrous consequences because if the two of them are together then they could just back each other up and avoid the issue altogether.

That was why catching one of them alone was a better option, although being pushy could also lead to a negative outcome and what's worse, if that plan fails then there was no chance in the Underworld that they would trust her ever again. She wanted answers, yes, but she also wanted to maintain their friendship too. She and Teri were alright together, though Teri wasn't exactly a fan of her lifestyle or her gloomy demeanor and Carrie could definitely go without her religious devotion to cleanliness. Then there was Gumball, who grown quite distant from her (and everyone else for that matter.) after Penny left and while he was doing better now, their friendship still wasn't quite on the same level as it used to be.

She cared about both of them and would be willing to put herself through a lot for the two, but breaking their friendship was something she was just not willing to do.

Then came the final option and that was of course following them. While Darwin was fundamentally opposed to this idea, believing that everyone's lives were their own and what they wanted to share was up to them, Carrie wasn't quite on the same track. Having been on this planet for 328 years now, she's seen a lot of things and understands the worst of Human and Bizarro behavior, so sneaking around and observing others whether they were aware of it or not wasn't too out of the ordinary for the ghost. She was willing to spy on either Gumball and/or Teri, but only for the sake of finding out what's really going on. She would never want to bring any harm to them and anything she saw or heard that she deemed useless or private would be kept to herself.

Alas she had a lot of methods to pick and they all had their downsides that she wasn't particularly looking forward to dealing with. Then again, they're the ones that are keeping important information from them, information that involves the deaths of three people and multiple cases of destruction and when things like that take center stage, being elusive just makes things worse for the both of them. In all honesty, Carrie could care less whether or not the secret they're hiding is so terrifying, she couldn't believe that those two would have the gall to decide that hiding such terrible things, things that left them both injured, was a form of protection.

While thinking about this, Carrie's anger had grown to such an extent that it was visible in the form of her telekinesis getting out of hand and pulling numerous tombstones from their foundations, dangling them in the air as though they were being operated by invisible strings. This went unnoticed by her, until a ghoul resting in one of the neighboring grave sites popped out from his private burial and began shouting at her,

"Hey! Could you put that back please! It's already bad enough no one knew me well in life, I don't want my family members to stop visiting because my name isn't here either." the bony, rotting cemetery sleeper was shaking a fist at the surprised emo spirit.

"Huh? Oop, my bad, I was just going through some- Hey, wait a minute! You're gravestone just reads "unknown soldier remains.", you mud brain!" she huffed, allowing the granite stone pieces to fall back in their places.

Baffled, the talking corpse rotated his partly flesh-covered skull and peered at the grave marker, seeing that she was indeed correct. A crossed expression formed on his sagging, green rotten features and he began to tunnel back into the earth, grumbling to himself,

"Damn, Reggie! Rotten cemetery keeper must have switched them again! I'll teach him to prank me once Halloween rolls around, yeah, I'll switch his-!" he was already reburied before Carrie could hear the rest of his angry spiel, and honestly could care less.

Resting back on the cross-shaped tombstone she particularly admired, Carrie began wondering about other depressing things that didn't make her too angry. She figured that the things she's been sensing as of late must be spiritual in some sense and thus, may have some connection to the Underworld. Maybe she could journey down there herself or perhaps ask someone who's already dead to look up any info. regarding any possible rogue spirits that are making appearances in Elmore. She thought that was a good idea, but then something else rang in her memory and caused her to wonder. On the day these things started happening, she talked to Gumball on the bus and then he asked her about-

Suddenly her senses began picking up on something and it was approaching her general vicinity very quickly. It was very familiar and when she focused on it, she began to realize it was coming right this way! Moving from her resting position, the big headed ghost floated over to the fence, close to where the entrance to the graveyard was and phased through the bars themselves. She was certain that whatever was coming this way was running along the sidewalk and was going to bump into her within a few seconds.

She was right and when she set her sights on the concrete pathway in front of her, something came bounding around the corner and shot right towards her at the same speed a fleeing streetcar would. It came so fast, however, that whoever it was that was running barely saw her in time before they threw up a single arm to protect their face before trying to skid to a halt. The running person passed right through her and continued to skid on their feet until a noticeable black trail formed on the sidewalk and the smell of bacon could be detected, not by Carrie of course.

Turning around to see the figure who had stopped after passing through her, Carrie spotted a large blue head, a grey scythe placed over his shoulder and some cat-like features, like pointed ears and a fluffy, blue tail,

"Gumball!" Carrie gasped in disbelief.

Gumball seemed to stiffen up right away and all the color drained from his body. He knew that voice and while it took him a second to register the fact that he just went right _through_ someone, it became evidently clear as to who he just bumped into. And to be frank, he couldn't have ran into (literally) a more challenging person to deal with.

His first instinct was to run away, but she already saw him, with his scythe too, and given that she's the one who gave him the scythe, he couldn't just play it off as a figment of her imagination. This was really bad, so he was going to have to fib his way out of this one. Trying desperately to return some of the color to his sunken face, Gumball rolled his shoulders and slowly turned around to face Carrie, his face already filled with fake disbelief,

"Oh, h-hey Carrie, I was, uh, just running through here and, uh,... I didn't know you liked hanging out at graveyards!" okay that was really bad and he already braced himself for what was obviously going to follow.

Carrie's own disbelief was very prominent in her simple features as she went from genuine surprise, to a complete blank, and then to confusion mixed with anger as she pointed towards the graveyard entrance,

"Of course, I like hanging out here! Are you seriously trying to lie to me now, you know that I gave you that scythe, right! Did you think I wouldn't be able to sense it? Did you know that I could sense it every single time you brought it to school! Heck, that's not all I've been sensing as of lately, the strange anomalies, like the one that occurred in your neighborhood nearly a month ago, the one in the park the following day, the one on the bridge and don't think that I don't know Teri's in on this too, I can sense the strange magic in her bag as well!" she wasn't holding back and Gumball honestly could not believe that he'd been so stupid to believe that Carrie couldn't sense any of this.

"Gumball, I know that you and Teri have been up to something for quite a while now, so I'm asking you right now, what is going on?" she folded her arms across her chest and set a stern look upon him, patiently awaiting an answer.

Gumball's fake expression faltered, of course she knew and there was no way for either of them to back out of this now because he was too dumb to think of another route to get to the landfill. To make things more dire, he didn't have time for this, the Nephilim was going to appear soon and he couldn't risk getting anyone else involved. Turning around, Gumball began to walk away deciding it was best to worry about this situation later,

"Look, I know this all appears like some kind of conspiracy, but I'll talk to you later because right now is not a good t-HEY! WHAT THE WHAT!?" he shouted in surprise as he was suddenly lifted from the ground by an invisible force.

Dangling in the air now, Gumball helplessly kicked his legs and tried to return to the ground, but found that it was useless. After stopping Gumball recognized this particular move forcing him to turn his head around and he saw that this was in fact Carrie's doing. Holding him in place, Carrie's expression remained stoic, but looking into her eye, he could see that she was not intending to let him go,

Carrie, let me go! I don't have time for this-!" he protested, still trying desperately to free himself.

However, the response that came immediately after forced him to stop struggling and he heard her cry out,

"No more running! You're going to answer my questions and I'm not going to drop you unless you promise me that you'll do so." her voice was something terrifying and held an authoritative tone that could only be matched by a parent.

But there was something else to it. Gumball didn't notice it at first, but after taking a closer look at her, Gumball could see sadness. It was the same sadness that came with betrayal, a betrayal between two people who've trusted each other at some point and was slowly wearing away at them deep inside with every misdeed they did.

This was confirmed when Gumball felt his face softened up, causing Carrie to take notice and she too eventually broke the cold facade she was projecting at him,

"Gumball, please. I know what you think that what you're doing is right, but everyone is worried about you and Teri. You both sneak off often and when you return, you're full of injuries and it's just…" she trailed off, she was on the verge of breaking down and sobbing.

Seeing this, the sight of Carrie struggling to hold back her tears sent waves of guilt tearing through Gumball and the blue cat boy was almost brought to the same state as she was in. Putting himself in her shoes, metaphorically speaking, he too would be very upset if he saw any of his friends disappearing and returning every day with injuries that are only briefly explained, but never actually hinting as to why they always willingly show up to the places that kept leading them to harm. He and Teri had gotten it in their heads that the reason they couldn't tell anyone was because it was their burden to bear and that not exposing anyone to the terrors they faced would somehow keep the peace.

But with people like Carrie, who could see deeper into these things, anything out of place was just going to lead to more questions and when they couldn't figure these things out, it would only cause more stress.

He knew this all too well now and he already felt any resistance that was keeping him from speaking melt away the more Carrie spoke,

"... I just can't stand it, I don't want to see you guys get hurt any more and the fact that you're lying about it… it just hurts me so much more than anything could if I were alive." she cried, she hadn't released her hold on him, but it was clearly obvious that she was brought into a very vulnerable state.

There was no reason for Gumball to lie to her now, especially since she still held him captive, and with a sigh of defeat, Gumball whispered,

"Alright... I won't run." he looked at her as her head snapped up to see if he was being honest,

"I promise." he added in, hoping that she wouldn't take his word as a mere excuse.

There was an understandable moment of hesitation within the incorporeal classmate of his, she was really wondering if she should trust his word and when thinking rationally, she knew that she had him in a bind, so there wasn't much he could do. Wiping the tears from her eyes, Carrie slowly set him down and when his feet finally touched the ground, Carrie kept a close eye on him, keeping track of any movement that could indicate treachery. To her relief, he didn't run and instead motioned for her to follow him,

"I'm sorry for lying to you and everyone else, but we need to go right now. I'll explain everything on the way." he stated, already getting into a running position.

Seeing his earnesty, Carrie acknowledged him with an affirmative nod, quickly tossing her bangs a little as she moved next to him,

"Okay and you'd better tell me everything." she said, her tone forgiving, but also sharp. She was still upset with him, but she was glad he was being cooperative.

Gumball managed a quick nod along with a smirk and without another moment's hesitation, he took off with Carrie at his side. Activating his scythe again, Gumball felt his speed increase and the buildings all around him began to blur as he shot by. Not quite used to this speed increase, Carrie accelerated as well until she was keeping up with the speedy feline. Being a spirit not bound by the physics of this mortal plane had its perks, like being immune to the forces of gravity and air resistance. Once they were maintaining a steady pace, Carrie began to start asking,

"So that scythe of yours is allowing you to do this?" she was pointing at the glowing rune etched into the blade.

Gumball nodded and hopped over a car that had stopped at an intersection, clearing the vehicle with ease and replying once he landed,

"Pretty much. It draws out energy from my body and amplifies it so I can run faster and block heavy strikes as well as burn anything, though that's when it's at one hundred percent." he explained, cringing at the memory on how he figured that out.

Carrie seemed quite impressed, not with the thing's power, she already knew it was magic to begin with, but at how quickly Gumball was coming to understand it. She didn't think that Gumball could be so adept with using magic, given his shaky track record with his usage of dark spells and that one adventure with Mrs. Jotenheim that Darwin had told her about. Then again, spells were very hard to master whereas enchanted objects could be wielded by less talented individuals, as long as they had particularly strong souls.

Another question came to mind and after they weaved their way through multiple alleys and streets, making turns so sharp that most automobiles would be reduced to rubble after losing control,

"So what have you been using it for then?" she asked casually, not concerning herself with physical obstacles that were otherwise a major deal for her travelling companion.

Gumball kept his eye out for a certain overpass that will take them directly to the city dump while he answered the friendly spirit's question,

"To fight the Nephilim." he answered simply before continuing on when he felt a follow up question already forming on Carrie's lips,

"The presences you were describing, the random acts of destruction, the mysterious deaths, the blackouts, all that was caused by invisible giants that are trying to destroy this place and Teri, Rob, and moi, have been dealing with them for the past month now."

A look of realization and clarity was ever so present on the ghost's normally stoic face, it all made sense to her now. It was still bizarre, definitely no arguments there, to hear about this coming from Gumball of all people, for she herself even believed that the ancient giants were just a myth, but given all that's happened recently, it wasn't unlikely. Also, who the heck was Rob? Was he that nemesis Darwin mentioned a couple times back before last Summer started?

With all that being pushed aside, Carrie needed to know what was happening in the present,

"Okay, so why are we heading to the Landfill then? Is there a Nephilim appearing there?" she asked, following Gumball as he leapt up to an overpass that pointed them in the direction of the city dump.

Landing on both feet and taking off again, Gumball focused on getting to Elmore's trash heap with his ghostly partner following close behind,

"Yes, all three of us can spot the Nephilim in our sleep and our dreams show us where they're going to appear, which is usually within a short span of time." he spoke as though this were a normal thing and completely ignored how bizarre it actually sounded.

Carrie was able to accept this with ease and just decided to move onto the next step in helping her friend out,

"So how about I just teleport us over there then, instead of having us run all the way over and waste valuable time and energy. I mean you did say that your scythe fed off your own energy, correct?" she suggested.

This caused Gumball to come to a screeching halt and he turned to the little spirit who also stopped just short of him,

"Oh yeah, I totally forgot you could do that and also, good point." he remarked, dumbfounded.

With the matter being decided on, Carrie drifted on over and grabbed Gumball by the hand. Closing her eyes and concentrating, both the ghost and the cat vanished with an audible _Snap!_ All that remained was an empty street that continued to gather rain and was becoming ever so reflective as the falling drops of water began to come down with more force.

Appearing instantaneously in front of the city's largest trash heap and home the Rexes, Carrie and Gumball peered into the gate that lead into such a foul place. The stench that flowed from the fenced-in area was overwhelming and repugnant, causing Gumball to gag a little. This was made even worse with the rain causing most of the trash to become even soggier and producing a mustier, more rancid smell. This brought Gumball back to the time when both he and Teri came here to fight a Nephilim that they both dreamed about and while getting Teri to actually _enter_ the place (she was insistent that she circle around from above and only provide cover when was necessary.) was half the battle, going in there to find absolutely nothing was absolutely infuriating.

Now he was back here again, this time with Carrie and this place still looked just as foreboding as he remembered. He checked the clock on his phone and saw that it was two minutes past his predicted time for the Nephilim's arrival, so they should head in right away. There were two threats present within this lot and those were: The Nephilim, which could do a number of horrible things that he was currently unaware of and then there were the T-rexes that lived here, both Tina and her father, Mr. Rex, both of which were very territorial and did not appreciate trespassers.

It made Gumball wonder who actually worked in the dump, seeing as the two occupants weren't very friendly towards outsiders? Were the workers given a free pass in exchange that the dinosaurs were left alone or did Mr. Rex himself work here? Maybe that's how he was able to afford Tina a proper education, though probably not much else, since she did say she had to scrounge around for food and other basic necessities.

Already making his way through the front entrance, Gumball headed towards the spot where he saw the Nephilim appear before he paused to tell Carrie something,

"Alright listen up, the Nephilim should be in here somewhere, but it's very dangerous, especially for people who can't see them." he explained, remembering that Carrie was new to this whole thing.

Another reason he didn't want to bring other people into this was due to the fact that those who couldn't see them, were more likely to get killed when compared to those who could. All it took was one touch and that would be it for those who were unaware. If someone he knew tried to help him out and wounded up getting killed, then he didn't know what he would be able to do with himself if something like that were to happen. He was already sad that there was nothing he could do for Marvin and such grief would magnify if it were a classmate or worse, a family member.

Which was why he was worried for Carrie in this case.

Flipping her bangs from her face, she seemed to be just as weary, but put on a brave face nonetheless,

"It'll be fine, even if I can't see them, I can still sense their presence." she replied with confidence.

Gumball still didn't feel too comfortable with this because of something else,

"Yeah, but the thing is, they can kill people who can't see them with one touch. Silver Twelve even told me that regular people couldn't even approach them at his lowest level, whatever that means." he explained, rubbing his forearm slightly as his ears drooped to the back of his head.

This was concerning for the seemingly immortal classmate of his, but given that she was already dead, this didn't bother her too much,

"I don't think that will be much of an issue and is that seriously the name of the first Nephilim you've encountered?" she asked, casting him an unusual glance.

Gumball shrugged and shook his head,

"I really don't know, most of them don't introduce themselves so I just give them nicknames and even the ones that do like to talk about themselves, I give it to them just t-!"

"SHHH!" Carrie hushed, placing a hand over his mouth to cut him off.

Seconds later, a roar so loud that it vibrated the ground Gumball stood on cut through the air and Gumball could already feel his fur standing on end. That was without a doubt, Mr. Rex and Gumball knew this because Tina's roar was not as loud or deep as the older dinosaur's. Following the roar was a series of heavy _thuds_ that shook the ground as well and were getting even louder as he drew closer.

Gumball and Carrie weren't exactly sure if he somehow detected them or was just patrolling his territory, but with Tina's very xenophobic father getting closer, neither of them were quite willing to figure out which one was the case. That's not all that was pressing onto them however, as Carrie began sense a very dark presence appearing nearby, a horrible being that felt so empty and so cold, it was as though a void were dropped into this very location. Gumball, on the other hand had it worse as he actually saw the crack open in the sky and release the formless body into the world, just like it had in his dream.

Facing threats on two fronts, Gumball was quick to formulate a plan given their strengths and weaknesses and turned to the very worried ghost right next to him,

"Carrie, take care of Mr. Rex, I'll take on the Nephilim." he couldn't have put it more simply.

Knowing she was definitely more than a match for Tina's father, Carrie figured the best way to take care of him would be to possess him and lead him somewhere else. However, her concerns then shifted to Gumball, he said that he and Teri have been fighting the Nephilim for roughly a month along with some other fellow, but if these things were so dangerous, how was he to fare by himself? One good look at him gave her the answer she needed, he definitely looked determined, but something about him seemed uncertain.

He was trembling.

At first she thought it was because of the rain, but upon closer inspection, it became painfully obvious that he was scared. While she wasn't sure how Teri had been able to help him during all his fights, she had her suspicions that the two were able to fight better as a pair. On a side note, where was Teri?

Ignoring the last question, Carrie moved closer to make sure the blue scythe wielder was okay,

"Are you sure that you're going to be alright?" she asked, another roar from Mr. Rex causing both of them to jump. He was definitely close by and getting closer.

Having already felt this kind of dismay before facing the Nephilim, Gumball was able to look at the spectral being in the face and give a self-assured nod,

"Yeah… should be no problem, but seriously, keep your distance, I don't know what that monster is capable of." he gulped before turning about and racing towards the threat that had dropped out of the sky,

"Good luck!" he shouted back with a single wave of the hand.

Carrie was fairly certain that there was nothing for _her_ to worry about (maybe being an immortal ghost for so long has blinded her of caution.), she was still more or less worried about Gumball's safety. She knew that the prehistoric owner of the city's largest rubbish heap was going to have to be dealt with, for him being here was not only a danger for Gumball, but also himself as well, if Gumball's words about the Nephilim's power was to be trusted. Moreover, she knew how she could solve one issue and help Gumball with another, so she made a promise before she left,

"As soon as I'm done, I'll come back and help in any way I can!" she saw his running figure toss her another wave, indicating that he heard her. Though, whether he wants her help or not was another matter altogether.

With that, the transparent school girl shot off in the opposite direction and vanished behind a pile of refuse.

Rounding several garbage heaps comprising of discarded household items, kitchen waste, tattered clothes and so many other interesting objects left to rot, Gumball scanned the open lot that divided the piles and allowed his feet to carry him forward, further into the landfill. The rain was coming down harder now and Gumball was completely soaked by this point, his fur a matted mess that clumped together in soggy tangles while his shirt and gym shorts clung to his body like a second skin. While the cold was uncomfortable, Gumball was actually glad for it because it kept him alert and given the current situation he was throwing himself into, he needed to have his guard up at all times.

He was getting closer to the spot where the Nephilim had supposedly landed, his dream sense giving him deja vu as he wandered amidst the garbage, his feet making small splashes in the puddles that formed amongst the muddy ground and his scythe's blade raised ever so wearily above his head, the deadly edge already dripping as rainwater ran along in steady streams. He didn't activate it yet, preferring to do so once he had a visual of the target and would prefer not to charge in wildly without a plan. He also felt slightly uneased by the fact that he hadn't told any of his trusted colleagues about this, their ignorance to the situation meant no one would come for him if he were injured and with that realization said in mind, Gumball felt that he should have at least sent Rob a text before he departed.

He could not afford any mistakes, many lives depended on his actions here and he was going to see to it that the monster never left this place alive. He was going to prove to everyone who trusted him that he could do this and that all his hard work was going to pay off. Ever since Penny left, he always deemed himself a screw-up and thought very lowly of himself, but at least, he had a chance to show himself that this wasn't the case.

A few careful strides later and he was already upon the landing spot he dreamed about. Taking a moment to scan the area, Gumball didn't spot anything right away or rather, anything out of the ordinary. Keeping to the piles of garbage, Gumball sidled along and tried to remain out of sight, his ears were listening in on any possible disturbance that would alert him to the presence of a monster. In the background, Mr. Rex's roars were ceased and Gumball presumed that meant Carrie had taken care of the situation.

Something shot by and Gumball jumped back a few feet, his scythe already activating as he desperately got ready to defend himself. He was already on edge when he got here and the unknown object quickly triggered an adrenaline rush within the boy. Whatever moved was incredibly small and after tracking it through the rain, Gumball was surprised to see it was only a black swallowtail butterfly.

The little thing was fluttering about lightly on its wide, angular wings and Gumball wondered what such a delicate little thing would be doing here. While it was surprising, Gumball lowered his scythe and eased up a little, feeling slightly foolish for freaking out over an insect. However, he dropped his guard too soon as a voice rang out behind him, calling his name and alerting the boy to whomever it was,

"There you are, Gumball!"

The person speaking sounded female and at first he was lead to believe that Carrie had returned, but was caught off by how sweet the voice had sounded. It definitely wasn't Carrie's, but it did sound eerily familiar. It sounded like someone he hadn't heard from in quite a while and a sudden wave of nostalgia washed over him.

All these suspicions were answered the moment he turned around and when he saw who it was, he felt his jaw drop while his eyes dilated in a comical fashion. Standing there in the midst of the trash, in a small muddy clearing with all the rain falling around her and looking directly at him with beautiful brown eyes, was Penny Fitgerald. Anything Gumball felt at the moment had completely vanished in an instant, he neither felt the cold of the rain nor did he even register his own rapid heartbeat because all he could do was stare in utter shock and disbelief as he tried to process how it was that he was seeing his ex-girlfriend who moved away nearly four months ago.

He kept his eyes wide open, fearing that blinking would make the scene vanish entirely or to be more specific, the yellow, shape-shifting fairy that used to be his former love and it mattered very little to him how much pain his eyes were in. yet, as the seconds slowly ticked by, she remained where she was, still staring at him while smiling ever so fondly while her glowing form continued to get drenched in the constant downpour. She also spoke to him, using his name too and the voice that came from her was without a doubt her own, instilling the further fact that she was indeed standing right there.

Yet, as much Gumball wanted to believe that this was true and that he was seeing someone he once cared for so deeply, something was off. While being overwhelmed with joy and shock, there was a little voice echoing in the back of his head that something about her being here was wrong. If she was back then why wasn't he alerted, sure he hadn't made any attempt to connect with her over the web or anything, but she was still connected to many people here, so someone would have dropped by to tell him. And more importantly, if she were visiting in secret, what on Earth would she be doing in the Elmore landfill of all places.

Then it occurred to him all at once, in his dream he saw that the Nephilim was amorphous in shape, a living silver goo that fell from the sky. If he were to draw any conclusions based on what he'd seen, he could say that it's very possible that the Nephilim was a shapeshifter. Despite how much he wanted to believe it to be, he knew that the Penny Fitzgerald he was staring at was not actually her: It was the Nephilim in disguise!

Not quite sure why it was taking the form of Penny, Gumball was brought back into reality and slowly took up a defensive stance, sending a skeptical glare in Penny's, or rather the Nephilim's, direction,

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" he asked in a tone that was calm, but on the verge of breaking.

Upon asking the question, Penny's charming smile and radiant look slowly faded and was replaced by a sneer that curled on her lips and a playful fire was lit in her eyes,

"I must say, my darling, you were always slow when we were together, but I guess four months apart must have sharpened your better judgement." she remarked, her tone laced with condescension before she added in,

"Well not by a lot because you chose to fight me on your own." her smile widened as her eyes flashed menacingly.

Gumball has just about had it at this point and with the confirmation that this was indeed a Nephilim, he shot forward with his scythe already curved back for a powerful swing. Aiming directly for the neck of his ex's sinister copy, the charging feline swung as hard as he could the moment the distance between them was closed. However, his attack was blocked simply by Nephilim Penny's forearm, causing a cascade of sparks to leap forth from the contact and Gumball could see that her arm had changed from yellow to a hardened steel, effectively preventing any harm to the limb.

Right before his very eyes, Penny's grin faded and she began to change in shape and size. Her form lost its glow and bright yellow, becoming darker until it was brown, bumpy and hardened like a peanut shell, her antlers, being thin and delicate like tree branches grew until they were thicker and more moose-like, and her size increased, becoming broader and taller than Penny already was. Eventually, Gumball found himself locking eyes with Patrick Fitzgerald, Penny's father, as he reeled back a meaty hand and curled it into a fist,

"I always knew you were a danger to my daughter, that's what made it so easy for us to move away when we got the CHANCE!" he launched his fist right into a surprised Gumball's gut and sent the winded boy flying into a nearby trash pile.

His impact with the trash heap sent debris flying every which direction as the kid was buried into the rubbish and a hard _oof!_ leapt from the kittens lips as he felt his back strike something hard. The punch to the stomach definitely hurt, but what stung a bit more was the monster's words. It brought back certain memories concerning Penny's father and his distrust towards him. After he lost his job and transferred overseas, taking his family with him, Gumball secretly blamed himself for the family's quick decision to leave and what the Nephilim said brought back another wave of sadness.

He knew that their moving away wasn't his fault though, Patrick's construction business was very small and when it was bought out by another company, he understood why they had to leave. He wasn't sure how the Nephilim was able to know about this, but he was obviously just trying to get into his head and he knew that keeping a stable concentration was the only he was going to be able to stand up to the beast. With his determination returning quickly, Gumball felt the fire being stoked within and was able to lift himself up, clearing the bits and pieces of human wreckage off as he began to work his way down to the bottom of the pile.

When he did eventually reach the bottom, he was given very little warning when the Nephilim struck a second time, barely catching the fist of the Patrick copy before it connected with his head. The force of the impact combined with the monster's charge caused Gumball to slide to the side and he struggled to keep from breaking his stance. All the while, Patrick continued to make snide remarks to the struggling boy,

"Actually now that I think about it, you're not a danger to her, you're just too weak to protect her! Heck, you can't even protect yourself, kid!" the Nephilim shouted with its voice sounding just like Pat's, causing Gumball to feel a little uneasy.

Realizing that he wasn't going to break away from him at such low power, Gumball begrudgingly increased the power outlet to fifty percent and pushed back against the Nephilim. The two immediately stopped moving, forcing the Nephilim's overly confident smile to vanish entirely and Gumball used the inner part of the blade to grab Patrick's fist as he forced it away with ease. Once he did just that, Patricks face was left wide open and Gumball reeled his free hand back, clenching it into a fist,

"SHUT THE HECK UP!" he shouted with rage.

He swung as hard as he could, putting his shoulder and back into the punch as it slammed into the monster's face. At fifty percent power, the force of the empowered pre-teens fist caused Patrick's face to completely cave in around the tiny fist and a small shockwave was sent to the other side. Soon after the shock wave came, the Nephilim's body was sent sailing several meters away, a pretty impressive feat for Gumball given how large it was, and crashed into the muddied ground with a heavy crunch followed a wet splash!

Drawing his power back down to a quarter again, Gumball wanted to revel in how awesome that was, but thought better of it, he wanted to take care of this guy first and celebrate afterwards. He may have sent the beast flying, but he was far from done and moments later, the shape-shifting Nephilim propped it's bulky arms behind its shoulders before flipping itself back onto its feet with an agility that should have been impossible for a person of Patrick's bulk. Upon reviving itself from Gumball's counterattack, Gumball got a good look at its face and saw that the outer shell was cracking, which was slightly vexing, seeing as he remembered its face being rather flexible when he punched it.

Very slowly, pieces and shards fell from the anthropomorphic peanut's face and eventually Gumball was able to see the monster's face, or it's lack of one he should say, seeing as it was only a skull that was staring back at him. While the sight was indeed gruesome to behold, having gotten to know Penny's father somewhat and developing some respect for the overprotective father, Gumball just bared his fangs, hissed, and began circling around the monster with his weapon at the ready.

The Nephilim didn't attack right away and just continued to berate the defensive kitten,

"Oh how hurt do you think the others will be when they find that you can so easily hurt Penny and her relatives. You truly are a monster!" the faceless opponent continued to speak in Patrick's voice, further enraging Gumball.

Pointing an accusing finger towards the form changing monstrosity, Gumball shot back another snide comeback,

"Impersonating those people is an insult, you creep! If you think you're scaring me, then you're sorely mistaken, cheapskate! Now why don't you drop the disguise and tell me why you're here! Are you trying to avenge someone too because trust me, I can keep this revenge plot going as long as you guys are constantly lining up!" he was trying to appear composed, hoping it would somehow intimidate it as well as give him a little info too.

The Nephilim changed once again, becoming smaller and slimmer in build, until it finally resembled… his mom! With a wicked smile painted across her cat-like features, the older cat woman crouched down and lunged towards him. The smaller cat boy yelped in surprise when he saw how fast she was moving and given how terrifying his mom really was, he couldn't help but go on the defensive as a flurry of strikes and kicks began bouncing off his scythe. He kept backing up, trying to keep his distance from the speedy monster, but her tenacity and lightning quick strikes allowed her to keep up with him.

Unable to get any strikes in, Gumball continued to deflect every one of the Nephilim's attacks as they came close to landing on his body,

"I'm usually not one for sharing classified intel, but seeing as you're on the verge of death, I may as well tell you why I'm here." she stated while trying to tear his throat out with her claws. With a powerful palm-heel strike, she forced Gumball's scythe above his head before planting a kick to his stomach and sending him flying.

Once he landed on his back, Gumball got up and saw her slowly approaching from afar, the claws on her right hand extending until four, three foot long blades stuck out from her fingers. She continued to speak while wiggling her fingers, causing said claws to gleam as they danced about the air,

"I was sent here by Babyloth high command to locate the traitor, Uriel, and execute him for abandoning his post as well as disobeying his orders." she announced, still walking towards Gumball.

Picking up a metal pipe laying by his feet (given its shape and size, it was probably attached to a road sign at some point.), Gumball held two weapons in his hands now and got ready for any sudden strikes that were to come. He knew the metal pipe on its own was useless against the Nephilim, but he felt as though he could use it for something. Keeping his focus on the Nephilim, Gumball pointed out the obvious fate of the Sun king and his sun throne,

"Well, hate to break it to you, but all three of us took care of that _little_ problem when it first came here. I know it's frustrating when someone does your job for you, but at least you can report back to president Nimrod or whoever it is you follow, and take a coffee break. Now why don't you scram before you're punished for loitering!" he brandished his scythe as a menacing means of highlighting the punishment aspect of his warning.

However, the thing that wore his mom's face did not seem interested at what he had to say, regarding him with little concern as it lowered its claws to its side,

"Oh, you're quite the assumptious little vermin, are you! You know I can read into your fears and from your past terrors, I can already see that you've fought and triumphed over Uriel, just as you have against all of our forces in the past. Which is why I was given a secondary objective by the president himself…"

Without warning, the deceptive Nephilim raised its other hand and the appendage shot outwards towards Gumball, stretching impossibly as it drew closer before grabbing onto the pipe Gumball raised just in time and wrenching him off his feet. As Gumball was pulled even closer to the monster, he could already see it preparing to skewer him with her claws and was flashed with a toothy grin filled with pearly white fangs. The Nicole monster was nearly shouting with delight as Gumball was brought even closer,

"...to eliminate the local defenders as well as the rest of the filthy abominations that inhabit this place!"

Seeing the end of the line hanging at the tips of her claws, Gumball acted quickly and let go of the metal pipe he had been thoughtful in grabbing. Allowing his momentum to carry him forward, Gumball rolled through the mud right beside his mother's copycat and narrowly avoided a close call. Completely caught off guard by the surprise stunt Gumball had pulled, the Nephilim dropped the pipe that was already melting in her hand ( **A/N: I mentioned in an earlier chapter that non-enchanted objects usually melt when they come in contact with the Nephilim's skin, except the ground that is. It also depends on their power level, which is usually raised when dealing with people who can see them.** ) and whipped around with her claws raised in preparation to deal with the small child.

Unfortunately for her, the moment she spun around, Gumball had utilized his increased speed and was already closing in with a swipe. Aiming directly at its mid-section, Gumball felt the curved blade tear right through her without much difficulty and the disturbing image of his mom being cleaved in two unfolded before his very eyes. The upper half of the monster dropped straight to mucky ground and was quickly followed by its lower half, which crumpled at the knees before setting into the mud.

What made the sight even more gruesome was the fact that the Nephilim had replicated his mother's internal organs, which had spilled out in a shower of blood upon being bisected and without even realizing it, Gumball had cupped a hand over his mouth as he froze up in terror. Not only did this creature terrorize him by taking the form of people he knew and someone he loved very dearly, but even upon defeating it had it managed to scar him with the sight of his mother's mangled form. Still set upon by the sight, Gumball's breathing rate began to increase as well as his heart rate and he began to feel a wave of nausea begin to rise within his bowels, causing him to drop to his knees.

He knew that this wasn't his mom that he destroyed, but he still couldn't stop the terror from spreading throughout,

" _It's just an illusion! It's just an illusion! It's just an illusion! It's just a-!"_ he thought in desperation, trying to reassure himself, but said thoughts were interrupted by someone speaking.

Looking around he saw no one except the Nephilim's remains in front of him, except the monster wasn't dead and was instead raising its head while chuckling,

"Get used to this." it said, his mom's dark eyes now white as though she were now dead,

"You won't be able to save everyone, not from what's really coming!" her voice was ragged, as though she were in excruciating pain.

Jumping up from his knees, Gumball began to back away from the talking cadaver in front of him, he was still full of fear and he needed to recompose himself if he were to use his scythe again. He began to search for his resolve, he needed to burn this thing away completely and rid Elmore of this nightmare. He can't listen to it anymore and he couldn't believe in any of the things it was saying, they've been through a lot and survived, whatever else was coming could be dealt with.

"Elmore is doomed." said a small girl from behind.

"You're not capable of saving us." an older man followed, his tone grim.

"You'll let us all down." a high-pitched voice cracked from the side.

Taking in all these newcomers, Gumball spun around and saw the rest of his family there as well. However, just like his mother, they were all horribly mutilated and deformed by terrible accidents. Anais was rotting from head to toe, exposing most of her internal organs, an ear was torn off, her orange dress was in tatters, and the look of despair was frozen upon her decaying face. His father was in a similar state, except that multiple areas were covered in oozing, yellow boils and his lower jaw was missing, making it a mystery as to how he was speaking. And then there was poor Darwin, whose scales were seared from his body, exposing all the muscles underneath as well as some cartilage and his legs were chopped off, forcing him to crawl with burnt flippers: his face was that of pure agony and suffering.

Gumball choked back a sob when he saw his family being presented to him like this and he could already feel the fear he was trying to repress resurging back in his mind. It was everything his worst nightmares could conjure up, no, it was the very thing he never wanted to see come to pass and that was the failure to protect his loved ones. One part of him even wanted to agree with the Nephilim, there was simply no way they could protect Elmore forever and this image could very well be a reality. Clutching his hands to his head, Gumball dropped to his knees again and tried to block out everything as the deathly apparitions of his family drew closer.

" _Stop it! Just stop it! Don't use my family like this!"_ Gumball thought despairingly to himself, hot tears running down his cheeks that were washed away by the rain.

This is by far the most terrifying Nephilim he ever faced and he wished that he wasn't facing this alone, he wished that Teri was here, dragging him to his feet and bringing him back to his senses. This Nephilim understood what he really feared and he wasn't even sure if he could handle this opponent anymore. He never should have gone alone and now he was being tortured by images of his family.

Opening his eyes once more, Gumball's vision was blurry from crying, but he could see the ghastly apparitions of his family members drawing closer, claws and fangs extending as they prepared to rip him to shreds. This monster was going to tear him apart by using his own demons to do so, such a coward! The more he thought about this monster's tricks, the more his emotions began to change. It wasn't fear, or regret, or dread, or despair that came flooding back in when he looked upon the twisted faces of his family members: it was fury!

Snatching up his scythe, Gumball was quick to stand up, grinding his teeth together and staring down every mutilated face that looked back at him with lifeless eyes. This monster was going to pay for daring to use his family's image against him, no, it was going to burn for daring to threaten his family and their future. With a hunger to see all these fakes vaporized, Gumball's desperation ignited the silver inferno and with a wild spin directed first at Richard, Gumball lopped off his large, deformed head.

The apparition fell to the ground after spraying blood from the exposed stump, just then Gumball turned to the Anais copy and with a few quick strokes, left the little thing writhing in pieces. Turning to the insulting image of Darwin's burnt, amputated body trying to claw at him, Gumball finished the job by driving the scythe blade straight through the center of the fish's body and allowed the fire to reduce him to ashes. With his scythe being turned on at full power, this whole ordeal happened within seconds and he then turned to the battered form of his mother, whose mouth was left open in shock.

Catching his breath and quelling his rage, Gumball lowered himself back to twenty five percent before delivering the final strike to the monster. Raising his scythe the same way a lumberjack would their axe, Gumball allowed the energy to rise up from his body and collect within the crescent blade itself. With all the blazing energy being pent up in such a small space, Gumball knew he had to release it and with a vertical swing down to the ground along with a roar from the wielder, a wave of grey fire shot out from the blade.

With the fire now being controlled by Gumball, the arc that was fired from the weapon was very smooth and concentrated, unlike the first two times where the fire was an uncontrollable torrent of energy that destroyed so much within its path, and when it met with the Nephilim, the silver crescent made a clean path straight through her, eliminating most of her body mass in the process. The wave itself smashed into a nearby trash pile, cutting straight into it and exploding in a brilliant orb of silver that sent burning debris flying about the place. Luckily the rain would take care of the flames and there was no danger of the fire spreading.

With only the sides of her upper torso remaining, the middle part completely vaporized by Gumball's strike, the two parts fell down and Gumball was left with only the heavy sound of rain and some thunder in the distance. Taking a moment to catch his breath, Gumball did not dare to look at the remains of the illusions he massacred and wondered if there was an effective way to beat this monster. He's cut it down multiple times now, but it still hasn't burned away yet and he was starting to worry about Carrie along with Mr. Rex because if the fight was taken all the way across this junkyard, then both of them could get caught in the crossfire.

As if on a que, the remains of the sliced up Nephilim apparitions formed into silver goo again and began to move towards the spot where the Nicole illusion was resting. Back in a battle stance, Gumball saw the silver muck collect together and take the form of Nicole once again, this time with her forearms and hands being replaced with sharp blades. Infuriated that the Nephilim insists on sullying his mother's image, Gumball charged the monster and met a barrage of double strikes with each sword arm.

The two blue cats went back and forth with each other, both slashing and dodging rapid strikes being put out by either opponent. While he was better able to keep up with the Nephilim, Gumball found it very difficult to land a solid strike on her, mainly due to the issue of her having an extra weapon to fight with and every time he would knock one blade away, another one would quickly take its place. Not long after the fight began, Gumball already sustained a few injuries and was already starting to feel the effects of using his power for too long. He figured he had about ten minutes left as long as he kept its current level, but given that he hasn't gained any real advantage yet, he may have to go one hundred and try to wipe her out at full strength.

Swiping again at her left blade, Gumball knocked the weapon aside and went for the kill, but the ambidextrous Nephilim parried his strike with ease. With their weapons locked, Gumball put his weight against his scythe and began to press down on Nephilim Nicole's right arm weapon. He spotted her raising her left weapon in an attempt to pierce his neck, but Gumball caught it just in the nick of time between his thumb and pointer finger.

Remaining in a deadlock, the two wrestled for a good minute before Gumball let loose another remark directed at the monster,

"You know mom, you should really eat a Snuckers bar because you're not you when you're hungry." he chuckled, though a bead of sweat ran down the side of his head.

The beast snarled in response and with a quick motion, disengaged her blades from Gumball's lock. Gumball raised his scythe at chest level to prevent any incoming attacks, but was caught off guard when his mother's look-alike sprang up in the air, twirling as she did so. Her tail shot outwards, elongating into a whip-like appendage that smacked Gumball upside the head, sending the small child skittering to the side and tripping over his own two feet. It wasn't too hard of a strike, but it did leave him a little dizzy and after a moment, he felt something warm running down the side of his head where the Nephilim's tail had struck him. Groaning, he noted to never aggravate a creature that resembled the hard working, supreme butt kicking member of the Watterson household with a lame joke and got up before the violent entity could launch another attack.

He spotted the shape-shifting creature dashing towards him with both of its blades extended out to the sides like a pair of very thin wings on some odd specimen as its eyes stared a bloody murder towards the recovering child. With only seconds to do something, Gumball decided his best option was to put a little distance between him and the fear mimicking Nephilim and come up with another strategy. He did so by leaping straight up into the air, feeling the already frigid slamming into his back as he propelled himself backwards and kept his eyes on the figure down below. Surprisingly the Nephilim did not leap after him and instead continued to keep an eye on him as it ran in the same direction he was flying in.

Realizing he wasn't in any danger until he reached the ground, Gumball began to jostle his mind space for any good ideas,

" _Okay, as soon as I land, she's definitely going to attack."_ he mentally concurred while also reminding himself that the Nephilim hasn't revealed its gender yet and shouldn't use gender specific pronouns to describe it,

" _There's no way to fight it at the level I'm at, I'll have to go full power and destroy it entirely with a concentrated blast. Hopefully that will do the trick and if something goes wrong, I'll only remain in that state for only ten seconds. That's it, no more than ten!"_ he gathered what he needed to do in his thoughts and began to increase the output as soon as he began descending.

Within the span of a second, he was at full power and the curved blade was coated with flaming tongues that shone like the moon. Getting a swing ready, Gumball felt the energy begin to gather at the deadly end of the shaft and was about ready to release it when he landed. Once he did so, it'll be at point blank range so he'll have to fire right away and destroy the Nephilim entirely: it was do or die time!

Descending like a wingless bird, Gumball's anticipation began to climb as he spotted the Nephilim getting even closer as the ground drew nearer and he could even see the whites of older cat's eyes as well as the gleam of its pointed teeth. Its blades were still leveled at its sides and looked like it was about to catch him in the deadliest embrace anyone could imagine. He counted the seconds in his head as he was about to touch the ground and he had four left when he was almost in range.

Three…

The Nephilim's blue fur switched to silver.

Two…

Its form began to melt and reshape itself into something else.

One…!

Looking directly at him with an innocent smile complimenting her cute, drawn on features was Teri.

As if a switch in his mind went off, Gumball halted his attack and the fire was snuffed out instantaneously. Why was this happening? Gumball knew this was a monster that could take the form of his worst fears and had no qualms with killing him along with everyone else in this town. So why was he preventing himself from attacking it and falling directly into its trap?!

Knowing he was in trouble and reacting only on instinct, the moment Gumball's feet touched the ground, he spun about, nearly tripping on himself in the process, and ran the opposite direction. Just as he managed a few steps, he felt something sharp and cold graze against his back, tearing through clothing and flesh alike. He was fortunate enough to have gained some distance from it in the first place and received only a shallow wound. However, it still burned like a wildfire and he could already feel blood start to soak into his shirt.

He turned his back on an enemy, how careless of him.

He heard the Nephilim cackle from behind, the voice was Teri's alright, but it definitely wasn't her laugh, and found that it was enjoying itself,

"Aw, what's the matter? You were so confident just a second ago and now your tail is showing! How embarrassing, weren't you trying to show me just how strong and capable you are?" she spoke in such a slow, malignant tone. She was using Teri's voice and her form to mock him, as well getting into his head to spread salt into the open wounds.

This was just cruel and disparaging to say in the least, Gumball could already feel his vision blurring from the tears that sprung from his rage. Humiliated and just about done with this creep's condescending words and mockery, Gumball pivoted on his heel and was already aiming for its head. He wanted to do anything to shut this thing up and decapitating it was the most cathartic method of doing so. He roared, using his full volume as he released his fury into one swing,

"STOP IT!"

Yet, when he saw her looking back at him with those big dark eyes, again, he slowed his advance, not by much, but just enough for the beast to brush him aside. He wasn't using any powers so it was rather easy for the Nephilim to deflect his advance and the upright cat simply stumbled off to the side, keeping out its reach. His face was contorted into an angry snarl, his eyebrows knitted tightly together and if his eyes could burn, then this paper replica would be kindling at this point.

The Nephilim regarded him with a playful look, a look that painfully matched Teri's cheerful expression, but with a modagram of malicious scrutiny,

"You must love her so much, that you wouldn't even dare to scratch her image." it teased, remaining where it stood, for it believed that no harm could come to it.

Still keeping his angered expression, Gumball wondered what the darn monstrosity could be going on about now,

"What?!" he snapped.

Ignoring his attitude, the bear-shaped Nephilim continued to pry into him, searching his feelings and drawing out the most obvious conclusion, even though he was unaware of it,

"Such a dull creature, the worst of fears are drawn out best when it involves those we love. From desires come our fears and you desire your family's safety, but with Teri it's not just protection you desire for her, you wish for her to respect you and for her to see you as reliable." the tone was very casual and while Gumball continued to get even more aggravated he lashed out defensively,

"I don't know what you're going on about! I don't…" he trailed off as something began to arise within his mind, something he either didn't understand or had been denying from the very start.

The Nephilim was right, he was in love with Teri. His reasoning for being out here in the first place was because he was thinking about Teri and he embarked on a dangerous journey just because he wanted to see her happy. He figured to himself that if he could finish this task while she practiced with her friends that he would be doing her a service and that she would come to appreciate him even more. What's more, she was always saving him every time he screwed up, so now he wanted to be the hero and do something just as great for her.

And reflecting back on all the little instances between them, he had in fact been falling for her, little by little until he was going out of his way to make sure that she was at her highest and that was his reason for doing the things he did. He did in fact, love Teri Pepakuma and now that realization was starting to invade his mind with regrets. In his supposed "selfless" act, he'd duped himself into believing that he was going to be her hero when in fact, he was just doing this for himself as well and hadn't even factored Teri's feelings into the matter.

Without her assistance, he ran into Carrie, revealed the truth to her, and jumped into a fight he had no hopes of winning in the first place. He had been a fool. This revelation managed to put everything else on hold as he tried to grasp these feelings,

"...I… I'm not sure what… oh man!" he gasped when he found that he could not deny his romantic feelings towards his paper classmate.

The Nephilim seemed to sense his mental conclusion and a sinister chuckle parted from its thin lips, causing Gumball's head to snap up while his tormentor continued to rattle off what she knew,

"Love is a wonderful, yet terrible thing. It can draw people into doing something they'd otherwise never even attempt to do had they any second thoughts on the matter, but it can also lead people into making such irrational decisions." she paused to place two fingers against her chin as she began to think of something else,

"You know, I have people I love back at home as well, but at least I know where my boundaries lay-AAUUGGHH!" the Nephilim screamed as a wave of grey burned the right half of her body into nothing as it continued into another pile of trash before exploding.

Holding his scythe up, Gumball had delivered a grey fire wave at ten percent while she was speaking, he was no longer seething with rage, but he was still angry. At least the Nephilim helped clear his head of some issues he'd been having and he was glad that he knew of his feelings towards Teri. It had been bugging him a lot as of late, but at least he understood now and could move on with his objective,

"First off, I hate all you Nephilim talkers who just monologue about things I already know and second, I'd like to thank you for clearing some things up for me. I was always worried that I may have been nothing but a loser and a reckless child and I still am a bit, but at least, I know where to start improving." he looked back up at the charred, half being that was glaring at him with a single hate filled eye as it struggled to get itself upright,

"And yes, I do love Teri, but that doesn't excuse my actions today, so I'm going to win this battle and go back to tell her I'm sorry." he proudly declared, his confidence returning once again.

The first rune on his scythe glowed brighter as he prepared to face off again and the Nephilim seemed to shrink back in fear itself, as ironic as that may be. Before he could do anything however, his only opponent began to change again and began to grow larger, increasing in height and width. Soon the Nephilim was towering over the little kitten as well as several trash piles in the surrounding area,

"I don't care what you believe will happen, you have no chance of defeating us!" a mouth formed on the slightly humanoid mass that still kept changing, snarling at the boy,

"Especially me. I am Tartarforas and I will help my kin liberate this world from the likes of you and all the other demons that threaten to destroy it!" the creature's feminine voice had a harsh, dry tone now and when it let out a resounding roar, it's transformation was complete.

Standing at thirty five feet in height, was a living nightmare that broke Gumball's confidence and caused him to waver. Out of all the Nephilim he ever had the misfortune of encountering, the true form of this one was hideous and unsettling to look at. With the clouds bringing about shadows and blocking out the sun, it was difficult to see the thing in its entirety, but that was minor when it came to the fact that Tartarforas' body was already dark to begin with. Gumball managed to spot the silhouette of a human woman, hunched over and very thin as though famished. Her jet black torso was laced with numerous silver markings, some resembling ribs and her arms were covered in thorns of the same color. Her legs (if she had any.) were covered by a dark skirt draping over the ground that was made of hundreds of individual arms, writhing with clawed fingers that desperately grasped and reached out seemingly at nothing. It was as though her outfit was tailored by some sick fashion designer who gathered his materials from multiple cadavers.

Following her astounding metamorphosis, Gumball was already backing away from the thing that manifested before him and wasn't even sure where he was going to begin when it came time to confront her, especially when it looked like every part of her body could kill him. Her head was just as hideous as the rest of her, consisting of a cranium that was shrouded in messy, raven hair tipped with silver and a face so pale that it shone like a beacon against the shadow of her body. Her facial features were anything but charming, with a pair of dark circular eyes that possessed a single white light at the center that served as a pupil and a twisted mouth with only a few incisors that guarded a black hole. What made her face so unsettling for Gumball was the fact that it looked like a mask, a mask that was hiding something far more sinister.

Standing in her terrifying new form now, Tartarforas wasted no time in attacking and opened her disgusting mouth to release a torrent of black slime straight at the panicking cat boy. Already sensing the imminent danger he was in, Gumball dodged the tar-like spray by leaping backwards, as high as he could go and found himself landing upon a mountain of discarded items. Now that he had gained the high ground and some considerable distance from the giantess, Gumball considered his next course of action.

Seeing as she now possessed a ranged attack, Gumball was going to have to strike back with his own and considered decapitating the creature. He knew that such a move would only slow it down, but if it melted into a silver goo again, maybe he could hack at it with a hundred percent of his power until it was completely vaporized. He knew that it could take him a while, longer than he was willing to go at full power even, but the thing's gotta have a weakness somewhere and he was willing to completely burn himself out if it meant finding it.

His plans were brought to a screeching halt when Tartarforas began calling out to him,

"Don't even think that you can outrun me and my nightmares!" her voice rang out, almost like a hollow whisper.

Confused as to what she could referring to, he searched the place, finding nothing until a flash of lightning lit up the landfill and Gumball noticed a new terror making its way up the garbage pile he was on. At first he believed it to be a shadow creeping its way up the rubbage heap, but after squinting really hard, he could see that it wasn't a shadow as it was coming from the base of the Nephilim's skirt. Spawning from the black substance the Nephilim spewed all over the ground were thousands of little _things_ that crept their way up the trash hill and when another bolt of lightning tore its way across the sky, Gumball realized with terror what those things are: Spiders!

Gumball could already feel his skin crawling as the basket ball-sized eight-legged creepy crawlies swarmed over the debris pile, nearly covering everything in a squirming black sea of arachnids. With his instincts telling him to run, Gumball wanted to dash down the garbage mountain and out of the landfill, away from this horrid place and away from the Nephilim along with her legion of spiders. Unfortunately, despite how much his arachnophobia was trying to get his legs to carry him as far away in the opposite direction of the dangerous bugs, he remained firmly planted where he was and already began tracking the creatures, seeing which ones he should take out first.

The problem was: there were too many of them and given that their fangs and knife-shaped legs looked especially deadly, he wouldn't last long if he took them all on.

Realizing there is no way to beat them all, Gumball decided his best option was to retreat and find an opening somewhere that would allow him to effectively counter the monster. The first line of spiders were about ten feet below him and closing in very fast, their sharp little legs clanking against the various metal objects within the trash and their fangs were snapping together rather loudly, in stark contrast to the rumbling noise that was getting louder by the second. At first, Gumball believed this to be thunder, but he was quickly proven wrong when the ground began to shake and a deafening roar sounded shortly after,

RAAAUUUGGGHHHH!

Flinching at the tremendous sound that could rival aircraft engines, Gumball wondered if the Nephilim had conjured up another beast, but when he frantically panned his head in Tartarforas' direction, he could see her glancing about as though perplexed by the very sound he heard as well. Then in the next instant, the trash in front of him, as well as all the spiders on it, violently exploded, flinging rubble and spiders everywhere. As soon as the spiders were clear, Gumball was completely taken by surprise when he saw the thirty-five foot nightmare get pushed to the side by an invisible force shortly after.

The Nephilim crashed into another pile, completely toppling it as it was buried in all the soggy refuse and if that wasn't humiliating enough for a monster of its size, then Gumball didn't know how things could get any worse for her. Now as for what caused the strange spectacle, Gumball cast a glance opposite of Tartarforas' direction and spotted a very large T-rex standing in the muddy pathway he himself had come through. Seeing as the tyrant lizard king (according to the Greek language.) was at least twice Tina's size and had darker green skin than his seventh grade classmate, this was without a doubt Tina's dad and while he was glad that Tartarforas has been temporarily disabled, he was on the verge of another panic attack because he didn't want to deal with _two_ monsters when he was already having so much difficulty with one.

When he peered into the T-rex's eyes however, he saw that they were a glowing crimson rather than their usual dark yellow and a sense of relief washed over him all at once,

"Thanks for the assist, Carrie!" he called out to her from his high perch.

The large T-rex snorted in response, a fine mist billowing from its thin nostrils as it replied a deep voice much like its own, only raspier,

"Hmmph, No problem. I was going to make him go to sleep, but I heard shouting coming from this direction along with a few explosions and I couldn't stand aside while something may be wrong." she used the tiny claws in front to scratch a spot under her chin while she spoke.

Skating down the mountain of trash and rushing up to the possessed dinosaur, Gumball stopped a few feet short of its giant taloned feet,

"Thanks, but why did you bring Mr. Rex along? You could have left him in his den and came here yourself, you know." he asked, not sure how the lumbering bipedal lizard would be any use to the normally swift spirit, unless of course she wanted a lot of brute strength to back her up.

She didn't seem too offset by that question, however Gumball could see by the look in the T-rex's eyes that she was uncertain about something,

"Well, you see, when a being that is of the dead possesses the body of something that is living, several of our powers are amplified." she explained to the best of her abilities, mainly because she was worried Gumball might not understand.

This actually was perplexing to Gumball and the blue cat struggled to understand why that would make sense, but for the moment he was just glad she came to help, even though he told her to stay back. Also, there was the Nephilim they needed to deal with and time spent asking questions regarding the ghost's powers was time wasted in coming up with a plan. He was right in his concerns as the moment Carrie finished her explanation, the other spirit began to stir within its trashy burial.

Using his power to hop atop the T-rex, the powerful feline was given a better scope of the scenario unfolding before him as well as a better place to discuss strategy with his empowered companion,

"Alright, as awesome as that is, we're going to have to use it to take down Tartar sauce over there. Can you see her by the way?" he asked, wanting to make sure he understood his ally's strengths and weaknesses.

He felt the dinosaur nod its enormous head and Carrie responded using its voice,

"If you're talking about a thirty-five foot, hideous woman with an amazing fashion sense, then I think that qualifies as seeing her." a sarcastic laugh somehow managing to escape her.

Feeling glad for her ability to see the evil specter, Gumball began to relay what he knew about Tartarforas,

"Great! Her name is Tartarforas and she has the ability to change her form based on what you fear. I'm not sure how we can defeat her yet, but I think- LOOK OUT!" Gumball shrieked.

His explanation was cut short when a long, thorn covered arm shot out of the pile and straight towards the two of them. Startled, the possessed dinosaur took a step back before Carrie used her telekinesis to stop the approaching clawed hand from tearing into the T-rex's skull. The limb remained paused in mid-air as the claws curled and uncurled furiously, intent on ripping the two (technically three if you count in Tina's father, the unwilling participant.) to shreds.

While Carrie struggled to keep the limb in place, which was a first for her because there weren't many creatures on this planet that could put up such a struggle, the rest of Tartarforas' body emerged and she began to slink towards them, her glowing eyes piercing the two of them from her behind black and silver locks. Both of them could see the garbage that covered her already disintegrating as she joined up with her detained hand and Gumball could see a frown twisting upon her white mask. As if her seething glare plus her towering visage wasn't enough to cause an internal round of fright within the two, they were very startled to see the hand that Carrie was holding back began to start spewing a black substance that bubbled and encased the limb itself,

"Dark exorcism!" Tartarforas hissed.

The hand suddenly broke out of its psychic lock and continued on its path towards the occupied lizard, whom was frozen with terror. Gumball didn't know what this move was capable of, but given the fact that it used the word "Exorcism" and was aimed towards Carrie and the being she was controlling, it didn't take a genius to put two and two together. Gathering the energy for another slash, Gumball rushed forward until his scythe was clear of Mr. Rex's snout and fired off his third blazing crescent energy attack at the Nephilim.

The grey arc of energy cut a clean path through the arm and exploded at the giantess' shoulder, knocking her aside a little. Gumball was amazed at how quickly he was getting a handle on his weapons powers, prior to this fight he only fired off two of these attacks, once during his fight with Flakey Platter and then during his skirmish with the Uriel copy. Ever since he figured out how to control the scythe's energy, figuring out how to store and discharge it was all theoretical, but thanks to this encounter he was able to figure it out.

Tartarforas was temporarily knocked back, but that only served to buy him and Carrie a little time. Seeing as it broke out of Carrie's telekinetic hold and his own strikes didn't carry enough devastation to completely put her out of commission, they were going to have to hit her with something bigger. Turning about and checking the area for any helpful items, Gumball found a solution in the shape of a discarded dining room table.

"Carrie can you keep her distracted for a bit?" Gumball called down to the spirit possessing the prehistoric beast he was currently standing on.

He felt her nod a little and a growl could be heard,

"Probably, but she is very strong!" she was very nervous and her eyes remained locked on the entity that was nearly twice the size of Mr. Rex.

Gumball understood this and began to run down the male T-Rex's backside,

"Don't worry, just keep her attention on you and wait for my signal. Once you hear it, fling that table behind you at her and run!" he shouted, before leaping off the tail and racing his way towards the broken table.

Carrie swung the dinosaur's rounded snout in the direction of the running scythe wielder and spotted the table he was referring to. She had no clue as to what he was planning on doing with the piece of junk, but if it helped them defeat this thing then she was going to have to trust him on this one. While her head was turned, she heard an otherworldly screech followed by a gust of wind and when she tried to see what Tartarforas was doing, something thin and spiky struck the T-Rex's face.

Her head snapped to the side and for the first time in decades she felt pain, not the misery that plagued her dreadful immortality, but actual burning pain that could only be felt by those with a tangible body. She felt it through Mr. Rex and while it was hard for her to describe precisely, she knew she didn't like it and wished to avoid it at any cost. She was also brought upon by guilt when she felt blood beginning to run from a gash on the dinosaur's snout and realized that her slow reaction had caused physical harm to Tina's father.

Quickly recovering from the Nephilim's strike, Carrie glanced at the dark nightmare being and quickly discovered that the arm Gumball destroyed had regenerated into a whip-like tentacle covered with silver thorns. It curled and uncurled right beside her as though it were flexing, Carrie could see a nasty sneer forming on the Nephilim's pale face,

"Hurts doesn't it, shade?" she asked rhetorically, using the derogatory name others have given the incorporeal residents of the Underworld.

The name offended Carrie to the highest degree not only because the way the Nephilim used it was insulting, but because throughout most of her early life before she came to Elmore, people would call her and others like her shade in a negative pretext. There are several evil spirits that exist in the world, spirits filled with so much malice and hatred that they'll cause turmoil wherever they go, those intangible beings have been given the name "shade" due to their shadowy nature, but the term unfortunately came to describe all ghosts by frightful people. Carrie had been forced out of many dwellings in the past by both Bizarros and Humans alike and hearing the same name they called her being uttered through the lips of this invader was beyond insulting!

She let out another roar through the T-Rex, one that displayed her fury and with it, a powerful psychic wave that slammed into Tartarforas. The wave blew back heaps of trash and even pressed the giantess back a little, the only thing she could really do was cover her face with her arm and weaponized limb as her dress limbs were forced back against her body. The roar was so loud, that the beast even felt her ears ringing painfully and could tell that the specter was ticked.

Once the wave passed over, the amorphous creature charged her claws with the black energy of dark exorcism and coiled her whip arm back for another strike. Carrie recognized the dark energy emanating from her claws and with her other arm reeling back for another strike Carrie forced the male Tyrannosaur to move forward towards the left,

" _She's probably going to use the whip in order to secure me in one spot and then exorcise me with her other arm. Better close the distance and make her weapon useless!"_ she thought as she charged at her.

Seeing that the possessed dinosaur was quickly closing the distance, Tartarforas smirked as the ghostly school girl began to wander straight into her trap and charged her whip with the same energy before swinging it right at her. Stupid girl must have assumed that her weaponized limb was incapable of generating the harmful substance and once she was removed from the reptile, the dinosaur will join the rest of its kin and the specter will fade. All seemed to be falling into place and afterwards, there were only three defenders to deal with, plus the two anomalies she was secretly dispatched to investigate.

Sadly for the clever soldier, Tartarforas didn't catch the small object shooting right towards her left whip arm, not enough to cause damage, but to deflect her thorny tentacle away from Carrie. Caught by surprise, the Nephilim shapeshifter couldn't do anything as she felt the powerful jaws of the spirit infused reptile clamp down on her right arm, crushing the limb effortlessly with its fangs. With a hard tug and a snap of her head, Carrie used Mr. Rex's immense strength amplified with her own energy to effortlessly toss the giantess like a ragdoll into another messy cushion of rubbish.

Being plowed into the garbage again by the same measly spirit really set off the evil entity, now opting to utterly decimate the incorporeal insect that dared humiliate her like this. Several limbs from her dress shot outwards and secured themselves around the Tyrannosaur's neck, arms, and leg joints. The arms wrapping around the occupied father's neck began to tighten like snake coils, choking the living being and the claws at each end dug right into his scaly hide, making it near impossible to tear them off without further injury. Horrified at the aspect of being choked to death, Mr. Rex's possessed body gasped for air and desperately tried to tear off the attacking black limbs with its bloodied jaws. Her first close-up attack had caused some injury to the dinosaur seeing as Tartarforas' entire forearm was covered in curved spikes.

Suddenly Carrie could feel herself and Mr. Rex getting heavier, as though the planet's gravity was increasing, further locking her in place. What came next was an eerie red light, a vibrant hum that rattled her borrowed body's skull and a heat so intense, the pouring rain was evaporating just by being in its vicinity. A single scarlet eye traced the light to its source and she could see that the silver/black haired nightmare beast had already repaired her mangled limb and was producing an orb of black energy surrounded by a red aura at the tips of her index and middle fingers.

The light being produced by such deadly magic was enough to cast ghastly shadows over her ghoulish face,

"Mixing Dark exorcism with my Doom blast creates a powerful attack that destroys both living and dead creatures." her words had a deadly aire to them, sounding very final to the ghost girl. The orb grew brighter illuminating the Nephilim and the surrounding area in a single shade of crimson,

"Why don't you and that fossil tell Mephistopheles I said hello!" she bidded a gruesome farewell.

For the first time in her eternal afterlife, Carrie felt the fear of death and the knee-jerk, sudden impulse, flighty feeling of needing to escape with her life. This fear was only reserved for those who were living and Carrie need not fear such trivial feelings, she was cursed with an infinite existence along with all the other weary souls who have passed through the eternal gates. Now right here, in this very instant, her life was small and finite causing her to realize how much she was going to miss out if her existence came to an abrupt end.

She wasn't going to graduate from Middle school, go through high school with her friends, listen to anymore of her father's stories, and most importantly, she would never see Darwin again. That last thought brought her more pain than any of the Nephilim's thorny limbs and piercing claws, actually forcing a tear from her host's eye as she wondered how Darwin would go on without her. Another thought that crossed her mind was that of Tina's father, who was caught up in all of this against his own will. He was going to die here along with her and that would leave poor Tina without a father or any family really.

She would be orphaned and alone.

All this intense fear and existential dread manifested into the ghost girl as a powerful last-ditch attack. Now more than anything, she wanted to live and to also protect her host because there was more at stake here now. With an overwhelming burst of pent up psychic energy followed up with an earth shaking roar from the T-rex itself, Tartarforas' clawing limbs were blown off her body and the she-giant was thrown back several meters.

Gripped with shock at what the ghost managed to do, Tartarforas merely gaped at her and could only speculate as to where such a powerful outburst came from. With her Dark Doom blast shut off from the surprise attack, the thirty five foot nightmare giantess was unable to defend against Carrie's next psychic attack and with a loud _Snap!_ her head was twisted backwards by an invisible hand. She began to shriek and flail her scrawny limbs about as she tried to reorient her head, but was caught in the stomach by a thick, whip-like lizard tail that battered her hollow insides,

"You've got to be pretty twisted if you want to eradicate both the living and the dead from this world, demon! Don't call me shade and don't you dare threaten Tina's father!" she shouted defiantly through the old Rex's maw before surrounding her tail in telekinetic energy and blasting the nefarious entity away with a powerful tail swing.

The combined might of the Tyrannosaur's tail and Carrie's power was enough to fling the Nephilim effortlessly through the air and through several garbage heaps as well, carving a trail through the ground. She came to a stop near the fence, but once she was already slowing down, she began to morph again and had already taken another shape. This time it was a creature that resembled Darwin, only far more twisted looking with a jagged sail that ran along its spine, sharp webbed claws instead of flippers, needle-like white fangs and dull orange scales with black edges. It regarded her empty white eyes and with a gurgling hiss, began to sprint on athletic human legs matching the creatures hide towards the possessed dinosaur owner of the landfill with incredible speed.

Carrie was unsure what to make of this new transformation, it wasn't scary by any means, but she hated that Tartarforas was using a degrading image of her beloved to attack her. The monster was very fast and seeing as the Nephilim was now the same size as Carrie's borrowed body, she knew that once the Nephilim got close it will tear Mr. Rex apart with its claws and teeth. It could also use another one of its unusual magic tricks to destroy them both, but that didn't matter because Carrie was going to have to deal with an opponent that was faster and probably more agile than she was,

"NOW, CARRIE!"

That was Gumball's signal! Looking far back to where he was, Carrie could see that the blue cat had finally finished whatever he was doing and was standing next to the broken table with a strange symbol carved into the top, presumably by his scythe. Following his command, she lifted the table with her invisible force and hurled it at the incoming monstrosity. The hexagonal rune glowed orange and when it collided with the now surprised Nephilim, it exploded violently, causing the monster to be swept up in a fireball.

Watching the giant plume of flame fade away into smoke, Carrie was stunned speechless and turned to the one responsible for creating the spell she used on Tartarforas, who was already at her side once the explosion was no more,

"So, both you and Teri, have been fighting these things for a while now, huh! Are there other spells you guys use that I should know about." she asked, still completely awestruck by what she had witnessed. She's seen magic in use before, but rune magic was not used all that often and with Gumball readily using two powerful ones with ease, was quite intriguing.

Looking rather tired, the little cat boy just lazily shrugged and leaned on his scythe for support,

"Me, Teri, and Rob actually, but the other two are the ones who use the runes the most, I just use the scythe because it's handy. Teri's got her origami to help her out and Rob's got his inventions along with a lot more… wait a minute! Where is he getting those new runes because he never tells us?" he questioned out loud, scratching the side of his head as he thought about it.

"Isn't he that one guy that tried to blow up the bus and nearly destroyed you at the airport? If so, then he doesn't sound very trustworthy." Carrie answered with her own honest opinion.

"Yes and also, good point! I will have to…?" he trailed off when he saw something move in the dissipating smoke.

Without warning, a pair of black, leathery bat wings shot up from the smoke cloud and with a horrific screech, something large and fast shot out towards them both. Gumball and Carrie barely had any time to react, Gumball managing to utter only a single curse, as the Nephilim (surprisingly still not dead.) managed to bat Carrie and Mr. Rex away with ease before snatching up Gumball with its talons. With another ear-piercing screech that shattered any glass nearby, the monster took off with Gumball in its clutches and Gumball could see the Tyrannosaur's body zip away from him along with the landfill as he ascended very quickly into the grey sky.

Being carried underneath the flying behemoth like a rodent captured by an owl while shooting through the clouds at high speeds was enough to set the fear factor for Gumball and having been through quite the emotional roller coaster today, he was amazed that his pounding heart hadn't given out yet from all the stress. It was already too dark with all the thick, wet condensation surrounding them, but when Gumball managed to turn himself about to get a good look at the Nephilim, he saw that she had taken the form of some goblin-like creature with sharp features, beady glowing white eyes, and scraggly hair with the same colors as her giant form had. Her wings were beating heavily as she continued to carry him to some unknown destination and Gumball managed to wriggle his scythe arm free,

"What the heck is the matter with you? Why won't you die?" he shouted over the wind.

Tartarforas let out another screech and stared down at him with those lifeless eyes of hers,

"The only one's dying here are you and the rest of your weak kind!" she snarled.

Gumball tried to get his bearings, but couldn't figure out where they were thanks to all the clouds and nearly became dizzy trying. A fall from this height would most certainly kill him and if he wasn't near anything that he could use to slow himself down, it would be pointless to try and free himself. However, once he remembered that the Nephilim are hollow on the inside as well as gigantic in stature, he quickly formed a plan and turned back to her with another quip ready,

"How about you? Are you afraid of death?" he asked.

The Nephilim seemed to take offense to this seemingly innocent question and Gumball could see her blackened lips curl back into a sneer, revealing two rows of white shark fangs,

"The only one I fear is the one who stands above all, the Jade Emperor! Death does not begin to frighten me because he is on our side!" she chanted, sounding almost pleased to hear her own words.

An arc of lightning traced its way across the sky, nearly missing the flying spirit and her prisoner, and the whole sky was washed with white light. The thunder that followed was deafening and very distracting for those who were flying close by. Which was good fortune on Gumball's part because he was already charging his scythe up for another blast,

"How about falling?" he asked with a wicked grin that displayed some cockiness.

She sensed the build up of spiritual energy, but too late to stop him from attacking. She had been so sure that the cat's fear of heights would prevent him from doing anything reckless and that they would be able to reach his partner's current location without much hassle. She was proven very wrong when both her arm and corresponding wing were cleaved from her body and the both of them were sent tumbling down through the grey, cloudy abyss to the dark earth below.

 _-Joyful Burger, 12:37 PM-_

Okay, so while Rob had initially planned on going to the void today straight after picking up some food, he may have gotten dragged into doing a few errands and after all of that was out of the way, his stay at _Joyful Burger_ was extended by half an hour. He had gotten sucked into a few online sales and trades while grabbing his first meal at a fast food restaurant that was currently his favorite amongst them. While plowing through three large burgers and fries that he had just started getting to, his large, yellow eye remained transfixed on the screen in front of him as he browsed through several tabs showcasing the newest electronics from the _Mechheadz Electronics and devices_ store, a minor tech shop that sells quality devices for a reasonable price and is his favorite place to grab some top of the line parts for his various inventions. When he spotted a new drone being sold on the site, he quickly checked _Begslist_ to see if anyone had offered anything for the old motor he had managed to pry out of a used car last week and tweek up a little bit so that it was running better and more efficiently.

His fingers scraped the sides of the paper fries container for any more deep fried, salted potato slices and he pulled up the other tab,

"Hmm, three buyers and one of them is willing to pay 700 for it! That's 200 more than I was offering in the first place!" he half whispered excitedly. There weren't many people in the fast food joint, the melted cheese guy, a large man with a blue body and tighty-whities (okay, he knew that there was no real line in terms of decency in this city, but that just seemed a little too indecent.), and the rock headed worker that seemed to have multiple relatives working everywhere. He wasn't sure why there were so few customers here, but could guess that it had something to do with the dreary weather.

Happy with his lucky break, Rob began to message the buyer when all the lights went out along with the radio and all the other electronics within the building. Alarmed, Rob wondered what the problem was and raised his head from his computer to check out the area. He figured that it could just be a blackout due to the storm hanging overhead (he was mildly annoyed by the weather mainly because he had to go back and get his coat once it started to rain.), but when he looked outside, he saw that every car in the street had stopped moving, all the lights lining the roads were out, shops were now dark and people inside or near these various locations were scratching their heads in confusion once their devices had ceased to function.

It was a total blackout and Rob could already feel the air starting to get colder.

It was considerably darker now and the only thing he could hear was the sound of the rain hitting the roof of the building as well as splattering against the glass windows repeatedly, along with the sound of the two other customers complaining,

"Hey, counter guy, what's going on here? Why are the lights out?" the voice of the melted cheese guy called out.

"It seems that were experiencing a blackout, sir. Just take a seat, the power should be back on soon and you can go back to your meal." the scrawny employee replied, his voice slightly on edge.

There was another reply from the blue guy in his underwear,

"It's not just the lights, everything's gone dead and my phone's out too!" his raised voice drowning out the pouring rain outside,

"And I was just about to order another large soda on the _JB_ app too." he whined.

The rock headed burger worker seemed rather perplexed by the blue blob's last statement,

"Um, you could just order one from the counter." he pointed out.

The melted cheese guy turned his goopy head towards the counter and his eyes widened in shock,

"Wait, there's a _Joyful Burger_ ordering app?! Why did I even waste my time coming here then?" he exclaimed with shock, clasping his forehead with his hand.

KRRRRNNNCH!

It came from above. Reacting right away to the sound, Rob reached into his bag and placed his hand around the miniaturized rail cannon's handle, ready to withdraw the weapon at a moment's notice. He checked the plastered white ceiling and noticed right away that it was dented, with dust and chips of ceiling paint raining down onto them from the forceful impact. With both the power outage and something dropping onto the roof, this was no doubt a Nephilim attack! Rob gulped audibly and kept his grip tight on his weapon, he wondered why the Nephilim would be appearing here of all places.

" _Crap! Is it after me? Is it trying to get revenge for Uriel! Gumball did say that Uriel's arrival was driven by revenge for his sister and we don't know how many allies he had either."_ he wondered frantically, seconds ticking by slowly as he carefully surveyed the area,

" _I should call for reinforcements, but that could take some time. This rail cannon is loaded with Ruby Sun rune printed bullets and while its pretty good on its own, I'm going to need something that packs a lot more firepower and distance too."_ he looked out to where his car was, but he didn't know if he could get to it without that thing attacking him first and there were also people in the building, people he could not leave undefended.

His anxiety began to rise when he heard something move on the roof again. He listened carefully, following what sounded like rapid little footsteps as well as a few heavy ones and realized that there appeared to be two of them on the roof. Fearing the worst, Rob turned to the three people standing around and listening curiously at the commotion happening above them, they looked very troubled,

"Everyone out, now!" Rob shouted, waving an arm towards the exit.

Rather than do what they were told, they all just stared at him like he laid an egg,

"I can't, sir, we're still open!" the worker said, sounding even more nervous than before, probably because of the things on the roof or perhaps there was something about his job that he feared.

"Yeah, I don't want to go anywhere until my 12th -er, 3rd burger is done, so why should I listen to you?" the melted cheese guy demanded.

Without another word, Rob pulled the rail cannon from his bag and pointed it at Larry, clicking a button until it hummed and shot the oversized Elmore citizen a villainous glare,

"Because if you don't, then I, Doctor Wrecker, will blast all of you into last week!" he warned, throwing in a menacing laugh to further terrify the three.

"Everyone out, store's closed!" Larry quickly shouted, clearing the counter easily with his stick-like legs before scrambling out the door and screaming for his life.

The others followed suit, running and screaming while Rob continued to laugh, pose, and throw insults like a villain would. There were times when he really enjoyed his villain gag too much and he found that he still revelled in seeing people flee in fear. He actually wished Gumball was here to see this and going along with it like they used to.

He kind of got his wish, when said person was thrown through the window after something large hurled him inside from the roof top and came crashing through the dining area, knocking over tables and chairs before tumbling to the floor in a heap. Seeing Gumball of all people come flying through the window while a Nephilim attack was going on, didn't strike the cyclops as too odd, (it was a bit unexpected.) but he was more or less confused as to why he didn't contact him before the fight. Heck, even Teri hasn't mentioned anything either, even though it should be possible given that their phones were EMP resistant.

"Gumball? What's going on?" he finally asked, rushing towards his fallen body.

He could see right away that he was roughed up, covered in a few lacerations and bruises, but what really caught his attention was when he looked up at Rob, he almost screamed and began to frantically back away from him,

"Rob! Behind you!" he shrieked.

Realizing that Gumball wasn't looking at him, rather behind him, the mad inventor whipped around just in time to see a formless mass hurling towards him and was taken for a wild ride when he was sent sliding over the countertop, knocking over the cash register, and crashing onto the floor. He uttered a pained groan as his hand shot to the back of his head, his vision was dotted with bright lights and when he tried moving, he could feel bits of broken machinery and money shifting underneath himself, scattered all over the floor.

His rail cannon was flung from his hand when the Nephilim knocked him back and the disfigured ally of Gumball knew that he wasn't going to put up much of a fight if he wasn't armed. Slowly getting up while shrugging off the surging pain in his back as well as his head, Rob used both hands to pull himself up with the counter as support and when he was standing again, he tried to shake off his dizziness. He must have hit his head rather hard because what he heard and saw next made him freeze on the spot:

Standing on the other side of the counter and staring right at him was Rachel.

Dumbfounded, the one eyed kid shook his blocky head a few times and blinked to see if he was hallucinating, but she was definitely here alright when he found that he couldn't make her go away. The lingering question was why was his roommate and only real friend at the restaurant in the middle of all of this? When he left, she was sleeping soundly in her room and where was the thing that attacked him?

Before he could think too hard on this, she held her hand up to her face, looking at it as though she didn't recognize it herself and then back at him with a look of horror, causing Rob's pale grey skin to crawl,

"Rob…" she started, choking back a sob.

Rob reached out to her, trying to grab her hand, she looked so terrified and he wanted to get her out of here,

"Rachel, we need to get you out of here!" he exclaimed desperately, trying to grab her hand from over the countertop,

"How did you get here anyway?" he couldn't help but ask, seeing as he hadn't the faintest idea how the rainbow lass managed to find herself in this situation.

While he was concerned with her well-being, there was a heavy suspicion clouding his mind: something wasn't right here.

Still looking terribly confused, the multi-colored teenager began to break down completely, sobbing into her hands and muttering to herself in a broken string of words,

"...I don't know… I can't remember… can't remember anything… so lost…" tears streamed down her cheeks and Rob was reminded of the various nights when he heard her crying in her room, completely caught up in her identity crisis as she tried to piece back together everything that was lost,

"...I don't know who I am…"

More crying and silence.

And then,

"Rob." she was still covering her face and her voice was broken.

Rob felt a chill run down his back and his eye widened, something was definitely wrong here.

She then lifted her hands from her face and Rob screamed in terror when he saw that her features were visibly warped. Her once beautiful black eyes were pools of static with veins stretching from the sockets, creeping across her cheeks and her skin had lost its color, turning a shade of steel while her teeth became more jagged and black. She dug her fingers into her scalp as she howled in pain,

"HELP ME!" she screamed.

Rob wished he could look away, better yet, run, but his back was against the wall. He couldn't face away from the horrific scene playing a few feet in front of him and he swore he could feel his breath starting to speed up to levels near hyperventilation. This was something out of his worst nightmare, Rachel was being corrupted by the void just like he was and the look of pure agony on her face while the process took hold was something that he was never ever going to forget.

But what happened next was just as, if not, more scarring for his psyche. Clasping the middle of her cranium very tightly, Rachel's already broken face began to split down the middle and a glowing crack could be seen weaving its way down her body. She then split herself open, as though committing a brutally violent act of self-destruction, and what came pouring out of her body was not Bizarro innards, but a shower of static, static from the void.

The formless wave of bland material began to flow outwards and took on an almond shape, forming an opening in the air in front of the register area. Rob gaped at the man sized hole and another wave of fear washed over him, whatever this thing was it was trying to trap in the source of his misfortune and misery. Without any gear, he would be pulled in and lost forever, everything about him would fade into oblivion as he went mad with loneliness.

Not being able to take it anymore, Rob suffered a complete meltdown. He let out another blood curdling scream before making a mad dash for the kitchen, furiously scrambling through the cooking area, knocking over various utensils as he dashed by them and constantly whipping his head back around to see what the portal was doing. To his despair, a massive hand began form from the opening, matching the scrambled background of the void as it reached out to him, it's fingers curling menacingly. Rob's mind went into overdrive as he began searching for an exit, he first spotted the service window, but found it too small to fit through and when he reached the back exit, he also found that it was inaccessible.

He gripped the bar tightly, pressing it rapidly, but the door wouldn't budge as a result. Furious and impatient, Rob began to slam his shoulder repeatedly against the door causing loud sounds to reverberate throughout the building and even though his shoulder had begun to hurt after the first few attempts, he still put everything into making the door move. However, the door remained locked and unmovable causing Rob to sweat furiously,

"Come on, come on, come on, open god damn it!" he roared, now kicking it a few times.

He heard something crash behind him and when he turned to see what the nightmare was doing, he saw that the void hand had knocked aside a prep table and was still steadily making its way towards him. Realizing there was no escape, the lanky pre-teen began to search the kitchen for something to defend himself with. He spotted a metal spatula sitting on the burner and opted to grab it, turning to the disembodied limb with the greasy cooking utensil pointed at it like a sword.

Fortunately, he need not defend himself with such an inferior weapon nor face a grim death, as Gumball swung in through the drive-through window not too long after with his scythe in hand, leaping towards the approaching void hand and with an elegant swing of the blade, cut down Rob's attacker. The limb fell in two pieces, severed at the wrist, and melted into silver goo that split into several pieces before scattering into various openings. With the threat temporarily dispatched, there was a brief silence as the two took a moment to catch their breaths before Gumball stood up from his crouch and grabbed Rob by the wrist, dragging him towards the main dining area,

"Come on, we gotta get into a more spacious area before she reforms and also, don't fall for her tricks, she can create your worst fears." Gumball blabbed out all at once, not caring for the fact that he was speaking very fast and that Rob wasn't in the know with Tartarforas.

Obviously confused, Rob yanked his hand out of Gumball's grasp, but continued to move alongside him,

"How did you get outside on the roof? I saw you laying down in the dining area before that thing attacked me?" he asked in a demanding tone.

They hopped over the counter once they reached it and Rob retrieved his fallen weapon, charging the electric coils. Thankfully no one was around, even the people outside had fled the blackout area once glass had started shattering throughout the restaurant. Checking around for the beast, Gumball answered Rob's question,

"I was never in the building to begin with." he shot back, causing Rob to cast a confused glance his direction,

"When we fell from the sky and landed here, her severed arm became a copy of me and jumped in here, probably to fool you and I saw her wing make its way in here too, although it had a different shape. I was dealing with the rest of her on the roof and after I destroyed it, I heard you shouting from the kitchen and came to assist you. And seriously, a spatula! Who are you, SpongeRob?" it was his turn to shoot him a look.

Keeping his sights on the windows, Rob's gun was held at a steady level and he waited for something to move out in the shadows. It was considerably cold in here, with all the broken windows and no power, Rob shivered from the drafty air. If they ever survived this, they were probably going to have to avoid this area for a while, actually Rob was probably going to have to keep a low profile now given the stunt he pulled earlier with the other people.

"It took another form?! What kind of Nephilim is this and also where is Teri, how come she's not with you?" he asked, feeling both surprised and concerned. He also wasn't going to answer Gumball's snarky question even though it did annoy him.

"Teri's at cheerleading practice and this one's able to shapeshift. To make matters worse, I haven't located a weakness yet." he replied with a grim honesty. He also felt a little guilty when he told him where Teri was.

Another flash of lightning and the boys could see several unsightly silhouettes surrounding the building. There were over a dozen of them, manifesting seemingly from thin air and all of them were tall, intimidating, and very warped versions of themselves. The ten foot doppelgangers were staring in on them through the windows like they were some kind exotic exhibit, with glowing white eyes, pointed fangs and fingers ending in dagger-like claws, both the boys went silent and decided to save the bickering for later.

Gumball charged his Nephilim killing weapon with spiritual energy, the blade's rune glowing like a silver candle in the dim room, and kept his eye on a demonic clone of himself that was clawing at the glass, carving a screeching trail within the smooth, transparent surface while grinning at him tauntingly. Rob was already picking his targets, choosing to focus on the ones behind him and Gumball, deciding to go back-to-back with his shorter blue partner. One of the giants opened its mouth, allowing its long, black, lizard-like tongue to roll out and slather the glass with saliva. This was the one that Rob decided to take out first, pointing the bulky, pistol-like electric weapon until the single barrel was aimed directly down his evil clone's throat.

BRAKKA!

The enchanted bullet leapt from his weapon the moment his pointer finger clasped the trigger, shattering the window and burrowing itself into the monster's maw. Right as the bullet made contact with the creature, the Ruby Sun rune activated, exploding into a spiky, basketball sized orb of ruby shards and causing the Nephilim's head to violently explode from the sudden expansion. With its head reduced to silver globs and shattering ruby shards, the Nephilim's body crumpled and slumped over the window's edge.

All at once, the other giants exploded into action, bursting in through the windows and charging towards their awaiting targets with their claws raised and a screech leaving their lips. With a battle cry of his own to match theirs, Gumball shot forward, easily outpacing his enemies and catching them off guard. Electronic gunfire ripped through the air as Rob continued to place round after round into various charging opponents and ripping several apart with his enchanted expanding bullets of death. The restaurant was a complete madhouse filled all sorts of horrible sounds as the fight began.

With the first being a look alike, Gumball stopped short about five feet and ducked down in order to avoid a swipe from the giant's claws. Simultaneously, he swung hard and kept the blade at a distance, easily catching the Nephilim's knee within the blade before separating the limb easily. Collapsing into a kneeling position, the ten-foot demon cat was quickly decapitated when its smaller clone hopped atop its shoulders and delivered the final blow.

Taking the opportunity to attack him while he was dealing with the first giant, another one lunged at him, easily ripping into his shoulder with its claws and Gumball could feel the piercing talons cutting through at least an inch of his flesh. Upon seeing a creepy version of Rob attacking him, Gumball was quick to react and while he took a nasty hit to his shoulder, he managed to jam the stock end of the grey weapon into the monster's single eye. Completely blind, the Nephilim pulled back with a loud shriek, furiously clawing at its injured orb, and when it had taken a step back, Gumball was quick to split its head open with the sharp end of his preferred weapon.

He heard another horrendous screech and spun around to see two more Gumball giants making their way towards him, claws raised and long tongues slithering over their sharp teeth. Stepping off the liquified corpse of the first one he killed, the blue cat's ears flattened against his head as he let out another hiss towards his approaching adversaries and felt his fur stand on end. It's been a while since he was this ferocious, his first time being at the playground when he was in kindergarten when a group of kids tried to steal a toy of his from him and he managed to scare them off with his feline attributes. Later that day, he was reprimanded by his mother, she told him that it was not okay to use animalistic traits to scare other people and that he needs to use his words to resolve his conflicts.

He'd never been overly aggressive to begin with, but after that incident, anytime a situation threatened to spill out of control, he would try to deal with it in a more human-like fashion. Luckily such problems were so few and in between and normally whenever he found himself in a dangerous situation with other people, he just resorted to running away. The only times he'd ever go feral is when he was caught off guard or when he was really ticked.

Like right now.

He hated this Nephilim, he hated that it was impersonating him, but as a monster, as though it were mocking him and he hated the fact that it was nothing, but sadistic and uncaring. His blue paw shifted forward and he found himself getting even closer to the ten foot creatures looming over his small figure. Right before he was about to jump up and take off their heads, Gumball felt that something was wrong and that he was getting weaker.

While this was going on in his head, he hadn't slowed his approach and darted towards the closest Nephilim, which raised an elongated clawed hand to swipe at him with. He swiftly dodged the first and second attack from the beast, but his movements have become slower. He cut off the monster's hands once they were close enough and when he saw the other one circling around them both, he realized a strike from behind was imminent and dove forward, in between the giant's legs just as the flanking creature leapt forward. The resulting collision left the giants in a tangled mess that was rather easy for Gumball to clean up.

After cutting them into several smaller pieces, Gumball realized what was happening to him and saw that he needed to end this battle quickly. His strength was draining due to his extended use of the scythe's magic. At one hundred percent, he could only go for a few minutes before tiring out and while a quarter of this power allowed him to go for longer periods, he was still using up energy.

"GUMBALL!"

However, his waning strength was not the greatest of his problems as he heard Rob shouting his name and when Gumball looked to see, he saw that Rob was fending off a herd of Nephilim cats and cyclops with a gun that was starting to run dry,

"Not that I'm saying you can't catch your breath or anything, but could you give me a hand here!" Rob shouted once he saw that Gumball was watching him. He shot a Gumball giant in the eye as it drew too close and quickly jumped away when a Rob giant snapped at him with its jaws.

When Gumball analyzed the situation, he saw that there were only five attacking the retreating gunman and that they were continuously attacking in order to throw his aim off. There were also two more moving throughout the restaurant, preparing to flank him or perhaps fend off Gumball himself, but Gumball decided not to worry about those ones and went to help his ally. When the mad inventor punched a basketball-sized hole in a Nephilim's sternum with another well-placed round, Gumball spotted a giant to his right preparing to sink its teeth into his cranium and called out to his companion,

"Rob! Duck down!" he shouted.

He did as he was told and Gumball with a ten percent charge, quickly cleared the distance and rolled himself over on Rob's exposed backside while swinging his scythe down into the Nephilim's skull. The Rob giant let out a dying whimper before it went limp as the roof of its mouth sprouted an extra fang and with a quick kick to the abdomen, Gumball sent the giant flying into the other two that were sneaking up behind them. With the danger of being outmaneuvered averted, Rob was able to take out two more opponents in front of him, first by gun lashing a cat Nephilim in the knee, causing the evil creature to stumble and then was used as cover by the distorted cyclops when a monster of a similar appearance tried to attack. Ripping its own teammates throat out, the first one went down and Rob delivered a shot to the other's hip, causing a blossom of red crystalline spikes to tear its left leg off. The helpless monster fell to the ground, screeching angrily and Rob kicked its only eye in before putting his last bullet into its head.

The last one went to help the other two with Gumball, but when it got close enough to attack, Rob flipped a nearby table over and sent it skidding towards the lanky Nephilim copy of himself. The table struck its legs and the giant crashed to the floor, left in a daze for a brief moment before Gumball eyed it and bisected it. Once that was done, Gumball killed off the other two and went back to Rob to wait for the next attack. He spotted something small flying about the restaurant, but given how dark it was, it could have easily been a moth.

Once the final two were dealt with, Rob took the brief opportunity to reload the rail cannon's ammo stock with more Ruby Sun bullets and checked out the state of _Joyful Burgers_ dining area. The place was a complete mess: multiple tables were overturned (some broken when the horde of giants stormed the place.), chairs were strewn about the open area and broken glass was covering the floor. The place looked even dingier with all the water from the pouring rain splattering the tile floors and furniture and the darkness provided by the heavy cloud cover was unsettling. Then there was all the silver goo remaining from the various fear-based enemies that trashed the place and left both Gumball and Rob shakened by the experience.

After a moment had passed and the restaurant showed no signs of movement, the two kids began to investigate further into the building. The giants were reduced to goo, but they haven't burned up yet, so something was off. Pulling out his phone, Rob turned on the flashlight and began scanning the seemingly empty fast food joint,

"Yeesh, Carrie's mansion looks better than this place!" Gumball muttered upon seeing the mess left by the skirmish.

"Who's Carrie?" Rob asked, knowing almost nothing of Gumball's classmates.

Gumball answered, but kept his guard up,

"One of my classmates, she's a ghost and she also helped me fight Tartarforas in the landfill." he replied, feeling as though the last part was important to mention.

Rob's face shifted from straight to alarmed and his head snapped in Gumball's direction,

"Wait, what?! You brought one of your classmates in a fight against the Nephilim?" he shouted, his voice laced with disbelief.

Gumball shrunk back a little and immediately regretted bringing her up,

"U-um, actually I didn't invite her, I more like bumped into her while I was on my way to the dump and she kind of figured everything out from there. Turns out she can sense the Nephilim when they appear." he explained, his voice a little shaky.

Rob was still beyond frustrated and just scowled when it dawned on him that the Nephilim are spiritual in nature and another spirit sensing them shouldn't be that inconceivable,

"Why didn't you contact me or Teri? You could have avoided detection if you'd just allowed us to transport you there and were you seriously planning on fighting that thing alone?" he asked, his gaze now falling on Gumball's uncertain features.

"Well, I, uh…" Gumball began to freeze up because he knew his reasoning was completely illogical and wouldn't exactly play well with his very concerned companion,

"I thought that I could handle it on my own because if you guys were busy then I could do you both a favor…" Gumball stopped talking because he already knew where this was going and wanted to spare himself the pain of Rob's harsh verbal chastisement.

However, the polygonal cyclops only seemed agitated (how much was Gumball's guess.) and he just turned back in the direction they were heading, letting out a disgusted snort as he shined his light in said direction,

"Good job, you managed to rope in a person who had nothing to do with this, you went by yourself without contacting anyone and you allowed the Nephilim to drag you all the way here where it can cause more destruction, thanks, you've done us all a great favor." Gumball felt his head lower in shame as the weight of Rob's words crashed down on him and he wondered if he was even worth helping either of them out in this conflict. He wanted to apologize, but with the way Rob's back was turned to him, he decided that now was not a good time, especially since they hadn't defeated the monster yet.

Once he was certain that there were no Nephilim hiding anywhere, Rob brought Gumball back to the counter area and hatched a plan,

"Okay, so you said this thing can shapeshift and can take the form of our worst fears." he listed off, to which Gumball nodded,

"anything else?" he asked.

Gumball shrugged and answered quietly,

"It doesn't die, no matter how many times I cut it down and I even used a bomb rune, which did nothing." it was evident that he was low in morale given the tired look on his face and the dull color in his eyes.

This struck Rob as curious, up to this point, there was never a Nephilim that couldn't be killed after sustaining enough damage to its body and while they projected a broad range of abilities, this one was definitely high tier. Like most of the Nephilim, it came alone, but was far more capable than its predecessors. Rob began to wonder if this was a different class of Nephilim with a different range of abilities that included increased durability. So far all the Nephilim that came were silver, black, and gold/bronze in color and he always wondered if their colors meant anything significant, but was unable to draw a conclusion given their abilities.

Either way, Tartarforas was a different Nephilim and thus, had a different weakness. So basic strikes and magical attacks were not enough to take her down because she could always reform. So Rob wondered if there was a limit to her overall durability and figured if they could keep her trapped in this building while he destroyed it entirely, maybe she will be completely obliterated all at once. She couldn't regenerate if there was nothing left to spawn from, right?

With this theory in mind, Rob's face lit up and he placed a hand on Gumball's shoulder, grabbing the kitten's attention,

"Okay, I think I figured out a way to defeat Tartarforas." he replied finally and Gumball could feel his spirits lifting, so he listened eagerly,

"It's a bit risky, but when she returns, I need you to keep her contained in here while I go to my car and get some magic bombs to reduce this place to-!" he was going through his plan when he heard something and his head snapped up in the direction of the noise.

"There's nothing you two can do to stop me." Tartarforas hissed from the shadows.

Rob shifted his phone's flashlight in the direction of her voice and when the light was shining in the specific area, the two were alarmed to see the Nephilim glide around the corner where the main counter was located and stopped a few feet short of them. She was in her feminine horror form again, except that her height was now at twelve feet and instead of a face, there was a void containing two glowing white dots that served as her eyes. She peered down at them while the various limbs that made up her skirt shifted and twitched as they reached out and grasped nothing but air.

The two felt a chill run down their backs and were already backing up in fear, but she did not seem to care about this as she continued to speak,

"You talk of destroying me as though it were child's play, but what can I expect from two naive Earth abominations. You know, I could have destroyed both of you in this very restaurant with my puppets because your silly toys can't really destroy fear without form!" she jeered, narrowing her eyes at the two and if she had a mouth, Gumball and Rob would have assumed that she would be smiling.

Rob raised his rail cannon until the stubby barrel was pointed at the space between her eyes,

"Thanks for your generosity, I guess. Want a medal? Sorry if the only ones I can give are made of copper, but they are quite valuable when you touch them." he joked in a threatening tone.

Gumball stepped in and threw in another jibe aimed at the nightmare giantess standing where the customers lined up,

"At least she made an improvement on her face, the last one didn't have much going for it!" this earned him a snicker from his one-eyed companion.

All comedy is derived from fear, Tartarforas knew this and she could sense that the two idiots were hiding their own fright. She appreciated their attempts to stand up to her, she knew these brats were trouble for the Nephilim's work here and seeing what they were capable of was interesting. Unfortunately, playtime was over and she had a mission to complete.

From her back sprouted two enormous butterfly wings, adorned with glowing lights that spread across the dark surface like the stars that bathed the galaxy and in the center were two eye-like markings that were striking in design. Startled by this transformation, Gumball moved in front of Rob while the latter pointed his electronic ranged weapon over Gumball's shoulder. It was a good defensive and offensive position, with Gumball protecting Rob against anything the Nephilim could dish out and Rob being able to return some punishment. Rob was smart and didn't bother waiting for her to make the first move, already lighting up the frightful entity as he shouted to Gumball,

"Back up towards the exit and prevent her from doing anything!" he continued to pump round after round at the beast as they both began to retreat towards the building entrance.

Despite his advancements and powerful enchantments, the bullets had little effect on Tartarforas as the limbs covering her lower torso would shoot up and catch the projectiles without much effort. The bullets would collide with her hands, making loud _pinging_ sounds before exploding into their Ruby mace heads and she would simply lower the damaged limb before discarding the crimson spikes entirely while allowing her hands to regenerate. Rob reminded himself to always keep different kinds of ammo runes in his bag at _all_ times, as he could feel his dread rising with every bullet that was fired and caught with ease.

With his weapon having no effect, the eyes on Tartarforas' wings began to glow and both boys could feel themselves getting heavy until they could no longer move,

"You have a plan, thus you have hope and that comforts you, it keeps you going despite the impossible odds. To your misfortune, such hope is in vain because the Jade Emperor himself wishes for your demise and that demise is to come by the hands of the Nephilim." she spread her arms and the eyes on her wings lit up like spotlights,

"You never had a chance!" she shouted, her voice quickly drowned out by the vibrant hum that emanated from her wings.

Seconds later, multiple trails of white light sprang from the glowing spots and curved their way towards the trapped fighters. There was nothing Gumball could do, he had to deflect all the incoming bolts or else he or Rob will perish. Unfortunately, in order to move he needed to withdraw more power from himself and amplify it through the scythe. There was no hesitation, he could not afford to do so and once he was already moving, he pushed Rob back with one hand and quickly batted away every energy projectile fired upon them.

Going all out was quite the rush given how long he was using so little of his power, however as soon as the barrage was negated, fatigue washed over him like a tsunami and he was brought to his knees. Gasping, he felt as though his breathing had become more shallow and his vision was darkening, making it feel as though he were about to pass out entirely. Keeping his body propped up on shaky arms, Gumball fought to maintain consciousness and get back up, but he could barely move, he hadn't the energy to do so.

After dropping from exhaustion, he had no chance against Tartarforas when she came forth and snatched him up from the ground. Holding him up by the head, the giantess carried him towards the main exit and when Rob tried getting up from his spot on the floor, she backhanded the cyclops through the exit door's window. Rob was effortlessly flung across the parking lot and into the back of a nearby car, smashing head first through the rear window.

Gumball saw this happening and tried to cry out to him, but found that he didn't have the strength to do so. He barely even had the strength to hold on to his scythe as it is and he wasn't sure how long it would be until he would be able to recover his strength. Not that it mattered anyway, he was now in the clutches of the Nephilim he so foolishly tried to challenge on his own and now Rob was seriously hurt as a result of his blindness.

Desperate to do something, he drew out his claws and tried to lift his arm so he could scratch at the hand that was holding him by his head, but his arm was quickly restrained by one of her other limbs along with his other arm too. Feeling her grip tightening on her head, Gumball gritted his teeth and hissed at the pain that was surging through his noggin before he was brought up to her empty face. Now staring directly into her glowing eyes, Gumball froze in terror and wondered if this was where it all ended for him,

"Tired already?" she asked rhetorically,

"You needn't fear anything just yet. I'm going to take you to your beloved and you'll have a front row seat to her murder." while she seemed to be teasing, her voice had a coldness to it that made Gumball's hair stand on end.

Gumball felt all the color drain from his face. She was going to take him to the football stadium where the girls were having cheerleading practice and where Teri was, helping them out. She had no idea what was going on and if this Nephilim arrived undetected, then there was no way Teri and the others were going to fight her off.

And it was going to be all his fault.

Once again, Gumball tried his best to attack the fear bringing Nephilim with whatever ounce of energy remained, but it was futile. She seemed to delight in his despair and lowered him until he was at her side. He was no longer a threat to her, now that she had worn him out completely and she wanted to bring him to absolute lowest before bringing about his dreadful fate,

" _They deserve this, all of them!"_ she thought to herself,

" _For desecrating this beautiful Earth that they've wrongly inherited and for all our fallen comrades, I will break every last one of these vile creatures."_

Being able to sense the whole of Elmore, she located a powerful soul mark nearby and spread her wings for an immediate take off. There were few people nearby the place Teri was located at and that was fine with her, she wouldn't mind killing a few more of this town's sprogglets while dealing with the bothersome defenders. There was also an especially powerful being located quite a ways away from here and she was informed to stay clear of that one until she has taken care of the local defenders. It was after all, one of the anomalies she was sent to investigate and she was quite startled by how powerful such a being was.

Before she took off, she stared at Rob, who was still stuck in the back of the car and rendered unconscious, deciding that she will kill him after she finished off the other two. It would be very amusing too because he had someone he cared about deeply and the sadistic Nephilim would like to pay that girl a visit as well. With that in mind, she took off into the sky with a single beat of her wings and disappeared into the grey skies above, carrying a struggling Gumball with her. Behind her a small black butterfly pursued and also faded into the grey.

 _-Elmore football stadium, 12:49 PM-_

Despite the terrible weather they were having, the Elmore Junior High cheer squad was undaunted by the rough rain and stormy clouds. They may not be the absolute best when compared to the school's other cheerleaders or that of their competing schools, but their combined determination to lift morale for the Elmore Ducks football team was enough to bring them together no matter what the situation may be. It was this sense of unity and determination that made the girls and Leslie one of the middle school's greatest teams.

It was one of the many activities that Teri still enjoyed despite everything that's been going on in her life and served as a simple anchor to a nicer reality when compared to what she has to counter since near the beginning of September. While she did appreciate the fact that those events brought her closer to Gumball and helped rid her of some earlier issues she was having, the whole invasion brought her a lot of stress and cheerleading was a wonderful way to help lift some of it off of her. It was small stuff like this that kept her going and she was going to enjoy it to the fullest extent.

Today's meeting was nothing out of the ordinary, just a couple drills and practicing some new moves. Sherry was especially working hard in the squad today, given that she was still one of the newest recruits and while she was very agile and strong, she still had a bit to learn when it came to team cohesion. Most of the practice actually revolved around her, as Carmen believed the mermaid needed the extra attention and was helping her fill the gap Penny left behind.

To all the members of the cheerleading team (minus Sherry.), Penny's departure still hung in the air like a thick fog and while nobody felt as though this was going to be a huge detriment to their performance, it still felt odd to not have the shapeshifting fairy practicing with them. Teri herself even felt slightly off with Penny's moving away to Japan, she was the most expressive of the six of them and brought a kind of flare to the group that helped them stand out in the stadium, even when she had her shell. She was especially good to have as a friend because she was one of the few people who would talk to Teri without being too bothered by her obsession with cleanliness and also brought a sense of comfort to the group because everyone felt as though they could confide in her.

Teri took a look at Sherry as she came dashing over to Molly and Sarah, two of the strongest girls, her reddish orange scales glistening under the constant downpour and her tied back hair had a wonderful shimmer to it with the added effects of the rain. Even though she was wearing a grey tank-top and pink gym shorts, she still looked really pretty and Teri could feel herself frowning a little when she remembered how she felt about her when Gumball brought her up. She still felt guilty about that and noted that she still had nothing left to fear from her because in short she could never replace Penny and even the others felt rather put off by her secluded attitude. There was also the fact that she was one grade above them because there weren't any others in seventh grade who were willing or able to fill in for Fitzgerald and this kind of drew up a slight divide between the mermaid and them.

The paper girl found herself cheering along with Leslie and Carmen when the athletic, aquatic eighth grader landed in the brace formed by Molly and Sarah's limbs before they launched her up in the air to do a flip. She did so somewhat gracefully before coming back down again and landing in her awaiting companion's arms. Clapping and giving her praise, Carmen marched on over to her,

"Nice job, Sherry! That was really good, your acrobatics are really improving!" she cheered, giving her a high five with her stick-like appendage, the only part of her that wasn't prickly.

Merely shrugging, the taller girl began to make her way to one of the benches,

"Yeah, sure, but when I was in the air, I almost twisted myself in the wrong direction." she replied quietly before pulling out her phone again.

She wasn't wrong when she pointed that out, Teri as well as the other girls noticed how she tensed up while she was up there, almost reversing her direction as a result. In all honesty, it was probably just nerves, Sherry was pretty new to the team and cheerleading in general, so doing these kind of moves could be somewhat jarring to a new recruit. She was picking up pretty well though and with some practice, she can probably pull it off in no time.

Sarah moved over and placed a hand on the mermaid's shoulder, giving her a confident smile,

"That's okay! I noticed how you tensed up when we threw you and just wanted to let you know that there's nothing to worry about." she said, shrugging her shoulders.

The ice cream girl was followed up by Molly, who also came over to offer support,

"Sarah's right, we're both pretty strong so we'll definitely catch you." the blocky sauropod wasn't lying when she said that, both of them were probably the most physically fit of the six followed up by both Carmen and Shelly herself.

While Leslie had a strong stem and roots, his limbs were rather weak due to their flimsy nature and Teri was, well, flimsy in general.

Sherry seemed rather pleased by Molly and Sarah's reassurance as she smiled a bit before checking the others to see what they had to offer. Naturally Carmen had something else to say and was quick to jump by the eighth grader's side,

"And if you're still rather timid about acrobatics, we can move to the gym and get some air cushions to practice with." she said after pointing towards the school.

Sherry paused to think about it for a moment before deciding she was up for it,

"Yeah, actually that sounds like a good idea and I would also like to get out of the rain as well." she answered in a plain voice, making her sound rather indifferent.

The other members were quick to agree and verbally acknowledged the scaly female student before making their way towards the exit. They didn't bring any of their gear with them and didn't need to grab anything else, so they were able to leave right away. While they went through the exit hall, Sarah began thinking of other things they could do while they were all at the school and started talking the moment an idea popped up in her head,

"Hey, maybe we can grab a soda from the vending machine too." Sarah replied.

Carmen frowned at the walking ice cream's suggestion and checked her watch,

"It hasn't been long enough to warrant a break yet, also, soda is not a healthy beverage. Water is a good option and if you're in the mood for something with a little more flavor, I would go with organic juice." she stated as a matter of fact. This caused the other girl to frown a bit and slump her shoulders.

As if on an instinct, Teri immediately butted in with a pun on the tongue,

"Aw, come on, she has such a bubbly personality though!" she uttered with a sly smile.

Everyone walking with her groaned, while Molly just snickered and Teri just continued to smile as she walked,

"Quit with the dad jokes, already! I know you only used one, but that one was just awful!" Sherry said with clear disdain.

However, Teri would not be stopped and she already had another one ready to dish out,

"Well, I just thought that since we're on the topic of beverages, I oughta milk these puns and not keep them bottled up." she could barely hold in her own laughter as more groans came her way as well as more snickers from Molly.

"Where do you get all these puns, anyway?" Carmen asked, shooting Teri a curious glance.

Leslie was quick to answer that one and the flower boy sounded rather unimpressed when he did,

"None other than the king of lame dad jokes himself." he glanced at Teri with a smile that made her slightly nervous when she knew who he was referring to.

"Her dad?" Molly asked, obviously not picking up on Leslie's clue.

"Gumball." Sarah corrected.

"Gumball's not her dad! He's our classmate." she replied, still somewhat oblivious.

This brought a chorus of laughter straight from all the cheerleaders, including Teri herself, that just left the quiet dinosaur more confused than before. To the paper girl, that was actually quite hilarious seeing as it kind of came out of nowhere and that only someone like Molly could manage to pull off something that great. Wiping a tear from her eye, Sarah looked back at Molly and snickered some more,

"You're the best, Molly." she said with a pat on her shoulder.

"Not just the best, she's _soda_ -lightful!" Teri was still going on strong.

Everyone groaned even louder and Sherry replied with,

"Seriously! Just stop already or I'll get Carmen to demote you to bench warmer." she warned though, her hazel eyes flickered with slight amusement.

Carmen chuckled at this and rolled her eyes at Sherry's sassy comment,

"That won't happen and even if I wanted to that, I wouldn't be able to because I don't hold that kind of power." she said simply.

Sherry merely huffed at this and dug her phone out of her pocket,

"Well, since I outclass all of you, maybe I can have some sway in the politics of afterschool activities." she mumbled to herself before checking her messages.

This brought something to Leslie's attention and he spoke up to the girls walking behind him,

"Oh, speaking of class, does anyone know what the homework was for U.S. history? I tend to really tune out during that class." he asked, displaying his lack of interest in his fifth hour class without much care.

Jumping up and down, Molly quickly raised a hoofed hand as though she were in class and kept repeating that she knew the answer. Seeing as no one else was saying anything, Leslie nodded and Molly settled down before explaining to her plant-like friend,

"We had to fill out pages seven through thirteen in our Colonial era packet and Miss. Simian said it was due tomorrow or we'll get detention. She also assigned extra credit questions on the back that we could do and since history class is easy to remember, I already answered them. There was an assignment from last week too, an essay on English and French expansion that was also due tomorrow for those who hadn't turned it in last Friday, plus three other assignments from three different classes." she explained excitedly with great detail too.

Impressed, Leslie remained silent for a moment as well as the four other people present in the hallway and the pouring rain could be heard echoing throughout the stadium's interior,

"You actually remembered all of that?" Leslie finally asked, completely taken aback.

Molly seemed a bit more shy than she was a second ago and placed her stubby hoof behind her bent, trunk-like neck,

"I, um, have a really good memory and my Grandma said that I had a good eye for details too." she said after panning her head to see everyone's faces and once she saw that everyone was quite amazed by this new fact she felt the need to bring up an event that happened a while back,

"Which remind of this one time when I was assembling a jigsaw puzzle with a house picture on it with my Grandpa and there were one thousand little pieces to sort through. At first, my Grandpa thought that it was going to be very long and difficult, I thought so too, but it really wasn't. First, I spotted a piece that had a doorknob printed on it and after a minute, I spotted another that had the rest of the door and then…" she continued on with her _very_ descriptive story and her five friends began to zone out pretty quickly.

Deciding to continue on with the subject regarding classroom assignments, Teri leaned in towards Carmen, who was on her right and with eyes that were starting to glaze over, before whispering to her,

"I did the assignments Friday night and helped Gumball with his on Saturday." she said before asking,

"How about you?"

Having been broken out of her bored daze, Carmen was eager to speak when Teri spoke to her,

"Did mine Friday too! I also did the extra credit questions and as for other assignments, I'm all caught up." she replied before casting a comical glance at Teri,

"Did you and Gumball work on chemistry together too?" she asked with a suggestive wiggle of her eyebrows.

Having gotten used to all the teasing about her and Gumball, Teri just glared at her with a look that said _really?_ Before cracking a smile,

"Ha ha ha, funny." she whispered sarcastically, placing her hands on her hips,

"I'd rather not think of chemistry after what happened last Friday, that blob monster was so disgusting. How are you feeling by the way?" she asked, remembering how alot of people including Carmen were injured during the blob monster's attack.

Carmen seemed rather content as she only shrugged and kept a positive smile on her simple features,

"Pretty good, all things considered. I was more worried about Molly seeing as she ran into me during the panic and got a stomach full of sharp spines. I'm glad she wasn't hurt too bad and that they only left a few puncture wounds that were easy to patch up. I only went to the hospital because I was worried that the blob's goo was contagious." she said, keeping her optimism.

Teri was glad to hear the news from someone so optimistic, seeing as the blob monster wasn't the only major threat that unexpectedly showed up that day and she was thankful that the crisis was averted. Given how close they were to losing though, Teri wanted to increase her training with Gumball so that they would have less close calls like that and considered contacting Rob about the runes, figuring she could acquire more to help her fight. Then she thought about Gumball's strength enhancing grey fire and wondered if she could get a rune that could enhance her strength and speed as well, but without the dangerous setbacks Gumball's scythe had. Did such magic even exist?

Speaking of Gumball, she was kind of disappointed that he couldn't come today and watch her practice. Sure, the weather alone was enough to send anyone scrambling indoors, but she had a feeling that it wouldn't have bothered him as much and only left for home because he wanted to shower before catching a nap. They could probably meet up sometime in the evening, provided she got all her chores done in time and maybe continue where they left off or she could just meet him at school tomorrow. Either one was fine with her.

Thinking about school and home also brought something to light and Teri's head snapped straight up, eyes wide open as she remembered something. On her way to the football field, she texted her parents and told them what was going on and they told her to call them when she was going somewhere else, for safety reasons, obviously. Looking towards Carmen who was still walking beside her, she got her attention by clearing her throat and pointed to her cellphone in hand,

"I gotta go make a phone call, my mom told me to let her know if I was going somewhere else and since were travelling all the way back to the school…" she said, directing her attention back to the entryway they just came from.

Carmen immediately caught on and nodded her head in acknowledgement. She understood that Teri's parents were very protective of their kid and the prickly plant girl motioned for her to head out. Teri nodded back in response and told her friends that she will catch up to them when she gets done with her call.

"I won't be long, hopefully. My mom can get pretty chatty sometimes and there's someone else I want to contact too." she called back to them while moving in the opposite direction.

Another smug look painted itself on the cactus' features and she shouted back to Teri,

"You know, if you want to skip practice for today, I won't call it in and I'd also recommend _A walk in the rain_ , it's pretty tame by my standards, but it's a good film to get a certain mood swinging!" her voice echoed through the empty hallway.

Teri looked back with a flustered face and angrily began her rebuttal,

"It's not like that, you don't even know who I'm going to call next! It could be my aunt for all you know!" she thought that was a good coverup, but it was true, she actually wanted to see what Gumball was doing right now as well as how he was doing. He was probably sleeping, if she were to guess.

However, none of the others were convinced and all of them just laughed before Leslie replied with,

"Have fun and tell him I said, 'quit being shy and ask her out already!'" to which everyone laughed even harder, forcing Teri to ignore them before pivoting on her heel and making her way towards the field with a face that was growing redder by the minute.

The laughter eventually died down and the five other participants in Elmore's cheer squad continued on their way. They began talking about other things that fancied their interests and put the topic of Teri's love life aside for another inappropriate moment to embarrass her with. While moving about, Molly took one last look behind her, feeling uncertain about something and wondered if it was a good idea to leave Teri on her own. There wasn't anything Molly personally found troubling about the football stadium, but Teri was pretty frail and she was afraid that she could swept up in the wind or something. She mentally decided that she would check up on her if she was gone for too long and continued to silently keep her pace behind the others.

Reaching the rectangular entryway pretty quickly, Teri stopped herself just short of the opening and took a moment to catch her breath. She had run all the way here to quickly lose the teasing group and their constant laughter, wanting some peace and quiet to herself. Once she was alone, she placed her back against the wall and slid herself down until she was sitting. The rain outside was coming down really hard now, creating a sound like a thousand angry wasps that echoed down the halls and whited out any other noise. The clouds were very thick too, almost blotting out all the light minus the hall lights as well as a few surrounding the grassy rectangle where Elmore's most fit players would pummel each other for a ball.

This dark and noisy day was actually quite settling for the young paper puppet, being able to relax and let her heart return to its normal pace. In hindsight, she probably should have kept her mouth shut about the second person she was going to call and shouldn't have easily gotten embarrassed like that. This was seriously starting to affect her in a negative way now, seeing as she couldn't even have a discussion with someone else about Gumball without it being dragged into another series of ridiculous conversations that left her completely red-faced and feeling fluttery. This was getting ridiculous and she didn't even know why.

She knew that Gumball was the center of all of this and she felt as though she may need to discuss this with someone close to her or him perhaps. No, no, no, definitely not him, that was a bad idea in Teri's mind and what's worse is that she couldn't explain this feeling so trying to do so with him might make her sound obnoxious. It was bad enough that she already did manage to annoy him the past and doing so over something so vague might just irritate him further. Best to keep it to herself for now and figure it out later.

Right now she had a call to make and she dug out her phone in order to dial up her mother. She thought about also explaining her weird feelings towards Gumball, but was kind of on the fence with that one. She knew that her mom could be very serious, but there was also the concern that she would start joking around the moment she brought it up. Sighing to herself, she decided to drop the matter altogether and just focus on what she had to do.

She scrolled down to her mother's contact info and was about to hit the "dial" button, when all the lights within the area went out, including the one's within the hallway. When it occurred, Teri at first had no clue what was going on and stood up frightfully while scanning her immediate surroundings. It was really dark now, despite it being noon, although there was a little sunlight that slightly lit up the veil of clouds and gave her a little bit to see from. Her first thought was that the storm disrupted the power, seeing as it was pretty heavy, but she got the real answer when she heard something in the distance.

It was the sound of someone screaming, but not just anyone: it was Gumball!

Clearing her thoughts from before, Teri snapped up to her feet and peered out into the rainy outside, trying to locate the source that was definitely Gumball's terrified shrieking and found nothing in the football field that stretched out before her. With the sound getting louder, Teri grew increasingly desperate to figure out what was happening and stepped out into the grassy flat area to get a better vantage point. The cold rain striking her skin like a million soft beads of water did nothing to deter her and she wondered to herself why she could hear Gumball screaming yet, have no bearings on him.

She scanned the bleachers, but still had no luck,

" _Oh my gosh, why can I hear him screaming, better yet, why is he screaming? The power is out, so there must be a Nephilim nearby, but why would Gumball be here too? I have to find him and I have to save him! Oh my gosh, where is he?"_ her internal monologue was just as frenzied as her attempts to locate her cat boy companion.

Then, in the sky above, Teri spotted something. It was very large and was coming in fast, descending upon the stadium like a bird of prey returning to its nest. To Teri's horror, she saw that it was a giant with butterfly wings and a dress made of human-like arms. What really caught her attention though, was the small figure that it carried within its hand and with a closer inspection, she saw the form of a cat boy wearing gym clothes and wielding a scythe in hand.

There were a few things Teri could have done in that moment: she could have screamed, she could have called out to him, or she could have rushed out there in some vain attempt to help him. She didn't do any of these things because none of them would have altered the current situation playing before her. She didn't even have her tools with her because she left her bag in her locker before she headed off to join Carmen and the others for practice. In other words, she was completely helpless to do anything and could only watch despairingly as the Nephilim lifted a struggling Gumball upwards with only one arm,

"Why don't you take a seat, seeing as you're so exhausted." laughed Tartarforas as she reeled her arm back before pitching the male kitten towards the rows of chairs that surrounded the player's arena.

Like a bullet from a rifle, Gumball shot straight towards the seats and slammed into the ground with enough force to break multiple chairs. He was knocked out as a result and Teri screamed when she heard the painful sound of his body snapping the plastic chairs into smaller fragments as well as the sight of him bouncing off the ground and draping over another chair, coming to a complete stop in the process. She couldn't tell if he was dead or not, but given the speed of which he was thrown as well as the fact that he wasn't moving was a clear warning that something horrible had happened to him and was possibly in critical condition.

Screaming again, Teri started to run towards where he was, which just so happened to be across the field and in the middle of the seating area. Her feet made light squishing noises on the wet grass and her heart pounded like a jackhammer in her bosom as she was kicked into high adrenaline mode. She wasn't sure what she would be able to do given what she saw, but that didn't matter because she just wanted to make sure he was still alive and that she could get him out of here to safety. While her mind was completely on Gumball's safety, she had forgotten about her own and didn't realize what the Nephilim was doing until it was too late.

From the top of her vision something bright lit up and she was forced to stop to check it out. Instead of a giant lady with butterfly wings and a set of glowing eyes, all Teri could see was a swirling column of burning red flames snaking its way towards her. With her primal fear of fire kicking in as well as her realization that the Nephilim had spotted her, the paper pre-teen was sent from a stationary position to a full on sprint back to the main entryway from whence she came. The entire time she ran, she could feel herself cursing this very action because she was abandoning Gumball in order to preserve her own life, but seeing as she lacked any proper defenses against the shape-shifting monstrosity, there was very little she could do now.

She heard the flaming column crash down behind her, scorching the earth as its flames fanned out and she could feel the intense heat wash over her backside, prompting her to run faster. She was very close to the tunnel now and could possibly escape this monster if she kept going. But what was she to do afterwards: if Gumball was still alive and she left him there with the Nephilim, then surely it will finish him off and what if it chased her down this hallway? She wouldn't have a chance against it unarmed and what if she encountered her friends down there as well? Surely they had left the stadium at this point and given that the Nephilim EM fields don't spread very far, they probably haven't noticed, but what if they stuck around and were heading back here to investigate? They would all be in trouble one way or another!

"There has to be a way out of this!" she whispered desperately to herself, as she looked around for any other paths that lead out of the stadium.

Down the racing track that circled the football field she could see another exit that lead to the northern parking lot and she figured that she could try running there instead. Changing her direction, she made a break for the other opening and prayed that the Nephilim wouldn't catch her while she ran. Despite the constant rainy torrent that was drowning the sports stadium, Teri could see that the fire was still raging behind her and wondered what this Nephilim was like in terms of abilities.

While she pondered this, she heard someone calling to her and when she stopped to see who it was, she was horrified to see that it was all of her friends from the Elmore ducks cheerleading squad,

"Teri, what is going on here?" Molly asked, staring at the flames with a mixture of awe and confusion.

"We wanted to see how you were doing and then we find you here in front of a blazing inferno!" Sarah commented, sounding very vexed.

"What did you do?!" an alarmed Carmen asked in horror.

Teri ignored all of their statements regarding the strange fire and what her possible involvement was, trying instead to warn them to leave and to stay away from the football field,

"Guys, get out of here! It's not safe, there's something really bad here and-!"

From the red flames, a beam of light matching in color shot out and swept the area, catching Carmen, Molly, Leslie, Sherry, and Sarah in one fell swoop. The five students were instantly vaporized, burning away into nothing with a single agonized, yet brief scream from all of them. Just like that, they were gone and there was not a thing Teri could have done about it.

Nothing happened at first, Teri just watched as the world seemed to slow down to a crawl and not even the heat from the fire, nor the stinging cold from the rain could reach her. _What just happened?_ was all she could say to herself, as it all seemed so unreal, like a nightmare and that she would wake up any moment now. It wasn't though, she could feel everything that was happening and right now she could already feel the tremendous weight of loss starting to crash down on her.

But the terror did not stop there,

"Teri?" another familiar voice called in question.

Unsure of what to think, the bear-shaped paper cutout just turned slowly to the ones from behind and felt another oncoming force of dread bearing over her. Moving down the racing track, at a steady pace with horrific looks on their faces, was her mom and dad. This had to be a nightmare, not only did she just witness her friends turn to dust in probably one of the most brutal acts of murder, but now her parents were here somehow and were about to see, or rather not see, the horrible reality that she had been painfully hiding from them.

"Mom… dad… why are you…?" she struggled to ask, her voice as well as her mind completely broken from everything she had bore witness to,

"GET AWAY FROM HERE!" she screamed, remembering that they were in danger and that she couldn't do anything to protect them, like Gumball and her friends.

However, her desperate shrieks did not seem to reach them, as they just continued to stare at her as well as the blazing inferno behind her with looks of shock and disappointment,

"Did you do this?!" her father snapped, his face contorted in anger and his pace sped up as he angrily marched towards her.

"How could you?!" her mother shrieked, her tone and speed matching her husband's.

Teri backed up quickly, away from them now, she hated seeing both her mother and father angry, especially at her, and even though it didn't happen often, every time it did was enough to send her reeling in absolute fear. She knew that they did whatever they could to keep her safe and that's why honesty was crucial to them. Any time she broke these rules was enough to set them off and while they did nothing to hurt her, their anger, frustration, and sometimes shame was horrible enough on its own and made her feel even more alone and hateful towards herself.

Seeing them acting like this, especially towards something that she was desperately trying to handle, but couldn't control was just breaking her heart even more. She tried to open her mouth to say something, anything to defend herself with, but there was no way she could explain herself or the horrible situation that was playing out before their very eyes. How could she explain something that was unseen to them and yet, was able to cause so much disaster to this city?

They didn't seem keen on waiting for an answer, as they both continued to tear into her with their accusations and expressions of disappointment,

"We come all this way to see what you were doing and you decide to set the football field on fire?" her father snarled, his brow furrowed together in rage.

"What do you think is going to happen when we have to answer to the police and tell them that not only did our daughter set fire to public property, but also murdered five students!" her mother was hysterical now and looked like she was about to pull her own ears off.

The younger Pepakuma continued to back up and kept a cautious gaze towards the flames, the Nephilim could strike at any second now and she needed to get them out of here,

"But, I didn't do this!" she shouted back in defense, tears almost filling her eyes now,

"I can't explain right now, but you have to leave now! You're not safe here!" she begged, hoping to save them from the same fate that her friends had met.

This seemed to further enraged her father as the rectangular paper bear man exploded in anger as he pointed a single digit in her direction,

"Don't you dare talk to us both about safety! Everything we do is to keep _you_ safe and look what you've done behind our backs! We've trusted you and not only have you been keeping secrets from us, but your reckless behavior has killed multiple people!" he was getting closer now and Teri could already see him looming over her now.

"You've always been careless with the safety of others. Your insistence on hygiene has endangered us all and has also left you isolated, No wonder no one wants you around!" her mom added in, joining up with her husband.

And then something began to happen, forming on their skin were horrible infectious blotches and diseased lumps that protruded from their very bodies. Teri's voice was caught in her throat as she watched the rapid decay of her parents and her mind was whirling with terrified questions as she didn't understand what to do. Was this one of the Nephilim's tricks? It had to be because she wasn't the cause of this, she couldn't be, she tried to keep everyone safe and her methods were supposed to prevent all of this from happening.

Yet the sickness that was spreading over her parents like wildfire told her otherwise.

Unable to take it anymore, she dropped to her knees and just started to cry, to scream out in sheer desperation to make it all stop. She clutched her head in her hands and closed her eyes tightly, desperately trying to block out the morbid image. She continued to scream as her parents made their way towards her, hands outstretched as they prepared to tear her to shreds with their rotting fingers and at this point, Teri wasn't sure if death was a better alternative to experiencing all this hell.

Then another voice broke the air of despair surrounding the poor girl as well as the tormenting illusions,

"Leave my Teri alone you ugly, rotting, disease ridden, cheap imitations!" shouted an incoming Gumball, who had miraculously survived being thrown at breakneck speeds into a stadium full of chairs and concrete foundations.

Startled and caught completely by surprise, Teri watched in amazement as Gumball came tearing through the immense inferno and leapt over her crouching form, landing behind her fake parents in a single bound. Before the realistic depictions of her folks could so much as turn around and face their sudden foe, Gumball made short work of them by cutting the two diseased Pepakumas in half. The two paper bear adults melted into silver goo and vanished into the ground, leaving Teri and Gumball alone.

While seeing her parents getting cut in half by her trusted companion was rather jarring to see (and she didn't care if they were only realistic imitations, it was still unsettling to watch.), she was glad that the horrid image had vanished and that Gumball was somehow okay. She thought about her cheerleading teammates who had perished not too long ago, but then wondered if that too was just an illusion.

Either way, she was just really glad that Gumball was here and that he could help her defeat this nightmarish Nephilim. Getting up, she first just stared at Gumball, who just kept his gaze on the ground before scanning the area for any other possible threats and then finally settling his attention on her. He flashed her a smile that was wrought with both relief and concern, as he began to make his way towards her,

"Oh thank goodness you're okay! I was temporarily knocked out when she threw me into the stadium and when I came to, I saw a fire and then I saw you in front of your parents and then I-!" he was cut off when Teri rushed over and wrapped her arms around him,

"Wait, wha-! Um, did something bad happen?" he asked, completely thrown off by the hug she was giving him.

She didn't answer and instead continued to hold him tightly. She was just glad that he was alright and that he saved her when she was at her most helpless. She was so worried that he was badly hurt or worse, dead and that she was going to join him as well as everyone else here. She just needed some reassurance that things were going to get better and that they still had a chance of pulling through this without anymore damage.

"Thank you…" she whispered into his ear, she thought she was going to say something else, but didn't know where to start because she had already been put through a lot in just those few minutes alone and was just glad that he was here.

Realizing the emotional state she was in, Gumball didn't ask any more questions and hugged her back. They stayed like that for a minute before Gumball quickly pulled away and raised his scythe again. When Teri looked at him in surprise, she saw the crescent blade rising and Gumball had donned a serious look on his face,

"I'm glad that you're okay." he replied in a comforting tone that didn't match the face he was making,

"That Nephilim is Tartarforas and she is capable of generating life-like copies of our worst fears to attack us with. She's very strong and I haven't found a weakness, yet." he explained, his eyes shifting towards the fire that had spread somewhat over the field.

Teri also found herself turning about to view the fire that was blazing behind her, it was more like a bonfire now and the red flames were wildly flaring into the darkened sky without giving off any smoke, strange enough as it was. Seeing as the body of flame had no physical weakness, Teri wondered if it had a weakness elsewhere and wondered if there was a way to locate it. If it was anything like the Nephilim Leliel, then maybe it's body was just an extension of its real form that was kept nearby.

She didn't have her gear with her, but she could be a great help to Gumball by being an extra set of eyes,

"Okay, Gumball, I'm going to scout around for a possible weakness and I want you to protect me in case she-!"

SHCK!

She didn't see it coming. How could she? Within an instant, both of her legs were cut clean from her body by the curved blade of Gumball's scythe. She had only caught a glimpse of it, but that didn't stop her from wondering as she fell, _why?_ She thought that she knew better, she thought that she could trust her own instincts, she was wrong, and she was stupid to have believed that the person who had come to save her was actually Gumball, yet she believed it anyway.

She fell face first into the grass, tasting the freshly cut plants in her mouth as well as feeling the prickly sensation of all the grass blades brushing up against her face. This didn't matter to her of course, as she was quick to flip herself onto her back and when she stared down at where her legs used to be, all she saw were two stumps that had been cut cleanly through by the now-grinning, sadistic entity that was staring down at her with eyes that were twisted in sick amusement. The wicked Gumball look-alike spun the scythe around with some expertise as it rested the weapon on his shoulder and began to quietly approach the girl who's legs lay in front of her like useless shreds of paper.

Despite knowing the dire situation she placed herself in, Teri began to use her hands to move herself backwards and away from the approaching monstrosity,

"Horrifying isn't it?" the Nephilim asked, the darkened sky barely doing anything to mask the menacing look splayed across her false face,

"To be betrayed by someone you love and trust so much. Actually, I find it quite hilarious because I always thought that you were the smartest of the two. The other idiot charged in thinking he could take me on himself and you, well you're just a useless burden!" she spat, insulting the poor girl who was still trying to get away.

She was getting real close now and in a desperate attempt to somehow save herself, Teri raised a hand to her,

"Please, stop!" she begged.

As quick as a cobra strike, the Nephilim swung the scythe and took off the upper part of Teri's hand as well as the upper tip of her thumb. Teri screamed in pain and retracted her fingerless hand, cradling it in her other one. The Nephilim merely laughed at this, her voice sounding painfully like Gumball's own and this somehow made it hurt even worse. The Nephilim began to change once again, this time forming into a small living cloud and when Teri got a closer look at her hollow, empty eyes she recognize this form as Masami.

The little cloud also wore the same psychotic grin as her previous form and she leaned in even closer until she was only a foot away from her face,

"You know for all your talks of ridding the world of disease, you sure do have a habit of making everyone sick to death of you." she said, her voice now sounding like Masami's now,

"I say you should let nature run its course and rot, for the sake of everyone else." she jeered, before turning black and stormy, much like Masami did when she was angry.

Teri felt her blood run cold when Tartarforas uttered those words through Masami's mouth and another horrible memory cut back into her mind like a knife through a canvas. Last year, she had finally managed to get someone to come over to her house to spend the night and that someone just so happened to be Masami Yoshida. It took a lot of convincing on her end, but she finally managed to get her to consider spending one night at her place and just like that, she was having her first sleepover with someone she considered a friend. She knew fully well that not a lot of people would have considered her request due to her rather obsessive traits with keeping everything sanitized and when Masami decided to come over, she was determined to get on her good side.

However, things didn't work out so well for her and while she did her best to keep her germaphobia at bay in order to have a fun time with her slumber pal, her constant nagging and insistence on making sure that she was having a good time seemed to only get on the cloud girl's nerves. Feeling bad for her overbearing nature, she tried to select an activity that was both relaxing and didn't require any talking, deciding that watching TV was a safe option. Unfortunately, this too was a failure as neither of them could decide on what to watch, with Masami even going as far as saying most of what she watched was garbage, to which she tried to defend herself without setting up a larger conflict, but in the end, both of them wound up arguing anyway.

The last straw was when Masami decided to bring out snacks for them to eat, but when Teri saw what she had brought along, she found that most of these foods were probably very dangerous to her and politely refused. At that point, the wealthy cloud daughter of Rainbow Factory's owners had just about enough with Teri's ridiculous traits and questioned whether or not most of the symptoms Teri claimed to have were even real, a question that Teri was not at all happy to answer. Finally, after Teri told her to not eat in her room because of all the crumbs that would scatter about, Masami just gave up and stormed out of her room, eventually leaving her house in complete anger.

Before she left, she said the exact words the Nephilim had repeated verbatim and from that day on, Teri felt truly alone. While she and Masami eventually got on better terms, she was still fearful of getting on her bad side and did everything within her power to make sure she didn't ever annoy her. As a matter of fact, throughout the whole week she had been afraid that Masami would tell someone about their horrible sleepover and get all the other students to hate her more than they already did, but whenever the sleepover was brought up by her friends, she just didn't talk about it and Teri was grateful for that. She was more aware of her germaphobia ever since, but it never went away along with her compulsive need to clean everything and everyone of any potential microscopic threat.

Having that memory brought up again and in an already terrible situation brought Teri to an all new low causing even the pain she felt in her damaged hand and legs to feel insignificant. More tears sprung into her eyes as she curled up into a ball and just waited for the end to come. It would have been better anyway because she was completely helpless throughout this entire scuffle and even the Nephilim's insults held some truth to them.

Seeing her defeated opponent curling up and accepting her fate brought a twisted satisfaction to the psychotic giantess, but she also couldn't help but feel a little disappointed at how quickly she gave up. She guessed that these primitive ants could not hold up against what they feared the most and was ready to wipe her from the face of the Earth. One such as herself found it unbelievable that such feeble creatures were able to cause so many casualties to the mighty army of the Babyloth Republic and internally scoffed at her failed comrades.

Growing larger in size, Tartarforas morphed into her feminine form once again and prepared to fire off a doom blast at her amputated adversary, she didn't even need to activate her gravity well to hold her in place because she definitely wasn't going anywhere. She didn't have the strength nor the willpower to do so. The red orb formed in front of her raised finger, gathering heat and energy to reduce her to atoms.

Teri expected the end to come in a bright flash and followed quickly by nothingness, but didn't experience it because she suddenly stopped charging up her attack. Confused, the damaged paper puppet twisted her flat head until she could see her and noticed right away that something was up. The twenty foot black and silver abomination was looking towards the stands as though something was drawing her attention there.

Or rather someone.

 _-2 minutes earlier-_

When Gumball came to, the last thing he remembered was, well, being hurled towards the stadium chairs at a hundred miles per hour before everything cut to black and now he found himself draped across the back of a chair. One thing that surprised him right away was that he wasn't in any sort of pain when he regained consciousness and when he moved his fingers and toes, he found that nothing was really wrong. He felt the rain pounding his back and that he was cold, so he slowly got up before observing his surroundings.

He first saw the broken chairs that was caused by the impact of his body and once again, he wondered how he was not in any pain whatsoever, even his head felt fine, despite the fact that it was the first part of him to come in contact with the ground. After checking to see if he had been scratched up, he also quickly discovered that there wasn't a single mark on him and even his earlier cuts had stopped bleeding to instead resemble dry red markings. He was however, completely drained of energy and felt his fatigue tugging down at his joints.

While his mind wandered and tried to form meaningful conclusions as to why he was surprisingly unscathed when he noticed something at the top of his vision. It was very bright, contrasting the shadows the sky brought and when he first saw it, he couldn't believe it at first, but there was an enormous bonfire in the center of the football. Startled, he began to wonder what happened while he was out and his mind immediately went to Teri as he frantically began to search for her as well as the nefarious being that brought him here. After carefully scanning the area that was lit up by the open flames, he located two figures close to the red, raging inferno and when he peered in closely, he felt his blood run cold. Lying on her back and with both her legs missing was Teri and standing above her was Tartarforas shaped in his image.

From all the terrible things that this giant had presented him with: his fear of inadequacy regarding Penny and Patrick, the horror of losing his whole family, the frightening image of hurting Teri and the terror of being the monster he sometimes saw himself as, nothing was as bad, no, downright nightmarish as seeing this very scene playing out before him. Teri, his friend, his trusted companion, the one who always stood by his side the moment these monstrous invaders invaded, the one who has saved him so many times, the very person that brought him back to his old self, the girl he loved for some time now, was on the verge of death at the hands of the Nephilim he wrongly tried to take on his lonesome, the very one that beat him around like a ragdoll and brought him here so that he could suffer.

This was all his fault, he brought Carrie into this mess and eventually dragged in Mr. Rex as well, they both got swept aside, with Gumball unaware of their conditions. He ran into Rob and they fought side-by-side, but he ran out of energy, got captured, and Rob too was tossed aside, his fate also unknown. Now he was out of energy, his weapon was not in his hand and Teri had nowhere left to run, all because he couldn't be bothered to call for backup.

Without remembering telling them to do so, Gumball's legs started moving and he began to quickly make his way down the stadium towards the field below. He didn't know what he was going to do when he reached the bottom, but that was all irrelevant, all he knew was that he had to reach Teri and pull her out of the mess he made. He kept running, hopping over several chairs as he descended the rows while keeping an eye on Teri and Tartarforas, who has taken the form of a small cloud,

" _Is that Masami she's mimicking?"_ Gumball wondered why that was, but quickly brushed the question aside as it was trivial to the real task at hand.

He hopped another chair, but his foot got caught on the edge and he quickly face planted on the seat, the smell of plastic stinging his nostrils, before tumbling onto the floor in front of the seat. The feeling of his face meeting concrete was nothing short of painful and Gumball could already feel his nose bleeding from his humiliating fumble. Unphased by the pain, however, he quickly scrambled to his feet and was about to set off again, but was stopped when something caught his attention.

Tilting his head towards his right, he spotted the unmistakable glimmer of his scythe several feet from him on the floor he hit his head on, the crescent blade catching the red glow of the fire, and he realized that it must have fallen here after his first impact knocked it out of his hand. He quickly rushed over to grab it and when he did, he tried to summon some grey fire only to draw upon nothing to the blue cat's frustration. It didn't matter to him though, he was armed and a powerless blade was more than enough to draw Tartarforas away, hopefully.

He turned to the aforementioned giant again and saw that she was taking her giant form once more, forcing him to kick it into high gear. He figured he didn't have much time left, so he decided that when he got to the bottom he will shout and try to draw her away from Teri or at least try to buy her some time. He didn't care what happened to him, just as long as he could save her. He was nearing the bottom when he noticed something on a nearby bench:

A black swallowtail butterfly.

Still moving, Gumball was about to shrug it off once more until something ticked in the back of his head,

" _Wait a moment? I've seen that butterfly before."_ he realized as his eyes settled on the insect for a second time now,

" _First at the junkyard, then at Joyful Burger, though it was a little difficult to see, and now its here, of all places."_

Piecing it together very quickly, Gumball realized that it was not a coincidence and that it was most likely linked to Tartarforas. As a matter of fact, when he thought about it, Leliel had a whole pocket dimension that served as an extension of her form as well as the white plasma that she used to attack them with, but her true form was a harmless golden sphere. Same with Concretin, he could manipulate concrete into various tools and weapons, but his true form was stuck within a shell of concrete he used to protect himself with. If Tartarforas couldn't be destroyed with all his and his allies attacks then that would mean her true form is really…

Switching targets, Gumball reached the bottom of the seating area and began racing towards the bench where the butterfly sat, very small and very harmless. It was at this point when Tartarforas sensed something wrong and cancelled her attack to see where Gumball was heading to. She had sensed him coming this whole time and had planned to annihilate Teri just before he reached her, but when she felt him shift directions she was completely baffled.

" _He's going the wrong way. We're over here and he's heading down the track, right towards…!"_ her glowing white eyes lit up in pure dread as she felt the looming realization of what was happening hit her like a wall of bricks,

"NO!" she screamed, and shot towards the running feline.

It was a race now, with Tartarforas realizing that her life was about to become more finite in a matter of seconds and without the ability to catch him with a Doom blast, for he was moving too fast, she reached out to crush him with her own hands. Crashing through the fire of her own making, the two story, monstrous image began to close in on Gumball with flames clinging to her dress and lighting her up like the world's ugliest chandelier. Gumball, on the other hand, had already reached the bench and when the Nephilim realized she was in danger, the butterfly began to fly away with a quick flutter of its wings.

Too little, too late.

Before the fear-mongering insect could get out of his reach and into safety, Gumball brought his scythe down in a diagonal slash, cutting Tartarforas at the head and upper wing. The two halves fluttered to the ground like falling leaves before turning into a husk and erupting in Amethyst flames. The giant illusion, which had come so close to killing him, only managed to reach out with a single hand, her long, gnarled, claw-like fingers surrounding Gumball like a half cage before she froze in place and began burning up like her real body,

" _What I feared most happened… Jade, my emperor, I'm sorry, I failed you."_ were her last thoughts before everything faded to black.

Watching the butterfly disappear as well as the giant and the red flames, which were also an illusion, Gumball stood still for a moment before melting to his knees and dropping his scythe on the ground in front of him. The lights came back on shortly after her death, but Gumball didn't notice and just stared at where the Nephilim once was, fearing that she would reappear. She didn't and Gumball sighed in relief once he realized that her brief reign of terror was finally over. He was so tired now, everything that happened this afternoon was just God awful and he was at a loss for words and emotions. Everything just felt numb and bleak to him, he thought it was because of the rain, but given how much he was really shaking, he realized that it was more damage than just the rain.

After remaining where he was for who knows how long, his contemplation was interrupted when he heard someone cry out and with a mental knife stab to the head, Gumball realized that Teri was still here and that he needed to go to her. Getting up and turning about, he spotted her white form on the grass, still curled up in fear. With all thoughts being completely replaced with just her, Gumball raced over to Teri, his legs moving as fast as they would allow, which was not fast enough in his opinion, and settled down beside her.

Having gotten closer to her now, Gumball could see the extent of the physical damage done to her: her legs were severed cleanly at the mid thigh level and her right hand was missing its upper half as well as a thumb. She was sobbing continuously and when Gumball was first struck with this image of her mangled and defeated form, he froze up, unable to believe that this is what he was actually seeing. Then came the choked-back sob and the flood of tears that followed right after.

She wasn't damaged just physically, she was completely broken by Tartarforas and once again all the guilt came rushing back to him,

"No, no, no, no, no, no…" was all he could say, he covered his mouth with his hands and let out another sob. There were no words that could further explain just how sorry he felt and how much he would have done anything, anything, to take all of this back.

Through her troubled mind and the sound of her own crying, Teri heard Gumball letting out a sob, but feared that it was another trick by Tartarforas. When she left to go attack Gumball, having realized that he wasn't dead, Teri felt a little relieved as well as hopeful when this occurred, but after remembering how the Nephilim had easily tricked her before, she collapsed back into despair and just tried to blot out everything that was happening. Keeping her back towards him, Teri continued to just cry and ignore all the pain that was burning through her frail body, it was nothing when compared to the sheer mental strain the demonic entity's illusions brought her.

Then after a few minutes of doing what she was doing, she felt a pair of arms begin to slip underneath her.

This set her off right away, she screamed, she hollered, and she thrashed about with whatever remained of her limbs. She wound up landing a few blows on the figure, but they just bounced off with no real effect. During her frightened outburst, Gumball repeatedly called out her name and did his best to calm her down,

"Teri! Teri! It's me, uf! I'm not going to hurt you, please stop freaking out!" he desperately pleaded, having gotten smacked in the face mid-sentence.

Hearing his voice begging her to calm down, Teri was still certain that this was some kind of trick and continued to struggle, that was until she heard him starting to cry. Upon hearing this, she slowed down and took a good look at him. She saw that his face was now wet with tears and was now quietly pleading with her. Her arms slowed to a stop now, and then she decided to cautiously take a look around the immediate area. Through her own tearstained eyes, she noticed that the fire was gone, the lights were back on and that there was no one else there besides Gumball and her, she even saw that the spot Gumball had landed in when he first arrived was vacant.

Having noticed that she wasn't fighting anymore and that she was now looking at him with recognition instead of with frenzied, frightened eyes, Gumball gently spoke up,

"Teri, it's alright, she's gone." he said, looking back towards the bench where his scythe was sitting.

The paper girl also peered in the direction he was looking and saw the same sight he was seeing. It was the same place the giant ran off to when she noticed him and even though she was still scared beyond belief, something told her that this was the real Gumball. Looking back at his face again, she saw no hints of betrayal and his eyes, despite being red from all the crying, were full of concern, warmth, and friendliness,

"..." she wanted to say something, but everytime she opened her mouth to do so, nothing came out. She didn't know what to say, everything that happened left her speechless and the only anchor that was keeping her from slipping away in another sea of terror was the person sitting beside her. Could she even trust her feelings now?

Luckily she didn't need to say anything because not a second after she closed her mouth, Gumball threw his arms around and let out another bawl,

"I'm so sorry!" was the first thing he said after crying for a full minute, before he repeated himself a few more times,

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." he continued to sob into her shoulders as he hugged her tighter, almost as if he was afraid to let her go.

There was no doubt now, this was definitely Gumball, and Teri felt a breath of relief leave her before she too began crying. She wrapped her arms around him as well and held him tight, not wanting to let him go either. They didn't know how long they stayed like that, it could have easily been five minutes and even the shower of rain that was coming down barely touched their senses. In spite of the damage caused by Tartarforas, the two were now back together now and were just overjoyed that they were alive.

They did come to their senses eventually, Teri being the first and asking that Gumball bring them both out of the rain. Gumball complied and scooped her up in his arms, taking a moment to gather her discarded limbs as well. He then brought her to a small booth located at the stadium's entrance, having to kick the door open because it was locked, and once the two of them were safe from the rain, Gumball searched the place before finding some tape and glue in a drawer located beneath the desk.

Both kids remained in relative silence as Gumball helped reattached Teri's limbs, first by gluing the torn areas together and then placing tape over the sealed areas in order to keep it together. Once they were finished, Gumball inspected her injuries and saw that they did a good job patching her up. He asked her if her parents would notice and she assured him that it wasn't going to be a big deal, that she could come with a pretty good explanation on the fly.

Another pang of guilt ruptured from within Gumball's heart and he felt his eyes lower to the floor in shame. The booth they were sitting in wasn't big by any means, about the size of a small office, but it felt even smaller to him now. Teri took notice of his sudden change in emotion and realized that he appeared regretful,

"Gumball…" she was afraid to ask this, but given his reaction to her injuries, there was something she really needed to know,

"...what happened today? I left to go to cheerleading practice and you went home to sleep, so why did you show up with a Nephilim carrying you here?" her airy voice was quiet, but stern.

Flinching, Gumball grabbed his upper left arm with his right one and felt his gaze shifting away from her questioning one. He knew this was coming, but he couldn't bear to answer the question because the answer was already painfully obvious to begin with. If there was anything he wanted to do right now, it would be to vanish, to disappear from this and not have to face her disappointment with him. He hasn't said anything yet and she hasn't reacted either, but to the blue cat, it already happened and standing here with her was already tearing him apart.

Seconds ticked by and Teri was still awaiting his response. However, there was no need for him to answer, it was right there on his face and in his body language. For Teri, who's been through all sorts of horrible things in her brief time on this planet and thought that she could push herself through even harder things to come, the moment this realization came to her, the pain that Tartarforas, no, all the Nephilim and all the bullies in her life inflicted upon her paled in comparison to how she was feeling right now.

Sitting still, Teri's tears began to flow from her eyes and she lowered her head into her hands as she started to weep. When Gumball saw this, he too began to cry,

"Teri, I'm so sorry." he apologized, even though he knew the damage had already been done.

Like a hunter stepping on a rattlesnake, Teri's head snapped straight up, her eyes filled with hurt and rage, the likes of which Gumball had never seen before on her,

"FOR WHAT?" she roared, being unable to hold back the anger in her voice,

"What did you do, Gumball?" she asked, her voice dropping volume very quickly, but the venom was still there.

Jumping back, he was on the verge of breaking down and leaving, but for some reason his feet had become like lead, forcing him to stay where he was. It was pointless to answer, he knew this, she knew this, but she wanted to hear it from him and he knew she was going to want to hear it now. Gathering up his courage, Gumball wiped the tears that were welling up in his eyes with his forearm and allowed a sigh to escape his pursed lips,

"I-I tried to fight the Nephilim on my own." he finally said, his voice a little shaky now.

Crossing her arms and still glaring at him, Teri didn't seem impressed,

"Way to state the obvious. What happened?" she asked again, demanding that he fully explain himself.

And then Gumball told her everything that had happened right after they departed. He told her about the dream, his decision to take it on by himself, running into Carrie on the way there, her interrogation, the entire fight in the landfill and the _Joyful Burger_ restaurant and concluded the explanation at the skirmish in the football stadium. He left some things out though, like the fact that the Nephilim had shape-shifted once into Penny and into Teri, his miraculous survival in the stands and the realization that he was in love with Teri. He was still confused about that, but now was not the time to dwell on such matters.

Having quietly listened through his entire explanation, albeit with a look that could melt steel beams, Teri remained still for some time, giving Gumball the chills when a full ten seconds passed by and still nothing happened. She wasn't crying anymore and neither was he, but the atmosphere was still thick was tension and Gumball felt as though he were suffocating in it. Then, finally, did Teri move, quietly getting up and placing two fingers on the bridge of her nose while squeezing her eyes shut,

"So Carrie knows now, does Mr. Rex know too?" she questioned, still not looking at him.

Gumball lifted his drenched shoulders once before releasing them and shaking his head slightly,

"I don't know, she was possessing him and from what it looked like, Carrie was in complete control." he explained as best as he could.

Placing her hand back down to her side, she turned to him and gave him another frightening glare,

"Well, I'd hope he doesn't remember, but now that he's suffered some damage, he's going to have to try to figure that one out on his own." she hissed,

"Did it ever occur to you that your careless actions could have landed Mr. Rex in the hospital or worse, left Tina an orphan! She's already got it rough as it is and how do you think that kind of tragedy would have affected her had you screwed up!" she was raising her voice again causing another involuntary flinch from the Watterson kid.

"I know that." Gumball responded defensively,

"That's why I tried to defeat Tartarforas on my own and for the record, I wasn't the one controlling him, Carrie was!" he snapped back.

This caused another outburst from the paper bear, who was now a bit more active with her retort,

"First off, she was there with you because you were careless and got caught, second, she only came to your aid because she thought you were in trouble and she was correct!" she shouted, waving her arms while she spoke.

She had him there, there was no way he could have known that the ghost was by the graveyard when he passed by and even if he did manage to avoid her, he would have been overwhelmed by Tartarforas' many projections. Even Rob told him that he could have avoided being detected had he just called one of them to get a lift and if he had either one with him, defeating the evil giant probably would've gone a lot smoother. Going at it alone meant that he had no backup, he was lucky when Carrie agreed to help him, but when Tina's father was also brought into the skirmish, it could have easily resulted in someone getting killed. Mr. Rex's death could have easily been on Gumball's hands.

Going through all of this, Gumball knew that there was no way to defend himself and just tried to apologize once again,

"I'm sorry, I was just trying to make everyone's life easier by being the first to respond and take care of the Nephilim. It didn't seem like a threat and I want you guys to do the things you love without having to worry about fighting them all the time." he said, his ears flattening against his head in sorrow.

This wasn't anticipated by Teri, who just paused for a brief moment to look at him with shock and disbelief, and she shook her head in dismay,

"Gumball, every time we fought them we never left those fights unscathed and there were moments where we could have easily been killed. Do you really believe I would rather be cheerleading while you're off on your own, getting hurt or worse?" her voice was no longer angry and was replaced with hurt.

it was a rhetorical question, but Gumball shook his head anyway. Of course she would be upset if he was all alone and putting himself up against a foe that gave not only just the two of them, but even Rob a hard time. Putting himself in her shoes, he would probably have reacted the same way had he found out that she or anyone he knew for that matter did something so stupid.

Seeing that he was on the same page, Teri decided that it was now time to call it quits for today and began to make her way to the door. She was tired, wet, and worst of all, in pain, not just physically, but emotionally. She just needed to get home and process all of this while also not seeing Gumball, she was just too upset to deal with him any time soon.

"I'm going home." she muttered quietly, with some bitterness,

"Please don't talk to me or follow me." she added as a final warning before opening the door and disappearing out into the empty hall.

Gumball was about to reach out to her, stop her, and ask for a second chance or just do anything for her to forgive him, but he only found himself staring at the empty doorway. She didn't want to be bothered. She was upset. With him. If he were also to be fair, he was upset with himself too. Feeling as though something were pulling down at him, Gumball found a seat in the chair and put his head in his hands, he wanted to cry, but found that his eyes were already dry, so he just sat there in silence.

" _Why? Why do I always mess everything up?"_ he silently cursed himself.

He could have sat there all afternoon and evening pondering that question, but there was something that wouldn't allow him. After silently contemplating his failures for some time, he checked his phone to see what time it was when he realized that he had gotten several messages from both Carrie and Rob. Seeing their names light up on the screen, sent another wave of guilt through him before he pushed aside his self pity and decided to answer Rob's message first.

Putting him on dial, Gumball raised the phone to his ear and waited for him to pick up,

" _Gumball, is that you?!"_ Rob's frantic voice sounded through the speaker.

Normally Gumball would have thrown some sarcastic quip his way as a response to such an obvious question, but seeing as he was already tired and beat down (both literally and metaphorically.), he just got straight to the point,

"Yes, I'm alright and don't worry about the Nephilim, I took care of it." he stated simply, his voice groggy and hoarse, a result of his earlier crying,

"How about you? I saw you get smashed through a car window and you weren't moving afterwards." he asked, genuinely concerned about his ally's condition.

There was a pause and then a surprised response from Rob,

" _I'm doing fine, I was knocked out for a bit, so my head hurts a little and there are still glass shards located in places all over my body. Ow!"_ he shouted in discomfort as he plucked out another one from his elbow,

" _So, you defeated Tartarforas? That's good, um, was anyone else hurt?"_ he asked.

" _Teri was."_ was the first thought that came to his mind and he had to fight off another wave of sadness that threatened to send him into another bout of tears,

"Um, about that. She carried me all the way to the football stadium, where Teri was doing cheerleading practice, she wanted to kill her so I would suffer even more and Teri got attacked as a result." he replied, a stroke of sadness prevalent in his tone when he reached the last bit.

On the other end of the line, a raspy sound could be heard and Gumball figured that Rob was sighing. He was probably worried or at least frustrated with what was happening. Gumball didn't get to know because Rob just asked a question soon after,

" _Is she alright?"_ he asked finally.

Gumball thought about lying and telling him that she was doing well with the two of them brushing this fight off as though it were like any other. But it wasn't though, and no lie can cover up how she was feeling, especially with the possibility of her not wanting to fight by his side any more. It could be very possible that she was done fighting altogether.

"No, she isn't." he said, feeling the brutal honesty of those words smash his heart to pieces,

"She was attacked and came very close to dying, but I managed to save her in the end. However, she was really upset when she found out that I went by myself and… and… she doesn't want to talk to me anymore." he couldn't stop himself, he was crying again and Rob could hear it clearly on the other end.

" _Okay, okay, okay, I get it, things went a little sour between you two and-Hey! You listening?"_ he shouted into the phone speaker, causing Gumball to sniffle and start rubbing at his eyes.

After he managed to collect himself a little, he held the phone up to his ear again and sputtered an apology,

"I'm sorry, I just- I'm just feeling very stressed right now and- and I just hate myself because I was so stupid and-!"

" _Hey, hey, HEY! Listen up, would you!"_ Rob shouted over Gumball's self harming speech, cutting him off completely,

" _You're right and so is she, you were very stupid! Heck, words can't even begin to describe how furious I am with you, but that's not what I'm going to focus on. Right now, I want you to go home and rest, then tomorrow, you can start making things better by straightening this out between you two. I would talk to her myself, but she's got a closer connection to you, so that's your responsibility. I'm going to do you a favor and handle the Nephilim from now on, while you focus on clearing things up with Teri."_ he proclaimed.

This came as quite a shock to Gumball, if he was correct then he could have sworn that Rob was doing him a solid. A small, barely traceable grin made itself present on Gumball's face as he reveled in the fact that his arch nemesis was helping him out with a problem and actually found it pleasant to have him being considerate for once. There was one issue Gumball had with this arrangement and he quickly brought it to Rob's attention,

"Okay, but are you sure you will be able to handle this on your own because I hate to break it to you, but trying to convince Teri to forgive me may take more than one day." he replied somewhat nervously.

" _That will not be a problem, I have multiple weapons and devices at my disposal as well as plenty of runes that I haven't field tested yet. If I need any help, I'll call you and pick you up straight after, but for now just worry about the current issue."_ was the response that came over the phone and if Gumball was to go by anything, he was sure that Rob meant what he said.

This made the cat child relatively happy and a feeling of ease came to him, a feeling that he had been longing for ever since the fight with Tartarforas began. He thanked Rob for his help and the cyclops told him to take it easy and that he was heading home to go rest as well before hanging up. The moment his phone went silent, Gumball dialed Carrie's number and while he waited for her to pick up, he walked out of the booth and started to make his way home.

A few seconds passed before there was a clicking noise and Carrie's voice sounded on the other end,

" _Gumball?"_ she asked, her monotone voice giving off a slight hint of concern.

Still walking towards the exit, Gumball spoke to the emo ghost after confirming that she was there,

"Hey, Carrie. I saw all of your messages and I just wanted you to know that I'm fine, the Nephilim is dead too." he briefly explained.

" _I know, I sensed its death a while ago and I'm glad that you're okay. I can now see why you kept this a secret and I just wanted to let you know that I'm sorry for my angry outburst earlier."_ she said, adding in the apology out of guilt.

Shrugging his shoulders up and down, Gumball breathed a sigh of relief and felt some tension leaving his body. He was glad that she was okay and he wanted to know if Mr. Rex was okay too, seeing as he hadn't meant for either of them to get dragged into all of this. Teri was right about him being careless and had the Nephilim decided to act differently, both Mr. Rex and Carrie could have been killed.

He kept the phone close to his ear and spoke in a calm manner,

"No, it's alright, you had every reason to be upset because you sensed that something was wrong and you wanted to make sure that everyone was safe. You were just looking out for Teri and I." he was being genuine, having thought it over when his fight with Teri had ended.

A relieved sigh could be heard from his end and he heard Carrie tell him something about the fight itself,

" _You know, I've had my fair share of encounters with evil spirits before, but this experience brought something to me that I thought could never happen. For a brief moment, I really thought I was going to disappear, just like that, and then I wouldn't be able to see anyone any more. When you're like me and you've lived a few centuries, there is no fear of death because that's just what you are and that's how it's been for me since, well, forever. If these things are capable of bringing death to those who are already dead, then they must be stopped."_ she declared.

It was very odd to hear Carrie talk about that, but it was also just as odd to hear her talk about her own fear of death. Being an immortal ghost was simply just a fact to Gumball and the others, a fact that was just as absolute as the sun forever shining and that gravity would always pull you down to the Earth no matter where you stood. The Nephilim came here with the intent of destroying the living and the dead, sending a feeling of absolute resolution that flooded the Watterson's eldest child's mind.

With his fist clenched, he nodded in agreement and spoke his mind to Carrie,

"I couldn't agree more." he announced before bringing forth his next question,

"By the way, what happened to Tina's dad?" he demanded to know because he was very afraid of what may have happened to him after he saw Tartarforas knock him into a trash pile.

" _He's fine, he took a couple hits (which was totally my fault.) and I put him back in his home before I went off to look for you. He isn't going to remember anything when he wakes up because I used my power to knock him out before possessing him. What happened to you by the way? I sensed the Nephilim fly towards the school, but I couldn't get there fast enough because my teleportation only works at short distances."_ she asked after answering Gumball's lingering question.

Seeing as that was quite a lot to tell and Gumball really wanted to get home to rest up, he dodged that question,

"Um, it's quite a long story and I'm feeling a bit ragged right now, so I'll tell you later at school." he replied with a yawn.

" _Gotcha. Listen, I'm going to help you and Teri out with this Nephilim problem, I can do some research down in the Underworld about the giants and perhaps ask some folk that may have lived during the time they were alive on Earth."_ she relayed her plan and Gumball got it pretty easily.

He was about to wish her good luck and hang up soon after, but there was something he nearly forgot,

"Sounds like a plan and I was also wondering…" he paused for a moment to get a response from the incorporeal speaker.

" _Hmm?"_ was all that came from her.

Taking that as his cue, Gumball continued,

"Could you please keep this a secret between just you, me, Teri, and Rob? You know how dangerous these guys are and I don't want to send the entire city into a panic." he pleaded. He was actually very nervous when asking this of her and his palms were sweating a little.

There was a long, uncomfortable silence at first before he finally heard her voice again,

" _I don't know about that, I mean, can I at least tell Darwin? I don't like keeping things from him and I'm sure both of them along with Anais' friends are getting closer to figuring everything out."_ she said, her voice containing some anxiety.

Gumball suspected an answer like this, but he couldn't risk anyone else finding out about the giants that have been attacking Elmore for about a month now, _especially_ Darwin. He knew it was asking a lot out of her and he didn't like it either, but he was already afraid of everyone else reacting out of fear, or the worse-case scenario, everyone he loved getting involved only to get hurt or worse in the process. Then the vision Tartarforas showed him would come true and he was determined to make sure she remained wrong.

Rubbing his thumb along within the crook of his index finger, Gumball took a deep breath and calmed himself,

"Darwin can't know either." he answered, his tone somber,

"You know what he'll do if he finds out, right? He'll either freak out or he will try to follow along to make sure we're safe. I don't know if he can see the Nephilim or not, but that's not a risk I'm willing to take. Carrie, I'm begging you, please don't tell him or anyone else." he asked in a pleading tone.

Another round of silence, Gumball swore he could feel the conflict shrouding the ghostly female even though she was nowhere near him. He knew, without a doubt, that both Carrie and his little brother shared a close bond as two people who were in love with one another and that asking this of her was in some degree breaking that bond a little, but he was one-hundred percent positive that this was the better alternative. He feared the worse though and was scared that he was going to have to explain a very difficult situation to his little sibling when he got home.

However, this proved not to be the case when Carrie finally gave her answer,

" _Okay, I won't tell him, but I can't promise that I can keep it from him for too long. When he wants to know something, he can be very persistent and also very perceptive."_ she said and Gumball could feel his shoulders slump downwards as all the wound-up tension left his system.

He wished that she could further guarantee the secrecy of the ongoing invisible conflict, but this was the best he could ask for and he was thankful that she was cooperating,

"Thank you." he breathed,

"I promise that once this is over, we will tell everyone everything and you won't have to keep any other secrets from Darwin." he proclaimed reassuringly.

" _Okay, I will also help out by leading them astray whenever the Nephilim show up, that way you have a little time to fight and get away before they come to investigate."_ she added in after thinking about it,

" _Anyway, get some rest and I will see you at school tomorrow."_ she said on a final note.

Gumball replied, stating that he will do so and wished her a good day, thanking her once more for all her help before hanging up. Now alone in the long, winding corridor and in total silence, the blue kitten began to go over several things in his mind. His focus was mainly on Teri and how he was going to apologize to her, but after giving it some hard thinking, he decided it was best to give her some space, probably for tomorrow too.

He was still upset with everything that went down back there and wished to himself that he could have done things differently. He believed that he would never intentionally bring harm to her, but he did, and now she was angry at him. When thinking about this, he felt as though he let not only Teri and himself down, but her parents as well because every time they would leave together, they would make him promise to keep her safe. This stung even more because over the course of time that he spent with her, he did come to believe that this was his duty and wanted to do everything he could do to fulfill that responsibility not just for his own sake, or the sake of her parents, but for the sake of making sure Teri was happy.

He knew now today that he was indeed in love with her, thanks to his enemy understanding what he feared the most, which was hurting the person he loved, and was able to use that against him. Ironically, despite her death, she was still able to bring harm to both him and his paper companion, like some sort of revenge from beyond the grave. To be honest, he's fought so many Nephilim at this point and all of them were able to dish out considerable damage, but this one managed to go beyond physical damage and hurt him in the one place the other's couldn't.

He could just picture Tartarforas laughing triumphantly in the world beyond the living and such an image was enough to bring a crude scowl to his face, putting him in a darker mood.

He soon found himself stepping out of the stadium's interior and back into the pouring rain. It was lighter now, but still very cold, causing Gumball to break into a bit of a jog in order to get home as quickly as possible. Right now, all he cared about was getting back to his dwelling and removing the fatigue wrought upon him. His parents were also bound to be home soon as well as his siblings and he wanted to make sure they were okay, even though what he saw wasn't real. He would sort through his feelings and his plans for tomorrow once he was well rested.

 _-Rob's duplex, 1:27 PM-_

Stumbling through the door, a sopping wet Rob threw his car keys in the glass jar he kept on a shelf located next to the front door and dropped his bag underneath said shelf. Making his way over to the couch, he wanted to just flop down on the cushions and rest his sore body. He was covered in multiple cuts, which he'd bandaged up after he stopped alongside the road (he didn't have any blood to spill from his body, but whenever he received damage, his figure would glitch out even more and make it harder to perform any functions unless he treated his injuries.). There was a pretty good reason he always preferred to take the Nephilim on at a distance mainly due to his lack of skill when it came to close quarters combat and when he found his gun again, he saw that the barrel was partially melted after making contact with the Nephilim's skin when he pistol whipped it. Grumbling to himself, he placed the rail cannon back into his bag to deal with later and was not looking forward to constructing a new outer casing for the rail cannon's barrel.

Another thing that irritated him today was the fact that he couldn't make the trip to the void thanks to the Nephilim's surprise attack that left him with multiple injuries and the combined fact that he was going to have to cover for both Gumball and Teri now until they could sort out their issues. The only reason he cared for such a thing in the first place was simply due to the fact that both his nemesis and the flimsy hypochondriac were actually an effective team when it came to fending off the invaders, which gave him the necessary room to advance in his research and development of magic-enhanced technology.

Feeling the warm air of the apartment greet him with a comfortable embrace, Rob could feel his senses getting dull and gravity was already threatening to pull him down to the carpet, which felt surprisingly comfortable under his feet. It made the couch even more inviting, but sadly, the couch was to remain out of his reach until he put his equipment away. Once he was in the living room, his eye swept the empty living domain and found not a single person there.

" _Guess Rachel is still asleep or probably out on a walk or perhaps, at a friend's house."_ he wondered to himself, feeling bummed at her absence. What he witnessed today made him very uncomfortable and when he thought about Rachel, he just wanted to see her fine and healthy.

Deciding to put his equipment away, Rob made his way towards his room and came across Rachel's bedroom door. He thought about pressing his ear against it to see if he could hear her in there, just to make sure she wasn't home, but decided not to and went straight for his domain. He strode towards his private sleeping quarters and wrapped his hand around the doorknob before twisting. He didn't get a chance to turn the knob all the way when his hand distorted and began to painfully glitch out, causing him to clutch it tenderly as he groaned in pain.

Then he heard Rachel's bedroom door swing open, slamming against the wall, and when he turned his head, out stepped a drowsy-looking Rachel.

Standing there in the door frame in a simple black night shirt, the rainbow lass looked like a total mess like she normally did when she woke up. Her colorful, frizzy hair was all over the place and sticking up in odd angles, dark circles lined the bottom sides of her bleary eyes and her movements appeared very sluggish. She let out a yawn while slowly stretching her arms and Rob took that opportunity to quickly open his door to toss his bag on his bed before shutting it once again. Luckily this seemed to go unnoticed by Rachel, who had just finished her yawn and let her arms flop down to her sides before turning to look directly at the cyclops,

"Morning, Frankenstein." she yawned while rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

Rob checked his phone and saw that the clock read 1:32,

" _Must've slept all day again."_ he realized before sighing inwardly,

"It's half an hour past one, genius!" he greeted with some snark.

She stood there for a moment, thinking about what he just told her and then came to the conclusion that she had been asleep for quite some time. Rob then found himself caught in the cyan-skinned girl's wrathful gaze as she made her way towards him and began rapidly punching him in the shoulder. It didn't really hurt, as a matter of fact she was so tired that her shoulder punches were even weaker than usual, but Rob found himself already trying to back away from Rachel's adorable assault,

"You don't have to remind me and when someone tells you _"good morning!"_ , you're supposed to respond with the same thing!" she exclaimed, still lightly punching his shoulder.

"Heck no! If you're going to sleep past noon then greet me properly with a _"good afternoon"_ you bed-headed goof!" he retorted all the while trying to slip past her so he could escape to the kitchen.

Before continuing the debate regarding proper mid-day etiquette, Rachel's vision had adjusted itself and she could see that Rob was covered in bandages. This put a halt to her barrage as she stepped back to further inspect the damage done to her cyclopean roommate's body and when she saw the full extent of the damage, a hand flew up to her mouth as several questions began to take up her headspace. Rob noticed her frightened reaction and realized that he had completely forgotten about his injuries causing him to freeze up as soon as he realized this.

The silence between the two was brief when Rachel quickly began speaking after getting over her initial shock,

"What happened to you? You look like you were pushed through a wood chipper!" she gasped.

Now Rob was lucky that all the security footage in _Joyful Burger_ was wiped out by the Nephilim's EM field, so no one could find out who had threatened Larry as well as the other two customers during the black out. He was going to have lay low for the next few months though because all three people present in that restaurant were eyewitnesses and could prove quite a threat once they provided the police with their descriptions of him. Knowing that there was no way Rachel could find out about his involvement regarding the incident at the fast food joint, the disfigured inventor was able to concoct a story on the fly and he told her his own version of what had transpired,

"Oh, um, I was testing out another one of my inventions in the Northern woods and it kind of blew up in my face." he quickly blurted out.

This didn't put any ease on the teenage girl's mind mainly because this was always a concern of hers when it came to her best friend and his secret projects. She never understood why he was always obsessed with building devices that she rarely got to see herself, but she knew that he had to have some common sense when it came to these things and that he would be cautious enough to avoid any accidents while testing his new designs out. Seeing him like this was the exact reason she stresses out about him being by himself and constantly messing around with machines, anything could go wrong,

Pinching the area where the bridge of her nose should have been, she shook her head and let out a disappointed sigh,

"This is why I keep telling you to get some sleep before you start working on these mad science projects of yours, you're not careful when you're tired!" she groaned.

Rob felt his shoulders relax when he found that she believed his story, only to feel them rise up again as soon as he recognized a few flaws in her argument,

"Hey now, just a sec! You don't sleep much either, especially during the school week!" he shot back.

Rachel felt her hand slide down her face in a clawing motion that dragged on some of her skin before it dropped back down again and her face was that of a fed up sibling,

"At least I still get good grades and can function like a regular person during the daytime, and for the record, MOST OF MY PROJECTS DON'T BLOW UP WHEN I MAKE A MISTAKE!" she finished with a shout that rocked the hallway, causing Rob to shrink back a little in fright.

Rob blinked once as soon as her shouting came to a stop before pulling himself out of his shock and raising a finger in objection,

"Number one, regardless of whether I get enough sleep or not, I know what I'm doing and I rarely get injured from my mistakes and two, what do you mean when you say "most of my projects?"" he pondered, giving her a quizzical glance.

Realizing that this was going nowhere and that she was still too groggy to further this argument, she found herself pinching the space between her eyes while sighing for the umpteenth time. Man, he drove her crazy and if she could count the various times his activities stressed her out, she could fill an entire log with all the incidents that have occurred since the day he found her. At least he wasn't doing crime anymore, that was one thought she could enjoy and she looked up at him after feeling the tension slowly leave her system,

"Do you need to see a doctor?" she asked, motioning towards the bandages that covered his upper torso.

Rob wasn't sure if there was anything a doctor could do to help him, seeing as his body was a bit of an anomaly after leaving the void and he wasn't even sure they had enough to afford a visit to the hospital. Plus, he was a fast healer so he wasn't too worried about his injuries, but he was glad that Rachel was concerned for him. It made him feel like he belonged here,

"No, not really and besides, it's no big deal, I'll be feeling chipper as soon as I wake up from my nap." he said with a smirk.

Rachel merely nodded and smirked herself before stumbling off towards the kitchen,

"Okay, you enjoy that while I go make myself a cup of coffee and watch _Mr. Majestic_." she said back to him.

Feeling the weariness tug at him again, the polygon cyclops turned about and began to open the door leading to his room where his warm bed awaited. He hoped that he wouldn't be receiving any nightmares regarding invisible giants while he slept, but lightly brushed it off when he remembered that the Nephilim only appeared once a day and probably won't be back until tomorrow or the day after. When he thought about nightmares, his mind wandered to Tartarforas and the image of Rachel's breaking form came to mind once again, cementing him in place with fear. Quickly turning back to the doorway, he called out to Rachel and watched her peek in the hallway from the kitchen,

"What?" she asked, brushing some of her snarled hair out of her face.

"Are you okay?" he asked back, placing both hands on either side of the door's wooden frame.

A perplexed look made itself known on her tired face and she tilted her head in confusion,

"What? Why are you asking me that? Is there something you think is wrong?" she responded.

It then came to him that she wouldn't know what he was talking about because she didn't know about the Nephilim attack today and he mentally facepalmed himself for asking her something without thinking about it first,

"Um, I uh, was just worried about you because I, uh, heard you crying a few times at night and thought that it had something to do with… _that place._ " he said, nearly whispering the last two words.

Her eyes widened a bit when he mentioned the former dimension that held her prisoner for so long as well as the negative effect it had on her after she had been liberated and she found her fingers already starting to fidget in discomfort after having to relive that memory. Rob noticed this and immediately felt bad for bringing that up. He was about to just tell her to forget about it when she spoke up,

"Oh, you heard that." she said, feigning surprise,

"Um, yeah, I'm fine. I just- I sometimes worry about that and other things too from time to time." her voice was shaky as though she were about to break down, but she swallowed her fear and looked Rob in the eye again,

"But it doesn't matter anymore. I'm happy with what I have and I'm glad that I have a chance to move on. But, um, thank you for asking." she said with a pleasant smile, although her black eyes still showed unease.

This made Rob feel slightly better, he was actually shocked that she went ahead and admitted that some of the past events were keeping her up at night. When Tartarforas showed him that image of her breaking down at the loss of her previous life as well as the life she had gained before forming into the void, it set off all those fears he held for himself and for her too. He was glad to see that while the void's influence still had a lasting effect on both of them, they were still able to move on and leave that behind. At least she was able to.

After an air of quiet had befallen the duplex, Rob felt it necessary to break the silence before he went off to bed,

"Great! I'm glad that you're doing better. Um, if you ever want to talk about it, then we can do so, I mean, I'm here all day most of the time and I could always use a break from my mad science projects, like you suggested." he stated, feeling as though he made the right decision in telling her that.

This brought another smile to Rachel's face and the shorter teenager nodded in appreciation,

"Thanks, I really appreciate that." she said gratefully before disappearing back into the kitchen,

"Now go rest up!" her shout came from the other room.

Rob couldn't agree more with her command and closed the door before making his way towards his mattress. He felt slightly guilty, not just for lying about the Nephilim attack but also for the fact that Rachel was trying to move on from the void in a natural way while he was forcing himself to find an artificial amendment to the void's trauma. Every time he saw her happy and heard her talk about moving on, a part of him wanted to just accept that way forward and give up on the quest he put himself on. However, as long as he had hope that he could repair the damage done to them both and defy fate altogether, then he was more than willing to go the extra mile. To him, he was saving them both, he was being the hero, and what better way to prove it by doing the impossible. He knew he was going to be busy tomorrow, but like someone who enjoyed their work, it didn't really bother him that much and he was able to go to sleep with a smile on his face.

 _-Elmore Junior High cafeteria, September 23rd, 2013, 12:08 PM-_

Mondays are supposed to be terrible as was decreed by Miss Simian and for once, Teri found herself agreeing with the ape. When the paper girl reached her abode yesterday, she ignored all the texts and calls coming from her friends on the cheerleading squad (although she was happy to see that they were alright.) and went straight to her room without saying anything. Her mom was home, she gave her the biggest hug when she saw her and when she asked to help her with the chores, she did so without saying anything at all and kept on a mask of apathy throughout the entire ordeal. Her mom then wanted to ask her some questions, but when she saw that Teri was not in the mood to talk, she let her go without further inquiry. This was highly unusual to the Pepakuma child because she knew her parents to be strict and when they wanted answers they usually hounded her until they got them, so her mom letting her go without a further question was rather odd.

Regardless, it didn't really matter that much to her and she spent the entire evening in her downed mood. After waking up from a terrifying dream that replayed yesterday's events only with Gumball's nightmare image actually killing her this time, she got her morning chores done like she normally did and got ready for school. On the bus, she saw Gumball sitting by himself and when he waved at her, she passed on by without even acknowledging him. He must have known that she was still upset over yesterday's incident because he looked very cautious and when she didn't reciprocate his gesture, he didn't call after her or even attempt to further grab her attention.

Classes went by in a blur and she barely noticed anything the teachers were saying, instead thinking about how she barely avoided death once again all the while being completely helpless to do anything about it. It was terrifying and humiliating to be brought down so easily like that and it brought her back to when she encountered Silver Twelve for the first time, where all she could do was helplessly run away until she came across Gumball. Every time she thought about the blue cat, bitterness would creep into her mind and she would often find herself grinding her teeth in anger and disappointment,

" _Looks like I was right all along, I am useless! Gumball didn't even bother to call me yesterday before he went out to fight that monster and all the while he was getting hurt, I couldn't do anything."_ her thoughts stung as they burned through her mind,

" _First we agree to fight the Nephilim together, then he tells me that I'm important and that I've been helpful, and then we train together. And for what?! Despite all that we've been through, why do I still feel like I've been put on the back burner?"_ she questioned herself with some self-loathing. She really hated feeling useless and while most of her anger was directed at the kitten in particular, she was still mad at her own feebleness.

She wondered if she should even bother to fight the Nephilim anymore, especially if Gumball wasn't going to be a team player all the time. She figured she could try teaming up with Rob, but given his secrecy and general solitary behavior, such a team-up didn't seem favorable. So with both boys acting like lone wolves, what was she to do?

While she played around with her food, she thought about what Gumball had said to her and deep down, she knew that he was trying to do something nice, but it didn't change the fact that he still betrayed her and her trust in him. She didn't know which felt worse, being at the complete mercy of a genocidal monstrocity or being backstabbed by someone she considered a close friend. She thought about these things while she continued to poke at the disgusting peas the cafeteria served up as lunch,

"Now there's a face I can sympathize with." a voice came from beside her.

She slowly turned her flat head to the side and met a single black eye accompanied by a simple, white transparent face that somewhat smiled back at her. It was Carrie of course and before Teri could wonder why she was visiting her at her lonely table, she remembered when Gumball mentioned that Carrie found out about the Nephilim conflict. She didn't say anything back to her, but she did allow her to take a seat right next to her.

Once the ghost had set her tray right next to hers, she waited for her to say something and when she didn't, she spoke herself,

"I'd ask how you're feeling, but given what kind of stunt Gumball pulled yesterday, I can see that you're quite upset with him." she said, as she started levitating the peas until they formed a spinning ring.

Teri felt her plastic fork start to scrape the inside of her tray, listening to the little screeches the utensil's teeth made against the plastic surface and she tried to keep her voice steady,

"I think using the word "upset" doesn't do the feeling justice, betrayed is better, but that doesn't begin to compare to all the things I would like to do to him. Did you know that shallow wounds sting a lot because that's where the nerve endings are located? Would be awfully painful if some lemon juice was poured on some poor sod's paper cuts and that's just the light stuff I can think of." she snarled, covering her feelings pretty well in that statement.

While Carrie wanted to say she was stunned to see Teri acting so venomously towards someone, she was actually able to understand Teri's pain rather easily. Yesterday, she saw how strong the Nephilim was when she first arrived, she even managed to save him before he was overwhelmed by killer spiders and right then it became abundantly clear to her that Gumball was not used to fighting the Nephilim on his own. If Darwin ran off to go do something so dangerous without telling her, she too would feel betrayed and probably become resentful for a little bit,

"I see. I agree with you on the betrayed part, I noticed how Gumball was handling the monster on his own and I understand why he needs you there to help him. That's why I came to his aid when things were looking real rough." she said, glancing occasionally at Teri to see her reaction.

"Well, I'm glad he had someone to help him out, Jade knows how many times someone needed to save his hide whenever he was up against something he couldn't handle." she grumbled, unable to hide the disdain in her voice.

Now the ghost girl was unsure as to whether she should be worried that Teri was resentful towards her for helping Gumball out or that she was angry at Gumball for choosing another companion over her, even if it was unintentional,

"Yeah, he is a bit of a mess when left on his own, I mean, he left his scythe at the stadium yesterday and Molly found it. He's lucky that she came to me first with the weapon and didn't even ask any questions when I took it back. He really needs to be more careful." she explained, folding her arms and giving her hair a toss.

Teri didn't say anything afterwards and just went back to messing with her food. Once again, the fact that he thought he was good enough to go out on his own and somehow managed to find himself in a dire situation soon after left her at a complete loss of words as to why he did the things he did. It was almost funny really, the simplicity of it all and Teri could almost feel a smile creep onto her face, not a pleasant one though.

Watching Teri's movements, Carrie set her peas down and began messing with the milk in her carton,

"You know, I understand why you guys kept this whole thing a secret and the more I think about it, the more I begin to understand it all. When I battled that thing yesterday, I gave it my all and almost died in the process. I mean, me, an immortal ghost, nearly met my demise at the hands of another spirit. I have never been so terrified throughout the entirety of my existence, yet Gumball had a plan like he always does and worked to help destroy the Nephilim. It made me realize how much you guys must go through. Were you just as terrified when you went up against them the first time?" she asked, showing a side of her Teri rarely saw.

Having been slightly moved by what she said, Teri set down her plastic fork and intertwined her fingers together before pressing them against her upper lip while resting her elbows on the table,

"Of course I was. Back then, I didn't even have magic to fight the first one and my only option was to run until…" she trailed off when she found herself about to finish the sentence with, _"I went to Gumball's place, as my first option too."_

She realized that both she and Carrie were caught in the same situation during their first encounters with the Nephilim, albeit with their conditions in reverse. Gumball never stood a chance against the Nephilim on his own, yet relied on them to make his plans work. However, this realization didn't help her mood one bit as it further proved her point as to why Gumball needed her when it came to these situations,

"Where are you going with this?" she finally asked, turning a suspicious glance in Carrie's direction.

The emo ghost merely sighed and dropped her milk back in the carton, showcasing that she was serious now,

"I want to help you guys in your conflict." she said.

An eyebrow rose and Teri was taken aback,

"What?" she responded in confusion.

"Well, seeing as I already know what you three are up against, I figured you guys could use an extra pair of hands, I mean don't tell me you guys aren't feeling just a bit overwhelmed?" she explained while keeping her voice and gaze steady.

She had a fair point, as much as Teri wanted to keep anyone else from getting involved in their own little war, they were kind of in a pinch right now and with the way things are currently, a little extra help was needed. It made her wonder if she should confront Gumball and form a team once again, but her bitter side told her otherwise. He made his choice, he didn't need her help apparently so why should she reform a team with him.

Taking her silence as an answer to her question, Carrie continued,

"Anyway, I'm sure you guys are in the dark as to how to actually defeat the Nephilim, correct?" she further inquired, having seen Teri doing some research in her spare time, although she wasn't sure what it was at the time.

Feeling as though her incorporeal friend was reading her like a book, Teri slowly nodded and looked to her for the answer she was about to receive,

"Well, I don't really have the answer either, but I can visit the Underworld to dig up something there." she said.

"True, but the Nephilim are also attacking the world as a whole, there are even others like us. There's gotta be someone alive who knows more about this than we do, but we're not sure how to find these people." Teri quickly added in.

Carrie acknowledged her with a simple nod and spoke,

"I see. Well, living or dead, there are people who can help us and I'm sure I can find them if I look hard enough." she proclaimed positively. Then she remembered something else and quickly got to it,

"Oh, and there's something else you should know, Darwin and Anais are on to you guys." she explained urgently.

With her eyes lighting up in recognition, Teri knew who she was referring to, but asked anyway,

"Gumball's siblings?" she asked.

Uttering a positive grunt, Carrie continued,

"Along with a couple of her friends too, but yeah, basically. While I'm sure Anais has just been looking into all the strange situations surrounding Elmore and you two, Darwin and I have had our suspicions for quite a while now." she said somewhat nervously.

Teri felt a palm race up towards her forehead and the impact of her own hand sent the top of her head flying backwards before recorrecting itself. Of course they knew too, she knew that there were only so many times she and Gumball could sneak around before people started catching on. While she was fine with silly rumors cycling around about the two of them, she really wanted to be inconspicuous and even tried fixing up these issues by creating a schedule to help keep them in school during the attacks. She'd hoped that no one would catch on this soon, but given Carrie's senses and the other Watterson's perceptiveness, they'd wound up figuring things out sooner rather than later. This was a disaster!

Sensing Teri's distress, Carrie raised her arms and got her attention by telling her the good news,

"But that's why I'm helping you guys! Darwin doesn't believe I'm in on the secret and thinks I'm helping him along with the others, but I promised Gumball that I would keep your problem a secret, so I'm going to keep them off your backs." she said reassuringly.

The paper bear's face lit up a bit and she turned to the ghost with a bewildered expression,

"Really? You'd lie to your own boyfriend? Isn't that messing with his trust because if it is and it damages your relationship with him then I don't want you to go through such measures." she said, hoping to avoid even more disasters, especially if it involved a friend.

There was a momentary look of discomfort on Carrie's blank face before she resumed a more composed appearance, she was getting really bad at hiding her emotions and she mainly blamed Darwin for that,

"It doesn't sit well with me." she replied earnestly,

"believe me when I say this, lying to Darwin is the absolute last thing I would ever do, but after Gumball told me how dangerous the situation is and from what I've experienced myself, I too would rather keep him out of it. I love him and as much as I hate doing this, I want to keep him safe too. That's my biggest reason why I'm helping you guys, I want to end this quickly so that way I can keep him and everyone else safe and not have to lie anymore." she was rubbing her own arm now and looking away.

This struck a chord with the only child of the Pepakuma household and Teri felt even more sympathetic towards the spirit. She remembered her own grief towards having to keep something so big from her own family and realized that Gumball must be going through the same troubles as them. He even had to ask Carrie to keep a secret from Darwin, her boyfriend and Gumball's little brother, surely this must have been a hard decision for both of them. It was really odd how contradictory this all seemed: in order to keep everyone they love safe, they have to harm them in some way.

After taking a moment to think about all of this, Teri slowly lifted herself from her thoughts and came back to her ghostly friend,

"I'm sorry to put you through all of this." she apologized, although it was technically Gumball who made her promise. This whole situation started when the two of them decided to take on the burden of fighting the Nephilim themselves.

Turning, Carrie's eyes met Teri's and she gave her a small smile,

"Thanks, but you don't really need to apologize because like I said, I know what you guys are going through and I understand why you kept it to yourselves." she responded kindly.

Teri shook her head and leaned forward a bit,

"That's just it though, I want to apologize for keeping this from you and having you worry about us constantly. I should've known that as a ghost, you would be able to sense them and that you could have helped us because this is a spiritual matter, as bizarre as it may be." she explained regretfully,

"I'm sorry." was her finishing line and she really meant it.

While Carrie had long since forgiven the kitten and paper girl for being so elusive, her apology was enough to stun her to silence. She knew that all of this had to be hard on the two of them and their reasoning to foot the bill all on their own was understandable, yet she still felt remorseful for what she'd done. Teri cared deeply for those around her and was showing that through her own apology,

"Thanks." Carrie said, finally responding.

Teri gave her a weak smile before turning back to her food, she was still upset, but felt relieved to get all of that off her chest to someone. She and Gumball have been through all of this since the beginning and both of them understood how they felt about the whole conflict, but being able to apologize like this to someone who was fairly new to the whole situation took a huge load off her shoulders. Plus, she was glad to have another friend to share all of this with.

After a few moments had passed, Carrie got up with her tray and began to leave the table. However, before she could completely wander off, she turned once more to Teri, who had been watching her leave with curiosity. She didn't know what else she had to say, but given the look in her eye, Teri could tell that it was going to be something heartfelt and important.

The floating spirit cast a glance towards Gumball's table, then back at Teri once more,

"I'm not defending him for what he did yesterday, but I think he did it because he really cares about you." she said softly.

Teri just stared at her, not really giving a response. She knew that he went on his own yesterday because he thought he was doing her a favor, but all he did was cause her more trouble than necessary. Regardless, Carrie understood this and continued her statement,

"He understands how stressful this all is and I think he wanted you to enjoy your life. Yes, he's an idiot for taking on such a daunting task and for thinking that he knows what's best for you, but what I'm trying to say is I know he wouldn't do this with the intention of hurting your feelings." she finally said before drifting back to the table where Gumball, Darwin, and Clayton sat.

She said her good-bye and left Teri by herself. Once she was gone, Teri let out a long winded sigh and set herself back on the task of playing with her food. She was actually glad to have some more alone time because she was now thinking about Gumball's reasoning for his actions yesterday. Unfortunately, she was still angry at him and thinking about the matter just burned her out even more. She couldn't finish the meal she hadn't even started, so she dumped it in the garbage bin and walked out of the cafeteria, towards the nurse's office.

On her way out, she caught a glimpse of Gumball playing with his food, completely removed from the world around him and she realized that he was in a miserable rut too.

" _Good."_ she thought bitterly to herself, although deep down, she knew she didn't mean it.

 _-Watterson residence, September 25th, 2013, 6:27 PM-_

The weather hasn't been very pleasant all week, which wouldn't have been a problem for Darwin because the optimistic goldfish always believed something could be done indoors and wouldn't even let the gloomy weather set the mood for him or anyone else that was around. However, the past three days haven't been very pleasant in the slightest and some of that could be attributed to how the residents of the Watterson household have changed in those three days. Sadly, the changes everyone had undergone weren't exactly the best and Darwin was starting to worry that there was an actual crisis in their hands.

Sitting on the living room couch while reading a book he checked out from the school library, he heard his brother playing computer games upstairs in their bedroom, but paid it no attention. He found that his brother was in a sour mood that started last Sunday and has persisted for the past three days. He knew it had something to do with Teri seeing as when he came home Gumball gave everyone a big hug and when Mrs. mom asked him what was wrong, he dodged the question before disappearing upstairs. The way he hugged everyone made it seem as though he were checking to see if they were okay and while that was odd, the next three days Gumball and Teri have been avoiding one another.

He asked Carrie if she knew what was wrong after seeing her talk with Teri during lunch and she told him that they were going through a difficult problem, but didn't allude as to what that problem was. Well it certainly explained Gumball's behavior, but that was really bad for him because he couldn't ask Gumball about anything that included her. It was already frustrating as it was to barely know what he was doing, but he wasn't the only one annoyed by that aspect, as a tiny, pink bunny came into the living room shortly after him thinking that and took a seat right next to him.

His eyes left the page he was on and soon landed on the face of his five-year-old sibling, who was waiting expectantly to start questioning him,

"What are you reading?" she asked politely.

Saving the page he was on, Darwin shut the book and held it up so its cover was facing her,

" _Trident launch_ , it's a book about an alternate timeline where World War three is happening in modern times and this guy named, Callus Foster, captain of the U.S. naval submarine _USS Water Sprite_ has to track down an enemy sub that threatens to nuke the entire west coast and destroy it before the war reaches America." he explained cheerfully.

This brought a question Anais' mind as she gave him an odd glance,

"Isn't that a little violent for your tastes?" she asked, knowing that her adopted brother was very sensitive when it came to violent stories.

He didn't seem bothered though and just continued to beam at her while tapping the lower portion of the book's cover where the author's name was listed,

"A little, but it was written by Max Ackerman, the same guy who wrote one of my favorite adventure books _Squid-Sub_ so I wanted to branch out a little and see his other works." he happily chirped before setting the book beside him.

Anais nodded slowly, his explanation made sense, but if the author had written other books that were adventure oriented then why Darwin didn't go for those ones made little sense to her. However, that was not a topic worthy of talking about, plus she had no right to judge other people's tastes in literature and got to the reason why she came here. She knew that it was just her and Darwin in the living room, seeing as Gumball was still sulking in his room and both parents were out with dad's lady friends. She heard them mention something about a loss within the group, but she was too busy looking into things to really pay attention to what was going on in her dad's life, also she found dad's identity as Samantha rather weird, but didn't judge.

Scooting closer, she spoke softly in case Gumball decided to head downstairs,

"Have _they_ been doing anything suspicious as of late?" she asked in her hushed tone.

Darwin knew that Anais was referring to Teri and Gumball, which he still felt odd for interrogating them and having Carrie spy on them. Luckily he had nothing to report and told Anais what he's observed in the past four days,

"Nope. Teri's still mad at him and Gumball's still sulking about it." he replied with a shrug.

A loud smack was heard in the living room and Anais fell back in her seat with a palm placed upon her big forehead,

"Ugh!" she groaned, the top of her head already burning from the slap,

"Do you even know why she's mad at him?" she growled, not taking this too well.

Once again, Darwin was in the dark on this one,

"I'm not really sure." he shrugged,

"Carrie only told me that they had a disagreement of sorts, but given that they constantly argue like a married couple, I have a feeling that some time this week one of them will apologize and they'll make up." he said with his usual optimism.

Anais rolled her eyes and let out another frustrated sigh,

"Well I hope it's soon because I know it had something to do with Sunday. Macey called me that day telling me that Chimera had a dream that something came to the landfill and when I got there, I saw signs of an immense struggle and then later on, the _Joyful Burger_ restaurant on Rauster rd suffered a blackout before sustaining serious damage and then the football stadium lost power too. Something was moving between these locations and given the evidence it looks like a battle was going on." she listed down to the quietly attentive fish boy.

"Do you think that the monsters Chimera is seeing in his dreams are attacking Elmore?" he suggested.

This was definitely a peculiar topic for the scientifically inclined five-year-old member of the family, for she knew things like spirits and monsters do exist in this world, although most of these entities do not pose much of a threat to civilized societies. Therefore, it was completely plausible to say an invisible force was attacking their city, for if they couldn't perceive the threat what was there to stop such forces from wreaking havoc amongst them. It was a disturbing idea to think about, but monsters and spirits were a part of their reality and seeing as the world held many secrets, the emergence of a new threat was undeniable.

"Well, seeing as things like ghosts and monsters do exist in our world, it wouldn't be difficult to say yes, but we got to know what's really going on around here. If there are people who know about these things then we need to find out what we can because if it's true and monsters are attacking Elmore, then something really needs to be done." she declared before getting up from her spot on the couch, which actually involved her hopping down from the furniture seeing as she was so small.

Curious as to where she was heading, Darwin asked her where she running off to and she told him that she was going to make a phone call to Macey. She wanted to know what the monsters looked like in Chimera's dreams so that she could gain a better idea as to what to research. Getting ahold of Chimera wouldn't be that difficult seeing as he lived in the Barnes' shed out in the woods and Anais told him that she was going to be on the phone for a while. Leaning back in his spot, Darwin picked up his book and started flipping through the pages.

He was actually glad that Anais was on the case, but he was also kind of sad, seeing as that's mainly what she obsessed about ever since she decided to further start investigating. He didn't mind these days of gloomy rain, but when his family members were wrapped up in their own little problems, it made him feel very lonely. He was scared, he didn't know what was happening and while the abnormal happenings were frightening to hear about, he didn't like how much his relatives were wrapped up in these events.

Ironically, he was so wrapped up in his book and in his own worried state of mind that he completely missed Gumball coming downstairs and marching towards the door,

"I'm grabbing some groceries, be back in a little bit." Gumball said with a look of determination written all over his face.

He closed the door and set off into the rain while Darwin sat on the couch with his nose in the book. He thought he heard something, but didn't pay it much attention and continued to read his book. He liked these simple little stories and wondered why the world couldn't be this straight forward.

 _-Pepakuma residence, 8:12 PM-_

Sitting at her desk, Teri continuously scribbled away at her homework, her thoughts lost in the biology assignment Ms. Simian gave her and the others as well. Today was wednesday and she had been busying herself with schoolwork to keep her mind off of certain things. It was honestly very odd for her to be having a normal school week and not having to worry about fighting every day. According to the various texts Gumball had sent her, Rob had taken over fighting the Nephilim for both of them and that there haven't been any appearances since Tartarforas. She never replied to his messages, but she was glad for the break nonetheless.

She was writing down the final page in her review packet when she heard the knocker lightly tapping her door and she allowed whoever it was to enter. Her mom came in, a little wet from the downpour while wearing her white medical coat from work and Teri could smell the scent of her office lingering around her, so she must have just gotten home. The circular Pepakuma approached her from the side, offering a little greeting before peering at her homework assignment,

"What are you working on, Teri-bear?" she asked, smirking at Teri's eye roll at the usage of her pet name.

"A review for Biology class, we were going over different biospheres today. After that, all I have left is Chemistry and some reading from ELA 2." she said, feeling very accomplished because those were the last ones out of many and she loved reading, so she was saving that one for last.

Nodding her head in approval, Yui checked the packet herself and found no notable errors,

"Good job so far, remember to turn this in tomorrow and don't forget to drop off that permission slip for the school field trip as well." she commanded,

"Are you excited? San Francisco is a pretty city and is way bigger than Elmore. Your father and I have lived there for quite a while before you were born and trust me when I say it's a lovely place!" Yui stated cheerfully, her eyes shining with nostalgia.

Teri was always happy to see her mother get excited about the things going on in her life, but she didn't share her enthusiasm. Her classmates have been going on about this and even Gumball told her that he was very happy to go, but despite everyone's eagerness and anticipation, she herself wasn't all that fond of the city. Actually, any city made her exceedingly nervous and being far from home didn't exactly make her feel any better, especially with all the things that could happen.

She tried her best to smile, but the rest of her face couldn't match her fake enthusiasm so she just gave up and came out with it,

"No, not in the slightest. I hate being in places with lots of people, too many places being touched and so many possible infections ready to happen." she said with a disgusted shiver,

"Sorry, but I'm not going to put up with that kind of stress, I have enough on my plate as it is." she then turned back to her homework and started checking it over.

For a moment, Yui just silently stared at her daughter, slightly baffled by her mood towards the trip and then folded her arms across her chest,

"Teri, I know you just want to keep yourself safe and I admire your dedication to proper hygiene, but you need to relax. You can't spend all of your time stressing over little things, you'll just keep yourself from enjoying life as it is and I honestly think this field trip will be good for you."

"Besides, what about that one time your father and I took you to _Daisy Land_? You certainly weren't concerned with germs while you were trying to ride the donkey train." she remarked, lightly tapping Teri's shoulder.

Flipping her head to the side, Teri looked her mother in the eyes and noticed her sly grin before letting out a breath,

"I'm just trying to stay safe and I don't want to bring home any sickness that could affect you two as well." she explained, remembering the horrible images of her mother and father being diseased ridden at the football field.

She shook the memories away and went back to her homework,

"And for the record, I was nine back then! Of course I was naive!" she added with a huff.

Again her mother was silent, but with that same smile on her face. She knew her daughter was just being silly and while yes, she was indeed worried about her safety that didn't necessarily mean she wanted to sap all the excitement from her life. She was glad that her little Teri was cautious and could keep a level head, at times. She had no doubt that Teri was going to go on this trip with her friends and enjoy herself while she was there.

Speaking of safety and friends, Yui's smile melted into a small frown when she recalled her encounter with Nicole Watterson the other day at the grocery store,

"While we're on the topic of stress, there's something I've been meaning to get to since last weekend." she said, casually bringing up an important matter.

Teri's hands froze and the trail of ink her pencil left stopped at the edge of her paper, she was feeling very nervous as to what her mother could possibly be alluding to. Did she find out about the attack in the stadium yesterday? Her friends had brought it up in class a few times in regards to her disappearing on that day, Carmen herself said that she along with the other girls noticed the blackout and Molly even went back to go check on her.

She quietly turned to look at her mom, but kept silent and listened,

"I met Gumball's mother while I was out shopping on Sunday and she told me that her son was coming home with cuts and bruises." she said, her calm voice failing to hide the alarm that was present.

" _Oh Jade, she knows!"_ Teri thought with fright while keeping a straight face.

"She told me that it all started when you two began hanging out and I told her that you were also coming home with various injuries right around the same time." she walked over and took a seat on Teri's bed, her stern face riddled with questioning concern now,

"Teri, I don't want to think you two are getting into trouble, but is there something going on that we're not getting? Are you being bullied or... is there something going on between you two." she asked, her tone having a slight edge to it.

It took her a bit of willpower to keep herself from breaking down and fessing up, but she knew given the nature of the question that her mom didn't suspect anything otherworldly. No, she was sensing a problem with her and Gumball's relationship and while she didn't really want to talk about the blue feline right now, she knew that her mom was noticing the pattern with her injuries. She needed to work her way out of this without getting both herself and Gumball in trouble.

Taking a deep breath, Teri's mind worked up a simple excuse that she gave to her caring mother,

"Nothing's wrong, we're both just a little clumsy when we hang out with each other." she said, adding a little snicker for effect.

Unfortunately, Yui didn't seem to buy into this explanation because it was too vague and she knew that her daughter wouldn't be on the cheerleading squad if she wasn't well-coordinated. Gumball on the other hand, she could actually see being very klutzy because he wasn't exactly… observant. Pursing her lips, Yui folded her arms and her glare became a bit more intense, causing the other paper girl to tense up,

"Teri." her mother said, her soft voice being replaced by something very cold,

"I know when you're lying. You're too careful to be stumbling around, though I am curious as to how Gumball managed to get so far in life when he's so… you know, but that's beside the point! I know something happened between you two because you were very upset when you came home from cheerleading practice, which also happens to be the last day you two hung out with another and you were all cut up when you came back." her voice was louder now and Teri could tell her mother was reaching a breaking point,

"So please, just tell me what's wrong. I don't like it when you come home hurt and it tears me up inside when you try to lie about it."

More silence. Teri didn't know what else to say, it was already difficult for her to keep so many things from them, to keep them from worrying, but now she knew something was up and it was getting harder to keep getting away with it. What if she did tell her? What if she just let the truth be known that they've been fighting invisible giants that were responsible for all the terrible things happening around here? How much worse would things get from there? Could they get any worse? Would she have to say good-bye to all her friends in Elmore and leave the city for some place safe? Is that how far her parents would go if she told them?

It all seemed so simple, yet horrifying in its own right and Teri did not want to face those possible consequences,

"Gumball and I…" she had to think about this, it had to be really convincing or really honest, for her mother's sake,

"...we're… taking care of a baby bird in a tree that's in front of the school!" she lied, this time keeping a simple expression.

This seemed to catch Yui off guard as she had to pause for a moment before uttering a,

"Huh?"

Teri continued to unravel this simple, yet convincing story she came up with on the fly,

"Yeah, we found a baby bird in the tree in the front of the school without its mom and we wanted to keep it a secret because we didn't want anyone else coming over to disturb the little thing. We couldn't bring it home either because we were worried that neither of you were going to let us keep it and Gumball's mom has a strict rule against keeping pets." she replied as though this was an actual thing.

Now that Yui was getting a better picture of what was going on, it started to make sense to her, but she still had some questions,

"Um, okay, that's nice of you two, but how are you two getting injured all the time?" she asked, looking at the tear marks decorating her legs, arms and right hand with worry.

Luckily Teri had already thought of that part and went right into it,

"The baby's nest is surrounded by a lot of branches and despite how careful I try to be, I tend to get cut up while climbing up and down the tree. Gumball is just plain clumsy and sustains more injuries than I do." she explained, giggling mischievously at the last bit.

Now Yui could breathe again and suddenly all the fear she was previously holding in her heart was lifted. She was so glad that everything was alright between her daughter and her friend with no signs of abuse or bullying. Now there was something else she needed to know and she asked her little girl,

"I see, but what happened on Sunday then? What did he do to make you so upset with him?" she leaned in a little bit to hear what she had to say.

That was a question that Teri was going to have some difficulty answering and to cover this pause, Teri lowered her head as if in sadness. Seeing this reaction, Dr. Pepakuma was really wondering what had occurred between them and suddenly developed a fear that it somehow involved the bird that they were taking care of.

Finally, an answer came to her once Teri had written one up in her mindscape and she lifted her head with a look of discomfort and betrayal burning in her eyes,

"While I was out cheerleading, I got a call from Gumball and he told me that he decided to move the bird somewhere safe. He took the bird to the forest without even telling me and when I went after him, I was attacked by a few animals. Luckily, he was nearby and heard me screaming so he came in to help. We wound up having an argument and after finding a safe place to put the chick, I told him he could take care of it himself since he obviously… (sob.) he obviously didn't need my help." she explained, bursting into tears after remembering what actually happened that day.

As soon as her tears began to fall from her eyes, unseen by the naked eye because she has yet to draw them, Yui had moved from the bed and was holding her daughter in a soft embrace. The smell of her doctor's office was even stronger now and Teri felt very warm, she felt very comfortable soon after. She kept crying as her mother rubbed the top of her head soothingly and whispered softly,

"Hey, hey, hey, it's all right." she whispered, now gently rubbing her left ear, a move that has always calmed her down since early childhood and it started to work as Teri stopped crying so loudly, though her tears were still flowing.

She led her from the desk and sat her down on the bed before taking her place right next to her distraught child. She kept a hand on her shoulder and made sure Teri was looking her in the eye while she spoke. She knew this situation all too well and wanted to share a story with her,

"I understand how you're feeling right now-!" she started to say, but was cut off by her own child's angry outburst,

"How?! He betrayed me, mom! I trusted him with something so precious and he didn't even hesitate to go off on his own. He got himself hurt and then I got hurt right after! He doesn't even know how much suffering he's caused!" she shouted, completely forgetting that she didn't tell her mom that Gumball got hurt first in her story, but she was too upset to care.

Forgiving her intrusion while she was speaking, Yui kept calm and continued to rub her daughter's shoulder comfortingly,

"I do understand. I never took care of a baby bird with your father or any boy I cared about back when I was your age, but I did go through something similar with Fukijima." she explained, allowing her shoulders to slump down as she pulled up the memory.

"You know that family heirloom in our bedroom?" she said.

Giving it some thought, Teri was sure that her mom was referring to that Buddha statue that was sitting on their dresser right next to their alarm clock,

"You're talking about the statue, correct?" she guessed, hoping that she was correct.

A swift nod and a brief smile was all Yui needed to give to confirm Teri's guess,

"It's not actually a family heirloom, well, not ours at least." she said, her eyes shifting a little and Teri could see that she was sad about something,

"Before my parents and I split, they gave me a little statue of the Jade Emperor carved out of jade stone that was worth quite a lot. They said it was very lucky and that I should keep it to stay safe. I did and even though I don't necessarily miss them, the statue was very precious to me and I think it did bring me a lot of luck because I met your father after all." she said fondly as she looked back at Teri, who smiled a bit when she got the hidden meaning in that final statement.

She then squared her shoulders and breathed through her nose, a sign that she was about to talk about something unpleasant,

"We were in college when we met and when we started dating, we moved in together, staying in a little apartment that we paid for with our part time jobs. We were very happy together, but we eventually fell on hard times when the restaurant I worked for burned down and I lost my leg as a result." she lifted her leg and Teri could see that the limb was a slightly different shade of white all the way to the upper thigh. While the years that came after helped shade the new limb until it was nearly matching the rest of her, there was still a notable difference and Teri could tell that the leg wasn't originally hers. It was the same with the finger she burned off six years ago.

"I told the paramedics that I didn't need to go to the hospital, but they took me anyway and I got treated, but they left me with a bill." she continued,

"Add that to the rent that we needed to pay plus the need to study for classes, we were a bit short on cash and things were getting very stressful for both of us." Yui pressed a hand against her forehead as though she were reliving those moments,

"I must have given your father the wrong idea about the statue when I brought it up to him the first time because he knew that I detested my parents, but not the statue evidently and so he sold the statue for cash to pay the rent." she finally said, getting to the part of the story that caused her the most grief.

Teri felt her jaw drop a little, this was something she'd never heard of before mainly because she never really bothered to ask about the old artifact that helped decorate her parent's room, but whenever her parents were together, they were always so trusting and honest with one another. They were her examples of love and trust, so hearing her father do something so careless, especially to her mother, just felt completely unreal. She suddenly began to feel a sense of familiarity and it didn't take her long to realize she was thinking about a certain someone who let her down.

"I didn't find out until the next day, when he suddenly came back after disappearing for a few hours and with an extra wad of cash in his pockets. I had been looking for my family's good luck charm since before he came back and when he told me that he sold it, I was enraged. We screamed and shouted at one another for hours, he told me that he thought I hated the statue and wouldn't mind it being gone, plus he was trying to help me by covering both our ends of the rent so I can focus on studying as well as finding another job." she said before going silent.

Once the quiet lingered around for too long, Teri couldn't help but wonder happened next and asked for the next part out of curiosity. Her mom's body language still displayed her discomfort, but a small smile was visibly present,

"I threw him out of the apartment and didn't see him again until the end of the week. He came back with the Buddha statue and told me that he looked everywhere for my charm, but couldn't find it. He bought the other statue as an apology and told me that it too brought fortune upon those who possessed it, but I didn't like it because it couldn't replace the precious item I lost. He spent a lot of time and effort trying to get me to forgive him, but I was still very mad at him for what he did."

"And then, he disappeared for some time. At first, I didn't really notice his absence nor did I care, but after some time had passed, I forgave him and wanted him back. Suddenly, I get a phone call after five days of his absence and he tells me to come over to his family's place. So I go, ready to apologize for being very harsh on him and when I get there, he was waiting for me along with all of his family members. Turns out he put together a big party with his family as a means to apologize and he told me, right in front of everyone, that he was sorry and that I meant everything to him. His family was there to show their support for both of us and even welcomed me in as part of the Ikari family." she was smiling very fondly now and Teri couldn't help but smile as well.

"That's amazing, but how were you able to forgive him after all that?" Teri asked, still slightly confused.

Yui shifted in her spot until she was facing towards her and her gentle smile was still visible,

"While he did hurt my feelings, he did everything he could to make me happy again and even brought his family together to give me the support he needed. Did you know that before that Fukijima's family had been very distant from one another, even his younger brother, Brian, now your uncle, hated him, but when he told him what had happened, he called everyone together to help us out. They paid for my hospital bill and even let us stay over at their place just so I would feel more welcomed. After that, he never did anything behind my back and we kept that statue as a reminder to never do anything without the other knowing. And all that is the reason I still love your father to this day."

It was a good story to Teri, she liked stories that had a happy ending, but she still wasn't sure about Gumball because he hasn't really done anything to show that he was sorry. She was worried that she may have pushed too far when she told him not to talk to her and now he was probably too ashamed to approach her. If that was the case then she was glad that he was regretting his actions, but she wondered if she should perhaps talk to him some time to tell him how she felt.

She felt another wave of tears coming to her face once she realized that she may have destroyed her friendship,

"I think I may have messed up." she sniffled,

"I got so angry at him for what he did that I told him to never talk to me again and now I think he doesn't want to talk to me anymore." she sobbed.

She was very confused now, while she was still mad at him for hurling himself in danger for some stupid display of chivalry, she couldn't help, but feel bad for some reason. It was just as Carrie said on Monday, he did it because he cared about her and after hearing her mom's story, she realized that Gumball wasn't without flaws and his mistake wasn't intentional. Now she's tossed him away and she felt terrible for it.

She suddenly felt a hand caressing her ear and she started to calm down,

"You didn't mess up, Teri-bear!" her mom said, understanding her distress,

"Gumball didn't mean to hurt you, but he understands what he did was wrong and he's giving you space because you asked for it. Sure, he may be dumb sometimes and a little unobservant too, but he's defenitely respectful." she assured her.

Her words brought some comfort to the paper doll and her face lit up a little, but her mind was still in disarray,

"Really? You think that Gumball is not doing anything because he's giving me space?" she asked.

Her mom's only reply was a swift nod before she stood up and walked to the center of the tiny bedroom before spinning around to face her again,

"Of course he is!" she exclaimed before lifting a finger directly in front of her face,

"If there's one thing I know about boys like Gumball, it's this: they aim to please!"

She then struck a pose, pumping a fist in the air before bringing it back down and twisting her body to the side until she was facing the window in a warrior's stance, she finished by then pointing at said window. It was a very silly display, but it did its job and Teri soon found herself snapped out of her bad mood. She wasn't happy though, just bamboozled at her mom's exotic behavior.

Seeing Teri being snapped out of her early mood, the motherly Pepakuma stood up straight in a military fashion and brought her finger up as though she were about to make a point,

"What Gumball really needs is an assertive woman to keep him on his toes, that's why you have to march over to him, tell him how you feel, and when he understands, you drag him all over town to paint the whole place red. Once he's exhausted, you make the first move by finding a nice secluded spot to push him into and-!"

"Okay mom, I need you to stop talking before I actually die from sickness!" a red faced Teri shrieked, cutting her mom off before she could bring a conclusion to such a weirdly exciting tale,

"And for the record, that's not the kind of romantic advice you should be giving to your middle school daughter!" she pointed out.

Her mom was cackling with laughter now and Teri, who had undergone another color change at this point, was kind of wishing her mother would be a little more consistent with her "serious mode." when it came to these matters. Once her laughter had died down, Yui got up and made her way towards her bedroom door, but didn't grab the knob just yet. There was still something she had to say before she left,

"In all seriousness though, you should talk to him as soon as possible and sort this out." she suggested, lightly hinting at the amount of time that has passed since she last spoke to him.

Teri understood and got up to go to her mom. She threw her arms around her and pulled her into a hug,

"Thanks, mom, and I will think about it." she murmured, squeezing her tight.

"I'm sorry about what happened between you two, but I'm glad to know that you two are safe and not hurting each other on purpose or being bullied." she replied, remembering the reason she came up here in the first place, before hugging her back,

"Please take your time and if he comes up to you to apologize, at least hear him out before you tell him off. If you're still too upset, just tell him you need more space and I have no doubt he'll give you what you need." she said.

Teri moved her head a little to show that she was listening and her mother gave her ear a rub once more before turning about towards the door. She grabbed the knob and twisted, swinging the door open with a loud _creak_ ,revealing the well lit stairwell that lead down to the first floor of the house. She began to descend down the stairs, but before she got more than five steps she said one last thing,

"And Teri, there's no need to be nervous around him. With the way he interacts with you, I'm sure he shares the same feelings you have for him and I would tell him soon." she could see Teri clearly and wasn't surprised by her response right after.

Confused as to what her mother was alluding to, Teri physically expressed this by tilting her head, cocking an eyebrow, and verbally expressed it by saying,

"What are you talking about? Are you saying that I have a crush on…" she trailed off because she remembered something from last Sunday.

After Tartarforas utilized the guise of Gumball to cut off her legs, she said something about it being painful to be betrayed by someone you love and at first, she believed it to be mere insults to taunt her with. However, Gumball described her power and it became abundantly clear that Tartarforas was very manipulative. She was easily mislead because she trusted Gumball, when he was around she felt safe because he was willing to take on the worst opponents they've ever encountered and even put himself in danger just so she could do something or to keep her safe.

And when they're not fighting the Nephilim, they were always together, doing something they both enjoyed and it was during those times she started to feel something very strong for him. It's eluded her for so long because she didn't understand the feeling, she's never really felt this way for anyone before and even with the recent events, she never felt this kind of pain before. Everything from what she had been feeling, what Tartarforas told her, and what her mom was referring to pointed towards one conclusion:

She was in love with Gumball.

Now she was burning up again, but it wasn't embarrassing this time and she didn't even move to cover it. It all made sense to her, too much sense really and there was this overwhelming fear strangely accompanied with an equally overwhelming feeling of comfort that caused an odd clash within her head. Somehow, sometime, and some way she fell in love with that dorky, bumbling ball of blue fuzz that made her so happy and yet so furious at the same time, it was causing her to lose all touch with reality and she didn't even realize how long she was standing there in a daze.

Being a mother who raised her child with great care and attention, Yui was able to recognize her little Teri's expressions and was quick to catch on to what was going on in her head. Up until now, she never even recognized her own emotions towards him, thanks to her isolated nature at school, and now it was leaving her paralyzed with sudden clarity. It almost brought a tear to Yui's face and she was just so happy to see her daughter discover something so wonderful for the first time in her life.

She cleared her throat and barely got Teri's attention, the paper girl actually jumped in surprise when she realized that she had been lost in thought during a conversation,

"It's getting close to that time, I'm going to go pick up your father from the hospital, he had to stay late for another operation and it's almost half past eight, so we'll be back in about an hour. Finish your homework and be in bed by ten, also don't forget about the permission slip. And on a final note, remember to take it easy." she said.

Teri told her that she understood, although she was still in a bit of a stupor from earlier, and they both exchanged their farewells before her mom headed off to go retrieve the third member of the household. Once she was gone, Teri went back to her assignments and got to work on finishing her review. She did this as well as her chemistry assignment in roughly ten minutes with the only thing left being reading. She thought about how she felt throughout the entire assignment and fought between whether she should go to Gumball tomorrow and tell him how she felt about the battle last weekend plus her new feelings or if she should remain silent to give herself more time to think. One thing she definitely knew though, if a Nephilim showed up that was too much for Rob or Gumball to handle, she was willing to help out, but was probably not going to talk to Gumball afterwards.

DING DONG!

That was the doorbell. Right in the middle of packing her books and notes away, the recognizable sound of the house's bell struck and Teri wondered who could possibly be at her place when it was so close to nine in the evening. She figured it could be one of her classmates coming to check up on her and she hoped that it didn't have anything to do with Gumball, she was really not in the mood to talk about him with anyone else. Realizing that she was never going to know unless she actually went and answered it herself, she got up with a hefty sigh and proceeded downstairs.

The doorbell continued to ring as she made her way through the house and she was really getting annoyed by the constant chime the device made. Whoever was at the door was really going to get it and Teri didn't care if she was a lightweight, her voice will do all the heavy lifting when it came to retaliation. She got to the door and opened it, freezing with shock when she saw who it was.

Standing in the rain, completely soaked with one hand on the doorbell and another holding a plate of brownies covered with a plastic wrap, was none other than Gumball Watterson.

When he saw Teri at the door, he seemed taken aback as he expected one of her parents to be home and answering the door rather than the person he came here to see. Teri, however, was over her initial shock in an instant and her drawn on bear face switched to anger when she saw him standing there. She didn't care if she loved him, she was still angry about what happened and didn't know whether or not she wanted to see him yet.

Unfortunately, he was here now and she might as well ask him why, although she had a sneaking suspicion she already knew what it was for,

"What are you doing here?" she growled, keeping the screen door shut.

Gumball shivered nervously and fought the urge to apologize before running back home. He didn't believe that she was going to be happy to see him, especially this late at night, but he remembered that he owed her a reward for winning the game of tag last weekend during their training and he got the radical idea of baking her brownies to fulfill that promise as well as apologize to her for being a complete butt that same day. Seeing her now though, made him feel like he made a foolish error and that he should've waited 'til morning.

Still he quickly sputtered out an explanation,

"W-well, I-I was-s-s-s just dropping by to ap-p-pologize for what I did." his teeth were clicking against each other, making it really hard to speak. Man it was cold out!

Yep, it was just what Teri suspected and she wasn't surprised one bit, nor in the mood for this. She was about to slam the door in his face, until she finally noticed that he wasn't wearing any protective clothing and was shivering due to being exposed to the elements. She knew it had been raining all day and given how far away his house was, meant that he walked all the way in this frigid weather to go see her.

Jade, he was so stupid,

"What are you doing out in the rain without a jacket, you moron!" she asked demandingly, not caring if she sounded harsh.

"Y-you st-still have it!" he exclaimed, he wanted to yell that to her, but the cold weather had already tightened his diaphragm, making it hard to breathe.

She did. As soon as he said that, it dawned on the paper girl that she still hadn't given back that red jacket of his and now that she knew the reason as to why that was, she couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed now. She was red in the face again and she was regretting it, so she retaliated,

"Well, you didn't ask for it back, idiot!" she shot back defensively.

"I d-did! Three t-times!" he snapped, nearly dropping the brownies as he threw his hands up.

He did. Three times at school during their classes and in the hallways, he asked for it back, but she just teased him instead. Once again, knowing why that was the case didn't exactly make her feel better and it was bad because she knew that the weather was going to get worse as Fall began to pass. Realizing that this was going nowhere and that she couldn't send him home without proper attire, she invited him in,

"Ugh, fine you can come in and dry off, but you're not staying long!" she said, still carrying some resentment.

That was good enough for Gumball, who just thanked her and silently went in once she moved away from the screen door. He remained in the doorway so he wouldn't tread water anywhere else in the house and Teri ran off to go get him a towel. When she got back to him with the dry rag, she asked him if he had any spare clothes with him and he told her that he had his gym clothes in the bag he wore on his back. She then instructed him to go shower and change into his spare clothes after he dried off while she threw his wet ones in the dryer.

Twelve minutes passed and the two did their separate tasks before meeting up in the living room again. Before they did though, Teri noticed the plate of brownies she took from Gumball when he went to grab a shower and noticed that they looked very scrumptious. Even with the plastic wrapping protecting the dozen or so treats, she could detect a wonderful scent coming from them and realized that they were homemade, meaning he baked these himself. She felt a twinge of happiness befall her when she smelled the sweet pastries and figured he made these for her, then again why else would he show up at her place with a plate full of sweets he made himself.

Back in the present, the paper puppet was sitting on the couch while staring intently at the brownies when Gumball came back out feeling very refreshed and dry. His eyes soon landed on Teri's sitting form and he noticed where her gaze was directed. She was so concentrated on the chocolate pastries that she didn't seem to pay him any attention and Gumball wasn't sure if he should disturb her. She still wasn't happy to see him and probably doesn't have anything nice to say either (he knew he deserved it too, so he wasn't too upset by this fact.), plus she looked really cute when she was concentrating like that.

She did eventually notice him standing there, watching her, and at first she didn't react at all because she wasn't sure how she wanted to address him. She eventually settled for leaning back in her seat and bringing her gaze to a small spot on the ceiling so that she had something else to look at. Gumball knew he was probably making another mistake by opening his mouth, but he wanted to express his gratitude,

"Thanks for the shower and for drying my clothes." he said humbly, nervously rubbing his upper arm.

She didn't say anything and the room remained uncomfortably quiet for several long seconds, so he decided to try something else,

"Um, I know you don't want to see me right now, so as soon as my clothes are done drying, I'll call my mom and go home. You can have the brownies because I made them for you, you know, for when you won that game of tag. I wanted to go give those to you because I didn't want to break another promise and I also wanted to let you know that I'm sorry. I guess it's a bit too late for that though." he stopped himself before he started rambling out a long winded apology that did nothing more than fill up the uncomfortable silence.

"You didn't promise anything."

The words cut through the air like a hot knife through butter and after Gumball had shut himself up, they felt really odd when they followed his apology. It was like they weren't supposed to be let out and now it was just unnatural. He felt his ears perk up when she spoke and his attention was back on her now,

"What?" he asked.

She stopped looking up at the ceiling and was now concentrating only on him. He saw that she wasn't furious, but the look she was giving was uncomfortably akin to his own mother's disappointed stare. He felt a chill run down his spine when she began to speak,

"You told me that you were going to make me something if I won the game, you didn't promise me anything. I trusted you enough to follow through on that premise, I also trusted you to be a team player and contact me or Rob before running head first into a suicide solo mission!" her voice had raised several notches now.

At this point, Gumball had long since gotten the idea that what he did was a horrible mistake that nearly took the lives of several people, including his own, and he had spent the past three days feeling the appalling aftermath of said decision. Fighting Tartarforas had taken a terrible toll on him as well: He saw things that still kept him up at night, he figured out very quickly that even with better control over his scythe's power, he still was not good enough to take on a single Nephilim by himself and nearly died multiple times throughout the confrontation. He knew far better than anyone who had encountered that living nightmare, how utterly unprepared a single person could be against an enemy shrouded in mystery.

Getting over his worry, Gumball's mind was clouded with anger and he took a step forward, almost deciding to walk straight up to her,

"Okay, you know what! I know how terrible that whole ordeal was and yeah, I should have contacted someone as back-up! However, there's little question that just keeps popping up in my head and that is why did you let me fight the Uriel puppet clone on my own even though we were both outmatched?" he questioned in retaliation. Deep down though, he already felt that this question wasn't going to get him anywhere and that he was just being defensive, but his mind was already on the attack.

Now it was Teri's turn to take a step forward, although she was flaring up more and her eyes were two black pools of rage that challenged his own,

"I let you go because I knew you would come back! We both fought Uriel and we both knew how he fought, a smaller one was less of a match, especially for you! If you had been in trouble, then I knew you would have called us and we would have figured something out. You even said so yourself, that Rob was close by after you had contacted him BEFORE you started fighting Uriel. I trusted you Gumball and what you did last weekend shattered that trust." she shouted back.

At a complete loss of words, Gumball opened and closed his mouth several times, but could not find anything to say. She was absolutely right, he knew that she wouldn't send him to his death and that she believed in his ability to fight Uriel's puppet because they had already seen his capabilities. She also had the assurance of contact because on that same day, Rob had gifted them both with EMP resistant phone cases to assure that they could aid each other regardless of distance and that alone was enough reassurance for both himself and her as well.

Letting out a sigh, Teri loosened up a little and brought your volume down,

"I never doubted your abilities, Gumball, but we've both been through a lot and as horrifying as the Nephilim can be, none of that compares to the fear of you dying alone without any assurance of anyone backing you up. That's why I'm upset, I thought that I was someone you could rely on, but you went on ahead without giving it a second thought." her voice was trembling now and she was bringing both hands up to her head. Whether it was to shield her eyes from the tears that were threatening to break loose from the dam that was her lids or two grab either side of her head as a means of comfort, she didn't know.

Now it was very clear to Gumball and he saw where the real conflict was. A while back, he told her that she was special and that she belonged on their team, that she was more than just reliable, but that she was capable as a fighter. When he chose to go on his own during that dreadful afternoon, all that which he said was thrown out the window and even though he thought he was doing her a favor, he'd actually proven what he said was a lie.

She was wrong though and Gumball to lay it out to her,

"Teri, I was the unreliable one, not you." he replied very softly, his voice wrought with sorrow and regret.

It was a pain for him to get those words out, but he did it and Teri was now looking up at him, her face a strange mixture of confusion and skepticism. He's always had a problem with his pride, even before they started hanging out and it was no real secret of his that some of the things he says/does can seem suspicious to others. It's what lead to so many people distrusting him in the past and the real reason why he couldn't move on from Penny after she had left, he was worried that no one would ever want to trust him that deeply again.

So he had to be careful with his words,

"If it had been you that got the dream first, you would have texted me and let me know what was going on. We would've confronted Tartarforas and we probably would have destroyed her in that very landfill within a few minutes, like we always do. You would've even put everything else aside to make sure that she never left that dump and without a second thought too." he said with a nervous rub of his arm.

"The day following the fight, Carrie came to me and gave me my weapon back. It turns out I accidentally left it at the field that day and Molly found it. Another dumb move of mine and when Carrie gave it back to me, I didn't even want it back, but she said that it was still my responsibility to correct things." he finished, turning away from her.

Now there was something that Teri never expected, she suspected that Gumball was going to apologize and try to explain his actions, but actually giving up his scythe was shocking. He was so ashamed of himself that he refused the very thing that allowed him to stand up to the Nephilim and only took it back when someone told him to take responsibility. As impressive as that was, there was still an issue here,

"So what are you going to do then? How are you going to prove to me that I can be relied upo-!" she stopped when Gumball pulled something from his backpack and presented it to her.

It was his scythe, all folded into its compact form and he was offering it up to her like a gift. Teri's mouth hung open as her eyes darted from the weapon to Gumball's face and she could tell that he was being serious,

"I want you to keep it." he said, answering the silent question hanging on her lips.

"What? Why?" she gasped, completely flabbergasted.

"Because I can't be trusted with it and it's my greatest tool, but I want you to trust me again. You're trust and friendship means everything to me, I want you to know that by giving this to you to keep. Whenever a Nephilim shows up again, you bet I will come to you first and if you think I can be trusted then I will fight by your side." he explained, pressing it into her hands before letting go of the silver handle,

"Teri, I want to let you know I'm sorry, but I know that simply saying it won't be enough, so this is the best I can do. I'm sorry for what I did and I wanted to let you know that…"

" _...I love you."_ is what he wanted to say, but for some reason, now did not feel like the right time, so he instead went with,

"... you mean everything to me." he finally spat out, hoping that it wasn't giving anything away.

Holding the scythe now, she was mesmerized by the actions done by the upright feline and felt the device resting lightly in her hands. Even in its collapsed state, the feeble school girl could feel just how dangerous this thing was and why it suited Gumball very well. It was a dangerous, yet effective tool and Gumball was giving it to her so that she could decide whether he could use it or not. She could easily hand it off to someone more capable of wielding it or just use it herself whenever the going gets rough and Gumball accepted that. She felt her knees start to wobble and her mouth contorted into a frown as she closed her eyes tightly.

Then she shoved the weapon back into Gumball's paws, completely catching the cat boy off guard, he stared at her with disbelief as though she had gone crazy, well, crazier than she already was,

"What the what?! Teri, if you don't think I can be trusted then you should keep this in case I-!"

"Just hush for a second, will you!" she cut in and Gumball politely shut his trap.

She took a deep breath before calmly letting it all out,

"I'm not going to keep it from you because it's still your weapon and your responsibility. I'm moved by your dedication, but I don't want to take this away from you." she closed the small amount of space between the two of them and Gumball could already feel himself starting to shake a little,

"What I want is for you to promise me this time that you will prioritize your allies over your impulsive need to be a hero and I'm not saying that I'm no longer fed up with your previous actions because trust me, it's going to take a while for me to forgive you." she warned, feeling glad that she was taller than him thus making her more intimidating than her frail nature would allow.

It came as a no brainer to Gumball that this was the best that he was going to get in terms of moving forward with her, but he was not one to complain with such conditions and made his move to promise her that he would prioritize her along with Rob over his own selfish actions,

"I definitely promise to always contact you whenever a Nephilim or any kind of terrible situation occurs and if I break that promise, I will give my scythe to you and cut off my own hands, er actually, you would have to do that because it would be really difficult if I chopped off one hand and then I wouldn't be able to- wait, wait, wait I can just use my dad's buzzsaw he keeps in his shed and-!"

"Okay, okay, enough! I don't need you to mutilate yourself in order to atone for any future failures!" she said, waving her hands in disgust.

She then threw herself around him and Gumball paused a moment before hugging her back,

"Thank you, I promise that I will never try to take this all on my own again." he promised a second time mainly because he needed to assure himself that he was going to follow through on this one.

Teri smiled and kept him in her embrace, he smelled really nice and his fur was really soft against her face,

"You better not…" she said in a somewhat ominous tone because she was going to hold him to that promise. She also wanted to add in _"...because I love you too much to see you hurt."_ but felt rather odd when considering it and decided to just keep hugging him instead,

"... and also, even though you did mess up, thanks for saving me at the end." she said finally and she could feel Gumball shudder in relief as he hugged her tighter.

The hug lasted for a while and remained uninterrupted up until it then came to her attention that there was still a plate of brownies sitting on the table and _Under the stethoscope_ was probably starting in a few minutes. She knew where her mind was taking her and while a part of her was still mad at him, after three days of bitterness she was willing to give it a rest for tonight. Afterall, there was still a conflict going on out there and she couldn't keep this going for ever, time was of the essence. She was also glad to have Carrie's help now because having another friend helping out felt far more relieving, yet still terrifying when she thought about it.

Slowly pulling away from Gumball's arms, Teri took a moment to look him in the eyes and was happy to see peace within them before she turned around towards the table. She grabbed the plate of brownies and lightly shoved them into Gumball's gut, who just took the plate while tilting his head somewhat. He was about to say something before Teri pointed a finger in the direction of the stairwell and ordered him up to her room,

" _Under the stethoscope_ starts in five minutes and seeing as you made a lot of brownies, I'm going to need your help finishing them!" she casually explained.

Overjoyed, Gumball nearly raced up to her room himself, but stopped when he looked towards the laundry room, then at the clock, then at Teri's parent's room, and finally at the front door,

"Um, are you sure that I'm allowed to stay over because I don't want to get you in trouble." he replied somewhat nervously, although his mind was saying _to heck with the consequences!_

However, Teri was way ahead of him, and by that, she was actually walking behind him and pushing him towards her room,

"There's no need to worry, my family trusts you and will probably not mind your sudden visit, just bake them something in the morning if they get mad. Now upstairs, mister!" she ordered, giving him another shove that sent him forward a few feet. She could not believe that she was taking her mom's advice, but she had to admit that it felt nice to be giving orders.

"Woah, woah, okay there, captain Pepakuma! No need to shove!" he remarked while picking up his pace.

Teri felt her face turn red and a wily smirk followed after, Jade, she loved this dork,

"Darn straight, I'm the captain!" she proudly exclaimed,

"Now go make yourself comfortable, I'm gonna go get the air mattress and some other sleeping materials before I go up there. Don't you dare get any crumbs on my bed and don't start without me either!" she said before making her way to the closet.

Gumball got the message and shot straight up the stairwell, eager to make himself comfortable on her bed. It felt so refreshing to be doing something like this again after some time had passed and even though he understood that there was still some tension between both of them, he was going to make up for it somehow. Eventually, the two were settled in and within a few short minutes, they were both laughing their hearts out while occasionally munching on Gumball's chocolaty treats and pressing up against one another, both feeling very content.

 **A/N: Gosh darnit! Another one written and done, good God that was so long! There was a reason that I couldn't publish all in one chapter and after looking over the 117pages written here, I'd say that reason is perfectly justified. I'm just so glad that it's done and over with, this chapter is being published with the next one on the way.**

 **So yeah, with that little outburst left to settle, let's get talking about the chapter itself and the first thing I want to talk about is the villain because I feel like she was the major focus of the chapter itself. To start off, the name "Tartarforas" is a reference to the final form of As Nodt, a minor antagonist in the** _ **Bleach**_ **series whose main ability revolved around fear itself. The Nephilim also practice worship in the Jade Emperor and Tartarforas herself is a fanatic. She has her own beliefs regarding her role in the Republic Army of Babyloth and follows president Nimrod loyally. This villain has long since been in the making along with this chapter because I wanted to showcase a scene where Gumball is confronted with all of the things he was secretly terrified of throughout the story and how he would deal with them. There's still so much that he needs to get over because fear itself is never easily dealt with as well as Teri, Rob, and Carrie.**

 **Speaking of Carrie, she is now in fact a part of the defenders of Elmore and will be further aiding the established trio in their quest to keep Elmore safe. She will be involved in more action scenes later on and her trips to the Underworld will play a major role throughout the upcoming chapters.**

 **As for Rob, his quest to obtain more power has been slightly held back, but not for long as he will be journeying to the void again… soon.**

 **I felt very bad for Teri in this chapter mainly just because of everything that's happened to her and whenever she is placed in a helpless situation like that, it just makes me feel more for her character because of how her life is. I wanted to display an actual conflict between Gumball and her because we don't really see much of that between them, plus one thing I learned un storytelling is that conflict is a great way to develop characters which share a close bond with each other. I really hope that I didn't mess up on the whole argument thing because I don't usually write stuff like that and I kind of ended it within the span of a single chapter, so I hope that doesn't upset anyone. If it does, than I'm sorry if this feels like a shallow attempt to further develop the two main characters.**

 **On a final note, in the next chapter we'll be getting some more action with Hector and some OC's will be introduced as well, as in actual made up characters that will be relevant to the story! So excited!**

 **Have a fantastic day everyone, I hope you all liked the chapter, please favorite and post a review down below and I will be working on chapter ten: Paper, scythe, and golden eyes: a field trip of terror.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: Paper, scythe and golden eyes: A field trip of terror**

Teri x Gumball

 **What is cooking TAWOG fans! We're back with the fourth chapter of the romantic fantasy adventure Teri x Gumball: in between worlds. In this chapter we will be following our favorite duo as they travel with their class on a field trip to San Francisco, but what awaits the two spirit fighters in this bustling metropolis? Probably some OC's and nefarious Nephilim spirits, You know, the works and such.**

 **I do want to take a moment and apologize for the absurd length of the chapter prior to this one. I've trimmed down this chapter to the best of my abilities and I hope that it's simple and straightforward. I want to do my best as a writer and make sure that you guys are entertained, so thank you to those who brought this issue to my attention.**

 **There will be more interactions between Gumball and his classmates for this chapter and even though they're not in a romantic relationship yet, there will be some Terball fluff, but only a little.**

 **I'm going to be a jerk and assume that you all are getting tired of hearing me squawk about this story, so let's just dive right in.**

 **Please read, enjoy, and leave a review down below.**

 **(I do not own The Amazing World of Gumball. All rights belong to Ben Bocquelet, the staff, Cartoon Network, and other respective owners.)**

 _-School bus, October 4th, 2013, 7:25 a.m.-_

Two weeks following the horrible events at the football stadium, the much awaited class field trip to San Francisco was finally here and every soul on the bus was in a constant state of excitement. At the back of the bus, Carrie and Darwin sat close to one another and while Darwin was smiling pleasantly for the fun afternoon that was well on its way, Carrie appeared more blissful. Following two long weeks of helping her two new companions in supernatural affairs remain obscure from her boyfriend and his suspicious associates/sibling, plus intense study into the Nephilim matter itself, she was ready for a vacation. Plus, her favorite band, _Broken Asylum_ , was appearing in Jackson square today and they were handing out autographs too!

"I can't wait until the museum tour is over and they set us loose in the city." she proclaimed with excitement, although her voice was slightly monotone,

"My favorite album is _Politicians of the damned_ , but I also like _Devil police_ as well. I hope they play a few songs from those two while they visit." she said, taking a hopeful look at Darwin.

Darwin also shared her excitement, even though he wasn't really into the kind of music she was into, he thought it would be nice to meet the band members in person.

"I know! I even have the schedule listed so we can figure out a good time to meet them." he said, pulling out his planner.

Flipping to the marked page, he held up the planner so that Carrie could see as well. He placed a fin on a schedule he had written down and spoke to his incorporeal girlfriend,

"Okay, the bus ride is about four hours long, depending on traffic, and that should have us arriving at the museum around noon. The entire tour is two hours from there and we're given two hours of free time before we need to be heading back to the bus. _Broken Asylum_ should be arriving at around nine am and they're going to be there until four, so we should have an hour or two to wait in line and get some autographs." he explained, feeling happy that there was some spare time for the two of them to hang out.

He was partnered up with Gumball and Bobert for the museum tour and they were expected to take notes together on specifically marked locations within the museum. Carrie was partnered up with Masami and Teri and would also be going on a tour within her little group. However, she didn't really feel like sitting through all of that and once the idea came to her, a sinister smirk could be seen on her light features.

She leaned in closer until her mouth rested above the spot his ear was located,

"How about we sneak out early?" she whispered, pulling her head back in order to see his reaction.

Darwin's eyes widened and his pupils shrunk in surprise, he focused on her and began frantically waving his fins,

"Wha-?! what about-? what if someone notices that we're missing?" he stuttered in response, keeping his voice as low as possible in order to not draw attention to themselves.

Hearing her suggest something like this wasn't out of character for the prankster spirit, it's just that he didn't want to start a manhunt for the two in an unfamiliar city and cause more chaos and confusion. Plus, he also wanted to invite some friends to join them and sneaking out with a group of people was more difficult than sneaking out with just two.

Carrie seemed to anticipate this response since she knew Darwin to be rather responsible as well as cautious and pointed in the direction of the teachers,

"Don't worry. This class trip is going to be rather boring and I'm _more_ than positive that Principle Brown and Ms. Simian aren't going to spend their time watching a group of brats when they could be having alone time in a cafe nearby or something." she said.

Her point was proven when Darwin saw their baboon teacher and the furry slug chatting in a flirty way towards one another in the front seat.

"And I think Mr. Small has found his popular group." Carrie added, pointing at the cloud-like humanoid sitting next to Leslie in the middle row, chatting up a storm.

Darwin understood her reasoning for wanting to get out early, but he didn't want to get in trouble and there was also the issue of having to take written notes on the tour. Notes that they were going to have to turn in by the end of the trip, mind you.

Thinking quickly, he came up with an idea and placed his fins together as to prepare both himself and her the plan he had,

"That's indeed likely, actually highly probable, but we still need to turn in our notes before we leave the building. So sneaking out won't do us any good." he warned.

The ghost girl frowned a little and the two-legged goldfish almost crumbled underneath her disappointed stare, which is why he hurried up with his improved and less dangerous plan,

"But, I was thinking, since we're going to be in the same wing, I could have it so that our two groups "accidentally" bump into each other and we can talk while taking notes. Gumball will be there as well and he's good at cracking jokes at museum artifacts, so it'll be hilarious to be there and less painful." he suggested.

Carrie took a moment to think about and decided that it was a good plan. She turned and nodded in approval with a small smile and Darwin's eyes lit up and his mouth formed into an adorable smile,

"Awesome! And I was thinking afterwards, we could have Clayton hold a spot in line for us, since he's also a fan of _Broken Asylum_ and is most likely going to be there as well, while we go about the place for a while and see the sights." he finally finished with his idea and looked at his girlfriend expectantly for answer.

From the looks of it, Carrie seemed to be onboard with this plan as was evident by the small smile and the excited twinkle in her dark eye as she thought about it. It sure beat having to wait in line for a couple of hours and it meant that she and Darwin were going to have a bit of alone time. The problem was though, they were also going to have lots of time to talk and cuddle on the bus ride to San Francisco and home, and was worried that it might get too boring for them.

"I like that idea." she commented,

"I was wondering though, if it was okay to invite Gumball, Teri, and perhaps a few other people as well." she asked, flipping her bangs a little.

Darwin saw nothing wrong with that idea and was actually glad that she wanted to bring others along just like he did. He nodded and smiled in response,

"I don't see the harm in that. I'm glad we're all going somewhere new and exciting to enjoy some time together." he said charismatically.

She leaned in and planted a kiss on his chubby cheek, before pulling back with a blush on her face,

"Thank you!" she said sweetly.

Darwin loved it when she showed her sweet side and found himself feeling warm and fuzzy on the inside. His smile increased in width as he looked at her lovingly,

"You're welcome. I love you." he returned.

The two sat beside each other in comfortable silence and allowed their bodies to brush up against each other. They continued to sit like this until the bus came to a stop and an anthropomorphic cat along with a paper bear girl stepped aboard. Seeing his brother and his friend making their way towards the back, Darwin waved at the two and spoke softly to Carrie,

"Looks like our favorite couple have arrived!" he whispered cheerfully, causing Carrie to snicker. They both scooted over to make room for the two, seeing as Teri didn't go to her usual spot.

As Gumball and Teri approached, Darwin and Carrie picked up on their conversation and realized that they were arguing about something.

"...and what's wrong with the way I do the dishes?" Gumball demanded as he walked in irritation behind an equally agitated Teri.

"You're not supposed to load the plates into the top rack of the dishwasher!" she answered fussily.

His face scrunched up in a _"what?!"_ and he raised his arms in disbelief,

"What difference does it make? They all get washed anyway!" he replied defensively.

Teri spun around and got in real close to his face,

"They don't wash properly when they're on top and simply because THEY DON'T GO THERE!" she shouted.

Now Gumball was fuming, but backed down once he realized that it was getting out of control and apologized. He promised to load the dishwasher properly next time and Teri also cooled down before thanking him. The two proceeded to the back of the bus where Carrie and Darwin awaited them.

As soon they were within hearing range, Carrie waved at Teri then Gumball and smiled at the two newcomers,

"And how is the happy married couple this morning?" she asked teasingly.

Gumball and Teri both gained tick marks on their heads as they furrowed their eyebrows at Carrie's greeting tease,

"WE'RE NOT LIKE THAT!" they shouted in unison and took a seat next to the actual couple.

The normally depressed spirit laughed maniacally at their counter and settled down after a moment,

"Sure you are." she remarked with a roll of her eye,

"Why else would you two spend every possible moment together and waste time arguing about a seriously overrated medical drama series?" she asked, while slightly hinting at their secret.

Crossing her arms in defiance, Teri leaned back and spoke in a serious manner,

"Because we're close friends, obviously." she shot back and Gumball blew a raspberry at the ghost to further support his friend.

This didn't deter Carrie's efforts to tease them, not even in the slightest. She kept a calm demeanor and took another stab in the dark,

"Really now? And how do you guys decide on other activities" she kept her gaze on Gumball, prompting him to answer instead of Teri.

It worked and Gumball immediately sat up straight to deliver a response,

"Normally, I would suggest something like the arcade or fun fair, but then Teri would say something like, "we should try going to uptown Elmore and checking out some of the areas there." or something like that. So, that's what we wind up doing instead. It's called a compromise, if I'm not mistaken!" he said.

It was Darwin's turn to burst out laughing like a maniac. It wasn't that he was laughing at his brother's explanation, but more at the fact that Gumball didn't know what a compromise was. He lurched forward as he squeaked with laughter in his high pitched voice and clutched his aching sides while Carrie joined in. The joking spirit pressed a little hand to her large forehead as she laughed, shaking her head at Gumball,

"Seems legit! That's exactly what boyfriends do!" she gasped out, before turning to an irritated Teri

"Man, you really got him wrapped around your finger, huh Teri?" she continued to laugh along with her fishy beloved, all the while murder was written on the paper girl's face.

Realizing what he said was a little strange, Gumball just let out a sigh and decided to change the subject,

"You guys excited for the trip?" he asked, a little irritation making its way out to be heard as well.

Darwin and Carrie had enough tomfoolery and decided to answer his question seeing as they were excited for the events they had planned out,

"Yes, actually!" Darwin replied in an optimistic tone,

"Though, I'm not really one for Hippie museums or anything to do with the 60's, 70's, or 80's. Way too much drama." he groaned.

Carrie quickly filled in the part she was looking forward to sharing with them,

"And best of all! _Broken Asylum_ is going to be making an appearance at Jackson square! They're going to be handing out autographs!" she said gleefully, almost bouncing up and down in her seat.

This was quite a rare sight for the two to see because Carrie hardly showed any emotion other than apathy, sadness, pain, or disgust. The two just stared at her in shock, unsure of how to react at the moment. It was when Teri asked a question was the silence broken,

"Aren't they that heavy metal band that sings depressing songs about how the world is being run and how life is one long trainwreck?" she scratched the top of her head as peered over Gumball's oversized one.

"Um, first off, it's punk rock, and secondly, yes." she replied in an offended tone.

Teri nodded once in understanding and looked at Darwin, who was clapping his fins together in excitement,

"And the best part is, they're going to be there from 9 to 4, and we wanted to invite you guys along so that we could all hang out and enjoy the city while a friend of ours waits in line for us. Hopefully." he blurted out, adding the last word because he wasn't sure if Clayton was going to actually put himself up to waiting in line for one of his favorite bands.

Darwin pulled out his planner to pass to his brother and Gumball looked at the marked page. After going over the schedule, he passed the planning book back to his former pet and Darwin began to talk about his weekend with Carrie. Because the two were heavily wrapped up in a conversation, Carrie had the two boys scooch over, so that she could sit next to Teri.

Once the two girls were beside each other, Teri folded her hands and placed them on her lap while Carrie brushed her bangs away from her exposed eye,

"Are you excited to be in my group?" Carrie asked, casting a glance towards the paper girl.

Teri turned to the ghost with a kind smile and nodded,

"Certainly. It would definitely be nice to hang out with you and Masami." she said cheerfully, but her smile was quickly replaced with a frown,

"Although, I'm really not looking forward to the museum, partly because it sounds boring and I don't being in places where so many people are located." she sighed.

Looking back to the ghost girl, Teri put on a humorous grin and chuckled,

"I think the only parts I'm really looking forward to is the bus ride there and back." she said with a giggle.

This caused Carrie to laugh along as well. She found it to be strange for a person with such an irrational fear of the microscopic world to even consider going on a trip like this. Heck even going to school probably seemed ludicrous to her, then again, she practically hosed down everything in her path with disinfectant.

She looked at Gumball then back at the Pepakuma child,

"Yet you hang out with the gumdrop over there." she said, hiking a thumb in the occupied cat's direction,

"Aren't you afraid of catching something contagious, like his stupidity for example." she joked. She didn't actually think he was stupid, but she knew he was pretty reckless at times.

Teri peered over at her blue, furry friend in the brown sweater and then back at Carrie with, yet another hilarious smile on her bear-like face,

"I hardly think that's an issue." she remarked,

"I think my brain may have built up enough resistance to repel a force such as that one. Although, I think I might have caught his untreatable sense of humor, last time I checked." she let out another chuckle.

Carrie placed a hand on her chin and leaned forward as if she were a doctor examining a patient,

"Really now and what are the symptoms of this "humor virus" you speak of?" she asked in a deeper voice, imitating a male doctor.

Feigning a sickness by touching the back of her hand to her forehead, Teri let out an exaggerated groan that sounded like a dying mule,

"Well, Dr. Krueger, whenever I feel like time seems to crawl, I have a sudden urge to unleash witty banter in the form of puns!" she said softly,

"For example, Molly's _pun_ -dane stories seem to have placed Masami on cloud nine." she teased, pointing towards the front seat where the sentient cloud, Masami and the sauropod, Molly, sat.

Molly was in the middle of telling Masami another long story about the frog she saw in her Grampa's backyard. The spoiled cloud girl seemed to be spacing out while the simple dinosaur droned on. If she was this bored, then the museum visit was going to hell for the poor cloud.

Upon hearing the series of puns, Carrie burst into a fit of giggles and was joined by her paper friend. She was glad that Teri was doing better and seeing as she was cracking jokes much like her close friend, it was fairly obvious the damage done was mended. If she were to argue, Carrie would say that the Tartarforus incident brought them closer together because Teri had never seemed so happy before when hanging around Gumball and it was thanks to the amount of time he put in to be by her side.

Either way she looked at it, those two were bound to become more than friends.

After allowing her funny side to settle, Carrie picked up with the conversation,

"I'm afraid there's no cure, maam. You're doomed to a life of a stand up comedian or just world full of sighs and faithless people." she said, causing the paper bear to roll her eyes in response.

"Oh no! What'll I ever do now? I can't be a nurse if I keep cracking lame puns and people's funny bones." she remarked sarcastically.

"Ha ha! Good one!" she laughed, baring her sharp teeth.

Resting her head on the back of the seat, Teri stared out the window and saw that the bus had already left Elmore, moving onto a highway with forests flanking them on either side. She heard that Tina had left early this morning to San Francisco due to the fact the young Tyrannosaurus couldn't fit in the bus, but could easily fit in the museum. After the fight with Tartarforas, she listened in on some of her conversations at school and learned that she was quite disturbed when two weeks ago her father woke up with multiple slash marks covering certain areas of his body and Teri couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the Rexes. Surprisingly there has been no Nephilim activity in the past two weeks whatsoever and while Teri was grateful for their absence, it still made her uneasy.

She continued to stare out the window and saw nothing, but road, cars and nature all under a dimly lit sky.

"So do you have any plans for the weekend?" Teri asked Carrie, her gaze still set upon the passing scenery.

Checking to see if Darwin was occupied, she saw that her walking fish boyfriend was engaged in a heated argument with Gumball over which Ninja would win in _Ninja Legion_ and wasn't paying her any attention. She also checked to see if anyone was listening in on them, but found to her relief that nobody was. With things looking favorable, she bobbed her head a little,

"Yes. so you see, I've been going through my dad's library as well as talking to some of the ghouls in the graveyard and a lot of sources keep pointing me to a demon named, Malabranche, and how to summon him." she explained feeling pretty overjoyed.

Curious, Teri pulled her attention away from the moving treeline and back to Carrie,

"Wait, a demon? Are you sure that's safe because Gumball and I have enough trouble fighting the Nephilim, I'm not sure I want to test my mettle against another supernatural force of malevolence." she whispered back rather fiercely.

Waving a hand in front of her and shaking her large noggin simultaneously, Carrie quickly explained the rules of demon summoning,

"No, no, no, trust me when I say that it's not as bad as the Nephilim, as a matter of fact, this could be very helpful!" she replied with amazing confidence in what she was saying.

Still not sure, Teri whispered back,

"Could you elaborate a little?"

With a swift nod that made her bangs bounce, she leaned in and quietly explained it to her,

"Unlike the Nephilim, when a demon is summoned to Earth from Tartarous, their dominion within the deepest depths of the Underworld, they are bound by ancient rules not to attack the summoner, or anyone else for that matter, and can do whatever the person asks." she stated, still keeping her voice down.

That was definitely a plus in Teri's book and she was feeling slightly relieved that no other spiritual threat could come to Elmore, especially one brought upon by themselves. There were already enough challenging aspects on its own that Teri would rather not deal with and confidence was sorely needed in these trying times. For the studious girl one thing was certain: the less they knew, the more danger were in.

She gave a non-verbal cue to show that she understood and looked around to see if anyone else was listening in,

"So, what's going to happen when you summon it? Is it going to win the war in one fell swoop at the cost of our souls?" she asked with a hint of snark.

Once again, Carrie had good news for Teri and told her what she knew,

"If a mortal demands something of a demon, it will come at a price, but seeing as I am already dead, I have no ties with the mortal plane. Malabranche, like most demons, has lived under the rule of Mephistopheles since the beginning and could tell us something important about the Nephilim. That's what most people do when they summon them, they usually ask for knowledge of sorts and sometimes unlimited wealth with some remarkable talent sprinkled in as well."

Teri soaked up all the news and pondered it for a second. At least Carrie was sure that it was safe and they could definitely use some more intel. If these spirits are as old as Carrie said they were, then their knowledge would be priceless and maybe a more permanent solution to the Nephilim problem could be found right before they started showing up again.

Nodding along and agreeing with this plan, Teri gave her approval,

"That's actually very handy, as long as it doesn't put anyone else in danger." she said, airing on the side of caution still.

Smiling softly, Carrie faced towards the front of the bus and began rubbing her ghostly temples with her hands,

"I've got a long week ahead of me because the items needed for the ritual are numerous and difficult to get ahold of unless you know the right guy, plus I need to find a good time and place to perform the ritual. The spiritual energy a demon portal can disperse can cause some bizarre side effects and it's a bit of juggling session when you have to keep others from finding out." she sighed.

She knew who she was referring to and quietly glanced at the Watterson boys, Darwin in particular. Thanks to carrie's inside intel, Gumball and Teri herself were able to keep a low profile whenever Elmore's investigators began snooping about. their investigation was also slowing down thanks to the lack of Nephilim appearances in the past two weeks, so there wasn't much action for them to spring onto and both Teri and Gumball were okay with that.

That did bring something to mind though and Teri's face lit up when she decided to discuss her weekend plans with her incorporeal friend,

"I'm glad that you've gotten far in your research, you're definitely doing way better than I was." she complimented, placing a tired smile upon the ghost girl's face,

"Gumball and I talked about going to the mall sometime in the not too distant future to possibly get some clothes to better hide ourselves with, that way we don't draw anymore attention to ourselves and wind up having to dodge tricky public situations. Other than that, there's not really a whole going except cheerleading practice and some music lessons." she said, tossing out possibilities for particular activities, although she wouldn't mind just relaxing more thanks to how peaceful things have been.

Carrie let out a little chuckle and brushed a bit of her hair out of her face before sitting up straight,

"Sounds like a plan, you guys should also do something like grab a bite to eat or go see a movie while you're at the mall or just hang out at the park seeing as the weekend is supposed to be nice." she said, lifting her hair up to give her a suggestive wink before floating upwards,

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have to steal my boyfriend from your boyfriend. Nice talking to you again." she said with a wave.

Feeling better, Teri waved back to her before she caught on to one particular sentence that she uttered,

"No problem and he's not my boyfr-!" she was too late to say deny the last statement as Carrie drifted over the two boys until she was on Darwin's side. She put a quick end to their conversation by shoving Darwin aside and snuggling up next to him. Soon her head was resting on his own causing Darwin stop talking and press himself against her to fall asleep comfortably.

Gumball, who had been abruptly shoved to Teri's side when Carrie broke into their serious debate, was completely silent for a moment as he watched the ghost girl in astonishment,

"Um, okay, could've just said something." he growled before turning to Teri,

"What were you guys talking about?" he asked, figuring that Carrie's odd behavior had something to do with their conversation.

Teri looked at him before averting her eyes to the seat in front of her,

"Future plans, I'll tell you later." she simply replied.

From her expression to her body language Gumball could definitely tell that she and Carrie had an interesting conversation. Probably not as intense as his argument with Darwin, because he knew that the green forest ninja would easily triumph over the sun cobra ninja, but Darwin just couldn't see his side of things. More or less, he decided not to press the issue any further and decided to talk about the museum,

"So, you excited to see the Beats Museum?" he asked, leaning back into his seat and allowing his shoulders to slump.

The paper girl sitting next to him let out a chuckle that made her entire body crinkle a little,

"You mean seeing what a _small_ world looks like?" she snickered.

Gumball laughed a little after immediately catching on to her pun and smiled devilishly at the comeback he had prepared for her,

"It does seem like we're touring Mr. Small's homeland, huh? Do you think they'll take him back this time?" he jeered, causing both of them to laugh.

Recovering from her laughing fit, Teri straightened herself out and faced the silly feline, wrapping her hands together and allowing her long legs to swing a little on the edge of the seat,

"Nah, not really. I'm more looking forward to the part where we're set loose and allowed to roam about a little." she said earnestly,

"Do you have any places you'd like to visit?" she asked, sneaking a peek at the cat child, who was watching her while she spoke.

He pondered a moment, stroking his furry chin while he concentrated,

"Nothing in particular. The most likely case is that we're going to be following Carrie and Darwin around, mostly Carrie, because she does like new places and is probably also going to try to explore some dangerous areas for the thrill of it."

After relaying his thoughts, he turned to Teri for her opinion,

"You?" he asked.

Teri shrugged and shook her head with nothing on her mind,

"We're probably just going to do what you mentioned. I've never been to San Francisco before, so there's nowhere off the top of my head that I can think of." she states, breathing out a sigh before her eyes lit up,

"Although, if something or someplace was to grab my fancy, would you mind if we stopped there?" she asked, staring at Gumball with a hopeful and excited expression.

Gumball smiled and gave a quick, reassuring nod,

"Sure thing! We can stop by any place you want. I got twenty five dollars saved up from my allowance, so nothing too over the top." he said, patting his pant pocket to indicate where his money was stashed.

"I'll definitely keep that in mind. I got ten dollars on my person as well, in case you need me to pitch in. Thank you, by the way!" she replied happily.

Seeing her look all cheery and full of energy made Gumball feel extremely warm and fluttery inside. He felt an even bigger smile etch it's way onto his features as he watched her bounce up and down in joy. After they made up two weeks ago, she used to have this intensity towards him while they hung out, but now she was more relaxed and friendlier. It made him very happy to see that she was recovering from that experience and it allowed him to recover quickly as well. He was honestly hoping that they could stop somewhere awesome for a bit and make some pleasant memories during their stay.

They both sat together on the bus for a few minutes, while Darwin and Carrie slept quietly in the seat beside them. They both watched the world pass them by as the bus made its way down the highway. It was about 8 AM and the students, save for a few quiet members, filled the entire passenger cabin with noisy chatter as they discussed various things that concerned them all the while ignoring the four in the back seat. Despite all the rambunctious activity, it was very peaceful for the Nephilim killers and actually felt like a well deserved moment.

While all the noise droned on in the background, Teri began to feel a little drowsy and soon felt the back of her flat, bear-like head press against the seat behind her. She felt her eyelids grow heavy and her limbs were becoming limp from the sleep that was washing over her. All the background noise soon became a slight buzz and she slowly turned to Gumball before she dozed off,

"Hey Gumball. I'm gonna… catch a few… (snkkt!) Z's…" she yawned before falling asleep entirely, not even checking to see if Gumball had responded.

Gumball watched his paper friend slip away into the realm of slumber while she spoke to him before turning towards the front of the bus. He tried listening in on a few conversations, but found that a majority of them were boring or too complicated to follow. He opted instead to plug his earbuds into his phone and listen to some jams for about an hour.

He listened to several songs before hearing Ms. Simian announce that they'll be stopping by a _Henry's steakhouse_ restaurant in the next town up ahead in an hour and a half for breakfast and to relieve themselves in the restrooms. That sounded fine by Gumball, for he actually liked that restaurant and wouldn't mind visiting it once again. When she finished speaking, he went back to silently listening to his music.

After a few minutes, something odd happened while he was peacefully rocking along with his tunes. He felt something press up against his shoulder and at first, he thought it was nothing because it was very light and nearly unnoticeable. That was until he looked down in curiosity and saw that it was Teri's head that leaning against his shoulder!

At first he didn't know what to do or what to think of the situation. While he silently freaked out, a few questions ran through his head regarding if this was a deliberate action or an accidental event. He carefully leaned forward to peek at her face and saw that she was peacefully sleeping. This was definitely a relief and a large concern for the cat.

He was about to look away, but then he noticed something about her that caught his attention and kept him from peeling his peepers away. When he got a closer look at her face, he saw that she was actually very, _very_ cute. Without her blindfold on her eyes that were just drawn on by a pencil, resembled two curved lines when closed and her eyebrows were a similar shape. With her round, triangular, black nose, tiny mouth that was opened slightly, the round ears that sat atop her cutout head, and the pink vertical lines that highlighted her cheeks, she looked like a cute anime doll in her blissful state.

He was completely mesmerized by her face, his eyes kept scanning every little detail that showed itself in the light, and was especially fixated on her lips. He didn't feel awkward for doing this, because being this close to her wasn't exactly uncomfortable any more. As a matter of fact, the more times they were forced to come together, to rely on one another, they seemed to grow closer and less concerned with personal space until it got to the point that being next to each other just seemed as natural as breathing.

Then Tartarforas' words came back to him and he was suddenly more aware of what he was doing, causing a blush to form on his face. He'd been steadily falling for her for a while now and with the Nephilim unintentionally helping him confirm his feelings, he'd felt oddly peaceful ever since. He just couldn't deny that Teri was becoming the center of his world and seeing her sleeping against him, with that utterly adorable face merely inches away made his heart soar.

To his increasing surprise, she reached over with her furthest arm and laid it across his torso, allowing it to rest against his chest. A content smile formed across her face as she pressed up against him. Gumball could feel her warmth spreading into his body and he soon began to feel comfortable. Without warning, he began to purr, first a soft rumbling and then a gradual, industrious vibration that reverberated throughout his entire body.

Soon the music became a dull noise in his ears and he slowly reached into his pocket to switch his phone off. He wanted to wrap an arm around her as well, but was afraid that the movement would wake her up and she would freak out. He pulled the earbuds out of his ears and allowed his eyes to shut so that he could lose himself in the moment. He soon found himself comfortably engulfed in the darkness of his mind and rested.

He didn't feel himself fall asleep, but when his eyes finally opened, he found himself somewhere else. Where he was, was nowhere familiar to him, instead of the noisy bus, he was on a beautiful grassy plain that stretched as far as the eye could see. His back was to an oak tree, whose branches hung overhead, bearing wide green leaves and ripe acorns of a similar color. The sky was a beautiful sapphire blue with a few cloud streams littering the expanse, although there was no sun to be seen: just a single pale moon. With the sky and ground clashing wonderfully, the gentle breeze caressing the branches and his fur, the entire world was painted in serenity. It was like paradise.

Taking in the scene before him, Gumball breathed a breath of fresh air and tilted his head until it rested against the tree's mighty trunk. That was when noticed a presence on his left and looked down to see a sleeping Teri, snuggling into him in the same position she was in when he was awake. Noticing her there beside him, looking all peaceful and content, the blue cat felt his happiness and sense of bliss heighten as he sat back and enjoyed the two beautiful sights.

However, something about this paradise was starting to feel familiar to him. The background was alien, but the sense of being somewhere otherworldly with someone he cherished seemed to ping somewhere in his mind. The problem was, he couldn't trace it and he couldn't care less whether he could or not. So he shrugged it off and fell into a silent slumber with the paper girl he found to be delightful.

Unbeknownst to him, Teri opened an eye and took a peek at the scene around her. She found herself staring at the same setting Gumball was experiencing and wondered how she arrived at such a lustrous place. She then noticed her arm and that it was wrapped around something warm, soft, and gently vibrating. With her one eye, she followed it up to a happy kitty face and saw to her relief that it was Gumball. She smiled affectionately at the boy whom she'd fallen in love with and went back to sleep.

Back in the real world, several pairs of eyes found their way towards the back of the bus, where the four students lay still.

Peeking back at the paper girl and blue cat, ever watchful like a trained bird watcher, Leslie regarded the adorable scene with soft eyes and rested his leaves on the back of the seat,

"It's so amazing how close those two are, but it's even more ludicrous that the two aren't dating yet!" the flower boy exclaimed in frustration,

"I mean come on, the romantic tension between those two got boring six chapters ago, just kiss her already!" he groaned at Gumball before he sat down with a _harumph!_

Right next to him sat Sarah, having moved over after Mr. Small had left to go sit by Clayton and in the row in front of the two sat Masami and Molly, behind them sat Carmen and Alan, the former chatting up a storm with her boyfriend. Sarah was completely absorbed into her phone at the moment, watching conspiracy videos posted on _ElmoreStreamIt_ with great intrigue. This left the flamboyant flower boy to talk with both Molly and Masami, which was fine by him seeing as Masami and him were both fluent gossipers and Molly also liked to join in on the fun.

The three of them had been striking up conversation with no real subject to center on, sometimes it could be cheerleading, the latest football match, mysterious happenings, dating, other travel areas of interest, lots of things. Having heard Leslie's comment being tossed towards a certain two of four sitting in the back, Molly offered her own opinion on the matter. She kept it short, of course,

"I think it's great that those two are taking their time with one another! As my grandpa always says, a tree is only as strong as its roots and the best thing for strong roots is water, nutrients, and most importantly, time!" she stated, remembering many of her grandpa's great life quotes.

Leslie raised an eyebrow and a question along with it,

"Did you just use a plant reference as an analogy for a strong relationship?" he stroked his round chin with a tendril-like leaf.

Molly seemed to light up when her cheerleading companion and one of her closest friends asked this,

"I actually have a lot of good life quotes from my grandfolk! Wanna hear them all? They're really clever." she playfully excited with some enthusiasm.

Like a gust of wind, a sigh came from the already tired Masami sitting next to her and her hollow eyes displayed utter disinterest in the topics at hand,

"I think I'll pass on the clever references, thank you very much." she groaned with disdain,

"And who cares about that paper bag and her shaggy boy mate, all you have are the two most obnoxious people in school being thrown into a relationship that will most likely end once the two really see how much they drive each other crazy." she proclaimed as though it were fact before turning to look at Sarah and Molly,

" _Actually, make that the_ _ **second**_ _most obnoxious pair in the school, though I doubt those two are going to get close anytime soon."_ she figured to herself before returning back to her standard position.

Leslie and Molly were both struck with awe and pure disbelief at Masami's hostility towards the cat and bear, causing Leslie to immediately question her behavior,

"What's your deal with Gumball and Teri?" he asked, raising a leaf up.

Masami just grumbled and her cloud arms formed just to place themselves across her chest, a grumpy expression was present on her stormy features,

"I just find them both annoying, okay!" she snapped back, although it was actually Teri that she held the most resentment towards,

"Anyways, my birthday is coming up at the beginning of this month and I was planning on throwing a party at my place. You know, something big and spectacular!" she declared, breaking off from the original topic.

With the alluring topic over-the-top birthday parties being held at the abodes of the wealthy pulling their attention away from their previous discussion, Molly and Leslie quickly jumped to the first ideas that popped to mind,

"Wow! That sounds awesome! I totally forgot that your birthday was on the 1st of November!" Leslie commented, having actually forgotten due to his short attention span for such things.

"Is everyone invited?" Molly asked, wanting to be in on the action.

Masami nodded her head and gave them both a look as though she were expecting them to know right off,

"Uh-yeah, I want everyone to come, obviously! It's going to be so much fun!" she explained to them like it was common knowledge.

"Do your parents know about it?" Leslie asked, not liking an event to be busted too early.

Masami shook her head,

"Of course not, my mom and dad are going on a business trip that day and are going to be sending a video chat to communicate every now and then, so it will be real easy to cover up!" she smiled a little, but seemed rather upset at that fact.

Molly caught on to her and she too began to feel sorry for the cloud,

"I'm sorry that your parents won't be able to make it, does this happen a lot?" she asked apologetically.

Masami shrugged a little,

"Not all the time. Sometimes only mom or dad are able to make it, but it's pretty rare to have them both there at the same time. The last time that happened was during my ninth birthday." she explained.

Molly couldn't help but empathize with the little rich cloud girl a bit on that statement regarding her parent's absence,

"I know what that's like, both of my parents are always too busy working, so I usually celebrate my birthdays with my grandparents and their friends. They usually show up late at night to wish me a happy birthday and bring a gift too, but then they would go to bed shortly after." Molly said, remembering how her thirteenth birthday was celebrated in June.

All three went silent for a moment and just fidgeted a little as they resided within their own quiet dramas. Thankfully, Leslie was able to break the ice by mentioning a funny event that occurred during his last birthday party and the trio began to reminisce at Leslie's crazy night out last March. Within a short span of time the topic shifted over to Carmen and Alan's picnic and the flower boy asked Masami a question regarding the event,

"Hey Masami, you wouldn't happen to be trying to throw a massive party just to top Carmen and Alan's picnic, would you?" he asked, pressing his yellow face on a leaf as he slyly looked upon his floating classmate.

Flustered by his casual accusation, Masami looked towards her surrounding classmates with unease before sputtering out an answer,

"W-what?! No, I'm not! It's just my birthday party, I'm not trying to compete with those two!" she stammered, looking at everyone's faces once again.

From behind Leslie and Sarah's seat, Carmen and Alan poked their heads up until they were peering at the two girls and one boy who've been talking about them,

"What about our picnic party?" Carmen asked, scratching her prickly head.

Before Masami could deny anything, Leslie spoke first,

"Masami's throwing an enormous party at her place because she thought your picnic was cool and wanted to even the score." he quickly said before shooting Masami another mischievous grin.

The captain of the cheerleading squad was now focusing on Elmore Junior High's most popular school girl with a quizzical expression that seemed to ask her question for her. Shooting Leslie a murderous glance, the cloud turned a stormy black before returning to her calm state again,

"It's not what he says. I was throwing a party at my place because my birthday is coming up." she responded in a very calm manner.

Carmen's eyes seemed to light up and Alan, ever so cheery, congratulated Masami on her upcoming birthday,

"Well, happy birthday then Masami!" the teal balloon exclaimed in that high pitched voice of his.

"But, it's not her birthday yet, Alan!" Molly remarked.

"I know that, but it's never too early for congratulations." Alan said back, still being chipper about it.

Carmen turned back to Masami with a pleasant look on her face,

"Well, that's one way to kick off next month and congratulations on turning thirteen then. I should probably say that when the day comes though, but I'm also glad that the party is being held at your place. That means that others like Hector and Tina can come too!" Carmen happily replied, completely brushing off the comment Leslie tossed at her earlier.

At the mentioning of Hector, Molly's face lit up a little and she jumped right into last weeks football game,

"Did you guys see that game last weekend? Hector was so awesome! The other team's players were really good and for a moment, I thought that they were going to get a touchdown with that speedy guy, Markus, but Hector was able to stop him just in time with his foot!" the blocky sauropod was practically bouncing in her seat now,

"Also, I'm glad there weren't any dangerous items lying around, I found a scythe there a few weeks ago and I think it was Carrie's." she added in, recounting the one instant.

Everyone knew what Molly was talking about, Carmen and Leslie were with her as the supporting their team on the sidelines, with their acrobatics doing most of the communicating. Alan and Masami were there too, Masami going because she was invited and Alan appearing there to volunteer at the ice cream stand. It was a close match, but the Elmore Ducks achieved a victory with a score of 10-8. Such games were rare for them because they could only play against bizarro teams, for the sake of fairness towards any of the human teams.

"I hope Hector is joining us on the field trip!" Molly sighed to herself.

Carmen put a stick-like hand on her chin and thought about it,

"Yeah, he'll be there alright." she said confidently,

"Alan was asked to hang out with him during lunch three days ago and when he brought up the field trip, Hector told him that he was coming." she put her arms down at her sides when she finished speaking.

"His mom is going to fly him in, but given his enormous stature, the mayor of San Francisco issued a few specific areas he can be in during his stay at the city." Alan added in, raising his balloon string like a finger to emphasize his point.

That made sense to everyone and when asked where he was going to be situated, Alan explained that he was allowed to roam some of the parks as well as the main roads. He was still going to have to be careful though and while the city itself has an odd population of people varying in size, Hector was still the biggest one there. When Molly wondered if Hector was going to be himself, Carmen offered to pay him a visit once their time at the Beat museum has passed and Molly seemed to like that idea.

She was a bit shy when it came to Elmore's tallest athlete and she nervously rubbed her trunk legs together when she spoke her mind about this,

"We're all going to be visiting him as a group right?" she asked nervously.

Turning to one another, Carmen and Alan seemed to have a quiet conversation with just a few expressive looks and gestures before they turned back to the quiet girl,

"Um, Alan and I were planning on checking out Chinatown together after the museum. We'll definitely see him for a bit, but we weren't planning on staying for long, sorry." she said, giving her a regretful look along with her boyfriend.

"Bummer, Masami and I were going to hit up a few shops too, but if you wanna stay with him, you can. I'm sure he'll love your company." Leslie explained.

"Or you'll just put him to sleep, then we won't have to worry about him crushing anything." Masami muttered under her breath.

Still unsure if she wanted to hang out with the friendly giant on her own, Molly wondered if there were any other people she could hang out with. She knew that there weren't that many people who really enjoyed her company and she didn't want to join up with any other groups for fear of butting in or just being a third wheel as a result of being ignored. She didn't want to be an annoyance to the already lonely kid and preferred that everyone else go with her that way it couldn't happen.

Dredging through her own issues, the four other conversationalists began discussing further plans with one another and sadly forgot about the quiet dinosaur.

Within two hours the bus arrived at the _Henry's Steakhouse_ stop and all the kids were given ten dollars each to pick out a cheap breakfast and a drink. They were told that they had half an hour to eat and do whatever needs to be done before they had to be on the bus again. Miss. Simian made it very clear that they will leave anyone behind if they failed to board the bus within the given time limit or if they interrupted her while she "discussed" proper field trip safety with Nigel on the bus. After everyone was dismissed, the whole class, plus Mr. Small and Rocky, made a bum rush for the doors and were soon in the restaurant parking lot.

When Gumball woke up, he was surprised to see that Teri was awake too after hearing Miss. Simian whistled in order to get everyone's attention. After listening to the living fossil of a primate give out instructions, the two joined everyone outside and headed in to grab something to eat. When he asked Teri how well she slept, she told him that she slept really well. Luckily for the blue cat, she told him that she enjoyed sleeping beside him and that his purring made her dream about an automobile race that was really wild. She thanked him for allowing her to rest her head on his shoulder and Gumball nervously replied, saying that it was no big deal and that he wouldn't mind doing it again.

They went inside, Gumball ordered a slammer burger with a soft drink while Darwin ordered two of the same thing and an extra helping of fries. Teri ordered a salad with some water and went to go sit with Carmen, Alan, and Leslie. Gumball sat with Darwin, Carrie, Tobias, and Jamie, who was still intent on watching over the rainbow lad for Tina. The five at the table enjoyed a meal and traded some funny banter. Carrie possessed Darwin in order to eat his burger and half of his fries causing the fish boy to flip out over seeing half of his favorite food consumed in less than a minute. This caused everyone minus the orange kid to laugh at his misfortune.

In an act of revenge, he took a bite out of everyone's meal and the others were no longer laughing.

There was another funny moment when Clayton came hopping out of the boys bathroom waving Banana Joe's banana peel over his head while said banana chased after him, butt naked, throughout the restaurant. This had the whole restaurant in an uproar as the class clown had now become the butt end of a joke. This along with some other shenanigans occurred while everyone hung out.

When everyone had finished eating and performing other needed tasks, they all made their way back to the bus and were soon on the road again. Darwin, Carrie, Gumball, and Teri made their way to the back once more and engaged in social interactions regarding various topics and jokes. At one point during the ride, Clayton showed up and entered the small circle of friends. Darwin took this moment as an opportunity to ask amorphous clay child if he was willing to wait in line for them at the _Broken Asylum_ convention and the socially awkward kid willingly agreed to do so because he was already planning on waiting in line with his pal Bobert.

The bus soon arrived in San francisco and it was already noon. Despite the fact that it was early October, it was still hot outside and the skies were clear today. Everyone stopped chatting for a while and just stared at the marvelous city as the yellow passenger vehicle made its way through traffic. The city itself was spectacular and the people walking the streets were just as diverse as the familiar faces in their hometown.

Some were tall and easily stepped over multiple pedestrians, clearing entire blocks within seconds, others were small and skittered beneath the feet of others, desperately making their way to whatever destination was intended. Up in the sky above, Bizarros with wings, jets, or any other alternative means of flight swarmed about, landing on building balconies, darting about and weaving in between each other with amazing grace. The buildings themselves were custom made for certain types of people, allowing those with less humanoid characteristics easier access. While everyone on the bus agreed that their hometown was weird, San Francisco was just weird with a higher density.

There was a noticeable percentage of Humans also walking about, standing in front of buildings, or sitting in restaurants: just basically mixed in with the weird creatures that coexisted in this world. Aside from the few people Gumball had seen and met from Richwood high, this was the largest concentration of humans Gumball had ever seen in one place. For the amount of grief they give them about their appearance, Gumball thought they looked quite odd themselves and found that everyone else seemed different around them. When he looked around the bus, he could see Miss. Simian staring at the humans with a look of disgust, which wasn't strange, but also what appeared to be… _hatred._

She just glared at them the same way she would her students, but the anger was far more prominent on her aging features. From what she had told the class during their various history lessons, the humans had a long history of conflict with their bizarre counterparts and she had been wrapped up in some of those conflicts. It wasn't hard to say why she chose their school to teach at, humanity wasn't entirely accepting as a species.

Unfortunately, this case applied everywhere. While most nations around the world allowed the bizzaros to live in peace, there were still quite a number of humans that opposed the idea of equality. Groups like the _Human Front_ were heavily involved in politics and while they claimed they just wanted to ensure equality to the human minority, the fact that they helped fund election campaigns supporting certain candidates didn't show much in the way of progression. That, and there was the obvious scandals they've been involved in that didn't help their case.

Even though Gumball despised the teacher, he couldn't help but feel a little sorry for what she had to put up with for centuries.

There were a lot of comments cycling around the bus about the people outside as well as the city itself and while Gumball was sharing a few urban legends he had heard on the internet with his friends, Sarah suddenly shouted,

"Hey everyone, check this out!"

Everyone gathered around the living ice cream and she held up her phone before playing a video of a green skinned man with bat wings and a lot of leather clothes, being arrested for supposedly firing into a cafe with a handgun,

" _-Someone's gotta stop them! They were monsters, one was a snake and the other was a shadow comprised of nothing but arms! They just killed eighteen people in the Big Cup cafe by touching them and my bullets just melted when they came in contact! They're gonna kill us all- LET GO OF ME- ooof!"_ He was pushed into the car and the video ended right there.

This sparked a huge debate amongst the Elmore students

"What did he mean by monsters?" Molly asked in fright.

With great enthusiasm, Clayton answered her,

"He means the terrible alien demonic overlords of sector Zeta!" he sounded very serious and when everyone turned to him, he formed himself into a very muscular man to show off,

"They're invisible parasites that travel to our world in order to possess teenagers, mainly because they're easy to hack, and once they've gathered in numbers, they will start sucking out all the nuclear power in our power plants and missiles to become super mutants. Then once they're strong enough, they will take over. My dad and I fought them several times." he boldly claimed.

A moment of silence and Carmen was the next to speak,

"I think it was just a gas leak." she logically concluded and the rest of the class agreed in unison.

This caused Clayton to deflate from his muscular form back into his blob form before he hopped back to his seat in dismay. The rest of the class continued to host their debate, with even Mr. Small joining in on the conspiracy, and a lot of possible explanations were tossed out there. Meanwhile, Carrie, Teri, and Gumball had looked the news article as well and were discussing what really happened,

"Power failures and multiple people found dead via unknown reasons, yep that sounds like the Nephilim alright." Carrie said as she swiped through her phone's newsfeed.

"It says that it's been happening quite often in this region too! There was an incident in an alley not too far from where we are now and three humans were found dead." Teri read, before showing Gumball and Carrie the image of three dead humans in an alley covered in graffiti, the most prominent of which read, _"NO FREAKS ALLOWED!"_ with a picture of a person's horned head representing bizzaros crossed out next to it.

Gumball let out a small _hmm_ while he rubbed his chin and scrolled through his phone,

"It still doesn't make sense as to why they're attacking so few people? It says here on this page that thirty eight people were killed in the past week alone, yet only twenty two of those were Nephilim related." he questioned.

This put both girls in a state of thought and Carrie shrugged,

"Maybe they're being covert? Perhaps they're not ready to invade yet and are just testing our strength?" she suggested.

That made sense and the other two nodded with a small sound,

"In any case, we should be careful!" Teri stated.

The three were in agreement and kept their eyes peeled for any signs of danger, luckily the bus continued its trip without incident.

 _-the Beat museum, 11:15 a.m.-_

When the bus pulled into the parking space in front of the stone building, the doors swung open, and the teachers handed each student a piece of paper as they exited the vehicle. With two hours to work and explore, the children immediately gathered up into their designated trios before standing outside while the teachers went over the schedule with Rocky as well as where he was allowed to hang out for the afternoon. While everyone was out, Gumball's group looked over the assignment they had been given and saw that it was just a lined piece of paper for jotting down notes.

Looking at the Beat museum, Gumball noticed that it looked very small for a museum, no bigger than a typical shop and some confused murmurs could be heard amongst the students huddled at the store's front. It didn't have its own parking space, so the bus had to pull up in front of the museum and unload the passengers at the doorsteps. Looking at the small building now, there was actually some hope for the kitten that this group assignment would be relatively short.

The bus left soon after and the teachers took attendance, while everyone else was talking very loudly. Mr. Small was practically bouncing with joy upon seeing the building for the first time and was just as loud as the students. He jumped up so high, that his flip-flop flew off his right, fluffy foot and smacked Tobias in the eye when someone (Alan.) told him to look out, which caused him to look up instead. Unfortunately, for Tobias when Mr. Small came over to retrieve his misplaced footwear, he apologized and offered to make it up to the multi-colored cloud kid by taking him to the Beat generation exhibit that was going to be put on for three hours straight. Despite the delusional jock's protests, Mr. Small had already promised to see him there, and quickly took off .

While this was all going on, Gumball asked Bobert to print him a quick essay describing the entire Beat movement and the robot happily complied. While Gumball began filling out his notes, darwin saw what he did and argued with him that he shouldn't use Bobert like a computer. Gumball of course saw no issue with this and kept writing anyways.

Before Gumball could come up with another counter to support his case, he noticed out of the corner of his eye, someone running down the sidewalk towards them.

When he looked in the direction of this approaching figure, he saw that it was a woman, probably in her early twenties, with blonde hair cut into a bob, gold skin, eyes of the same color with black sclera. She was wearing a red T-shirt with a black star messly printed on the chest and black, denim shorts with a chain hanging from her belt loop and from her back pocket. Most alarming was the fact that she was hefting a mace weapon in the shape of a rectangular prism with two spikes sticking out on each face. She appeared determined as she raced towards them.

He saw her rushing towards Teri and Molly, who were just talking to one another and completely unaware of the strange woman heading towards them,

"Teri, Molly, watch out!" he called, making his way towards them both with a hand in his bag already reaching for his scythe.

The sad part was, the woman was much faster and pushed the two girls down before taking off down the sidewalk. Gumball was thankful that the mace wielding freak didn't decide to attack them and stopped reaching for his weapon to instead help Teri back onto her feet. Right next to him Banana Joe was helping Molly up as well.

"You okay, Teri!" Gumball asked in concern, reaching out towards her.

She didn't say anything except a muffled response as she lifted her head. To Gumball's surprise, relief, and confusion, she appeared alright, but was wearing a surgical mask she had drawn on her face. Looking down he saw that her hands were covered in green rubber gloves and reached the conclusion that she put on some protective equipment to ward off any potential diseases. He knew there was no lengths she wouldn't go to stay healthy, but this seemed to be taking things a little too far.

Sighing at the silly sight of his friend decked out in protective gear to what was supposed to be a normal field trip, Gumball grabbed her hand and helped her up. He then turned to the running blonde with an angered expression and decided to tell her off,

"HEY! Next time you decide to jog around with dangerous weapons, why don't you get your eyes and manners checked, you bimbo!" he shouted, causing Teri to stare at him in disbelief.

The lady didn't say anything and kept running, although she did make a rude gesture with one her fingers. Offended Gumball covered Teri's eyes and let out a huge gasp,

"How dare you! You don't just go around pushing my friends into the dirt and making obscene gestures afterwards! You get back here and apologize or else I'm just going to keep angrily yelling because I don't want to chase you and make a scene!" he shouted, shaking a fist at her.

The golden woman with the golden eyes ignored his angry shouts and kept running until she disappeared around the corner. Seeing her disappear without so much as a backwards glance caused the pre-teen boy to bare his fangs in anger as he scowled at the spot she was just at,

" _Jerk! I hope she gets knocked over by a jogger!"_ he thought angrily to himself.

After taking a second to reassess himself, he looked at Teri and inspected the feeble girl for any signs of damage. There were no tears or cuts that he could see nor were there any marks, except for some dirt smudges that were found on her face and dress. Other than broken dignity and a few stains, she seemed perfectly healthy. Physically speaking.

He let go of her and took a step back so that she had a little extra space and watched her pull out a pencil and draw a mouth on her mask,

"I knew the city was dangerous!" she cried in a panicky voice.

Gumball acknowledged her fear and pain with a simple nod,

"Yeah, I know. Should've known that there were going to be a couple jerks-!" he was cut off when Teri began frantically searching her bag for some sanitizer and speaking in a high pitched voice laced with complete dread,

"I'm not talking about that meathead who pushed me, I saw how filthy the sidewalks are up close! I can practically see germs from the many shoes stepping in who knows what and moving about on the pavement!" she found her bottle and began squirting a large amount of anti-bacterial gel in her hand to rub on her face.

Normally Gumball would've teased the overly sensitive/paranoid clean freak when this sort of thing played out in front of him, but seeing as he was not in the mood to be standing outside in the hot sun for the next ten minutes, he opted to grab the paper girl by her free hand and dragged her indoors,

"Come on, you paranoid princess, let's get you cleaned up the way _normal_ people do." he muttered to himself as he pulled her to the main entrance.

Teri stopped trying to cover her face in disinfectant and instead focused on where Gumball was currently taking her. As soon as they passed through the front doors they were introduced to a large lobby decorated with portraits and stacks of merchandise on placed on shelves. It had a real cozy feel to it and the two could already feel calmer than they had been a minute ago. They could already see that Mr. Small, Molly, and Idaho had already entered the building and were checking out some CD's placed on some racks near a table full of T-shirts and other "Beat" inspired articles of clothing.

All in all, the lobby looked very comfortable, with its classy atmosphere and vast collection of artifacts dating back to the fifties, but the building itself was still incredibly small for an actual place of history.

Teri continued to allow herself to be guided by Gumball and soon found that they were headed in the direction of the restrooms. She now understood where Gumball was leading her, her new question was, why lead her here to wash up when she could easily have done more than enough cleaning in front of the building. Not only was washing up in the public bathroom rather unhygienic, due to all the filthy surfaces that haven't been touched upon in hours, it was completely inefficient and a waste of time.

"Why are we going to the restroom?" she asked, now noticing that her hand was being held and desperately tried to yank it out without tearing it off.

Feeling her resistance, Gumball released her hand and spun around to face her,

"One: _you_ are going to the bathroom, not _we_ because that's just weird." he replied, pointing towards the sign that marked the restroom as _women only._

Teri massaged her hand quickly before glancing up at Gumball with an irritated look,

"I know that! That's not what I meant! You've already had your fair share of experiences in the ladies room at school and I'd prefer that what happens at school _stays_ at school." she snapped, nearling growling the word _stays_.

Continuing on with his explanation, Gumball kept all the images he had seen from his numerous misadventures in the girl's changing room from resurfacing in his consciousness,

"I'll keep that in mind. Two: I think you should wash up in the bathroom and take that ridiculous stuff off because if people here see you wearing protective medical gear while walking into a museum, they're probably going to throw you in the looney bin or evacuate the entire building. Remember: not everyone here has gone to school with you. We all know you're a clean freak, but to a stranger's perspective this could seem alarming." he explained, placing both hands in front of him to indicate the stuff she was wearing in order to further prove his point.

Now she was hurt, from her point of view Gumball pretty much just called her freaky and that the public would lash out at her for trying to be careful. This caused her to feel a jolt and her body started to feel numb. Is that what he thought of her? A nutcase? Someone who's just going to be an embarrassment to himself and to others around her?

She felt a swell of negative emotions slowly building up inside, causing her to clench up her rubber gloved fist, and her body to tremble in anger, frustration, and sadness. She looked Gumball dead in the eye and stomped her foot. The action wasn't very loud or noticeable by others, but Gumball could tell right away that he had said the wrong thing,

"Okay, so I'm just a nutjob who's only an embarrassment to you and the rest of the class!" she said, raising her voice.

Gumball tried desperately to calm her down by raising his hands and talking in a calm voice,

"No, no, no, what I meant was-!" she quickly cut him off by breaking into a sob, allowing her face to fall into her hands.

"Yeah, I'm crazy because I try to protect myself and others. I didn't realize that caring for others was such a crazy concept. I didn't realize that I would be regarded as a psycho just for doing the right thing!" she was still sobbing, allowing her shoulders to heave up and down.

Nervously glancing around, Gumball saw that her outburst hadn't attracted a crowd yet, so he had a chance to calm her down before someone came by. Focusing his attention on her once again, he took in a deep breath and let it out slowly,

"Teri… I didn't mean to upset you or hurt your feelings-!" his apology was halted when Teri lifted her head from her hands, but was staring elsewhere: she wasn't even looking at him, at least not at his eyes.

"You don't understand what it's like." she mumbled softly,

"Having this fear. This constant, gnawing, cold, dripping, spine tingling hurricane that sweeps through your mind and drives your instincts and your motives all because an uncertainty exists that a single bacteria or virus could easily latch onto you, crawl its way through your body and destroy your cells one by one. It's like an invisible enemy that's everywhere all the time and even though what I do may seem extreme to others, it's the only thing keeping me sa-!"

"I HAVE AN IRRATIONAL FEAR OF SPIDERS!" Gumball screamed.

Shocked at his outburst, Teri silently stared at him, mouth still agape from speaking as she remained motionless now. Everyone in the building was now staring at the two of them, but neither of them paid those people any attention. Seeing as he got her attention, Gumball continued his rant,

"I swear, everytime I see one of those eight-legged freaks, my one and only instinct is to find the farthest and highest spot from the bug. Whenever, I reach my safe place, I call for mom, Dad, Darwin, or Anais to kill it." he wasn't shouting anymore, but his voice had a tone to it that made him seem louder,

"Three years ago, I spent an entire afternoon on Anais' top bunk screaming for my parents to come save me from a spider that had crawled onto my desk. Another time, I got stuck up a tree because a spider had drifted down on a string of silk and onto the bench next to me causing me to scurry up a tree for safety. The list goes on." he shivered every time he relived the memories.

There was a lot more, but he had already proven his point somewhat and needed to finish this up,

"My point is, I also have an irrational fear of something and the way I react may be more or less wonky to others. However, I don't go to extreme lengths to protect myself from them to the point where I can't even enjoy life or interfere with my relationship with others. Bottom line is: I know you're scared of bacteria, you have every right to be, and it's not wrong to take certain measures to protect yourself, but please tone it down a little is all I'm asking. We're not scared of you, we're scared _for_ you." he offered her a comforting smile and held out his hands.

His various stories about his hilariously over the top reactions to spiders helped Teri better understand that he too was like her, in a small way. There was so much she had missed out on before due to her fears and Gumball shared a valid point, she needed to live a little. It also came to her attention that this is the same thing her mother told her a while back and she felt a twinge of regret for not taking her advice. At least Gumball was able to catch on to this as well and give her the proper awakening that she needed.

She was relatively still for a moment before taking off her gloves and using a pencil to erase the mask drawn on her face,

"Alright. I'll try to take it easy, but I still need to wash my hands every now and then." she said, making a compromise.

This was the best deal Gumball could accept even though he knew that she didn't need to go to such measures, he nodded and looked more relaxed,

"I understand, but please try to have fun today." he replied, pleading a little.

She agreed and after that, Gumball walked over to give her a hug. She felt her negative feelings slowly burn away and she returned the embrace. She felt Gumball give a slight squeeze to reassure her that she was alright and that he was there. She loved this feeling and thought about why she loved him. She was very happy to have someone care about her and understand her feelings.

She released from the hug and saw that Gumball had some tears welling up in his eyes as well,

"What's wrong! Did something happen!" she asked, grabbing him by the shoulders.

He sniffed a little, causing Teri to cringe because he was supposed to blow his nose to expel all the excess mucus, but she wasn't going to point that out this instant and decided to let it slide.

"I'm alright…" he sniffed, straightening out his back to appear stable,

"It's just… revealing my deepest fear like that and connecting to you in deep, meaningful way really touched my heart." he explained, wiping a tear from his eye.

This caused the paper girl to lighten up until she was beaming with happiness.

However, Gumball wasn't finished,

"Also, your flimsy fingers on my back reminded me of this one time when a big, brown spider landed on my back while I was in the shower and I leapt out of- _SLAP!-_ AUGH!" he screamed as Teri used her rubber gloves to slap him for ruining the moment.

"Thank you for that touching moment, Gumball." she said sarcastically, before turning towards the ladies room,

"Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to wash up and join up with my study group afterwards. See you later." she waved him goodbye and disappeared behind the door to the restroom.

Gumball waved back and massaged the burning red mark on the left side of his face. Despite the immense pain he was undergoing, he smiled happily as he thought about the embrace he and Teri shared a moment earlier. He was glad to see that she was better because he didn't mean to sound like he was criticizing her overall personality and appearance. It was a good thing it all worked out in the end and the sweater clad cat made his way back to the main entrance to where his partners waited.

In the girls bathroom, Teri hummed a sweet little tune while she cleaned her face. A smile upon her lips as she thought of certain things.

 _-fifteen minutes later-_

Things could not have been any more embarrassing for Mr. Small when he discovered that the Beat Museum was actually a storefront made to promote the culture to oncoming tourists and was not an actual institution dedicated to the preservation of the 50's movement. After engaging in a heated argument with the store clerk, Mr. Small apologized to the class and staff for not committing any further research into the trip. He made up for this by gathering with the other teachers and selecting certain locations around the city before emailing the pictures to everyone's phones.

It was a scavenger hunt essentially and every group was assigned three locations throughout the city to find. They had about four hours to find the locations, take a group selfie at said places in order to complete the assignment and then basically wander about until it was time to meet up again in front of the museum. With that being said, the school counselor wished them the best of luck before disappearing back into the museum and Ms. Simian wandered off with Nigel to a nearby cafe while giving them some vague advice regarding burglars and swindlers.

With San Francisco being theirs to roam, Gumball, Darwin, and Bobert set off for the first picture they received in their mail. He and Teri promised to keep in touch throughout the entire assignment as well as promising to keep their fellow classmates safe until they found each other again. With the two parted ways and set off to have fun with their groups.

Walking down the sidewalk in between Bobert and Darwin, Gumball kept his eyes glued to the phone screen, wanting to study the image carefully. While this happened, Darwin was taking it all in, the sights, the smells, the chaotic chorus of hundreds of ongoers sweeping through the narrow confines between the buildings and just the general feel of insignificance when placed in the sea of people. It was all great and awe inspiring to the walking goldfish, who had never seen such a bustling place before,

"This place is so big!" he whispered in amazement before looking Gumball's way,

"What do you think of this, Gumball?" he asked.

Still looking at his phone, Gumball quietly muttered an answer to the question he was half way listening to,

"I think that this assignment is going to take forever." he was frustrated because all the images Mr. Small had sent them looked like obscure photos taken by random pedestrians at various locations. It gave Gumball the impression that they literally took random images off the web and compiled them into a scavenger hunt. Some of these places could easily be gone at this point!

Being optimistic as always, Darwin nudged his older brother's shoulder and gave him a smile when he looked up from his phone,

"You're not going to find anything by staring at your phone the whole time! Also-!" he quickly pulled Gumball aside by the arm as a tall peacock-like birdman wearing a sparkling duster reminiscent of an 80's disco jacket trotted by, narrowly avoiding a collision with the unaware bipedal cat,

"-you need to watch where you're going while walking on a busy sidewalk." he finished.

He let go of Gumball's arm and the blue cat thanked his little sibling for the save before putting his phone away,

"No problem!" Darwin replied in a chipper tone,

"By the way, nice job on your workout! When I grabbed your arm, I could feel a lot of muscles underneath." he complimented.

Gumball shrugged and continued walking along with them. With a lot of free time on his hands, he'd been able to put in some hours for his workouts and perfecting his scythe skills also helped put some meat on his bones. He wasn't exactly bulging with muscle yet, but when he looked in the mirror this morning, he noticed that he was considerably toned.

It hadn't been something he was entirely focused on though, so he replied casually to Darwin's comment,

"Thanks, it's just something that helps keep me focused on other things." he replied.

There were a few things he could have meant by that and Darwin was sure that it had something to do with the odd things he was doing. The walking evolutionary oddity had been keeping a careful eye on Gumball while he was at school, but for the past few weeks, he hadn't been doing anything that warranted suspicion, neither was Teri. He also noticed that the strange anomalies have seemingly stopped happening and his girlfriend wasn't sensing anything out of the norm, so things have been rather quiet.

He was still suspicious though and he was instructed by Anais to watch over him during this trip, which he intended to do,

"Well that's good! We should check out some of these places while we search the area, it could take us a while to find what we need, but at least we can enjoy some quality time exploring-!" he was in the process of finishing up a fun plan to spend their time when Bobert started beeping.

"Such trivial tasks are unnecessary! I have analyzed the district's surveillance system and acquired the locations of all three target areas. Calculating the fastest route possible!" Bobert chimed in that robotic voice of his.

The little robot's head swiveled to the side and he began to walk into the road, through oncoming traffic! Gumball and Darwin began to scream Bobert's name in an attempt to prevent the black and white android from sustaining any damage, but the little robot was fine when he extended his arm to block an incoming semi. The front of the massive vehicle crumpled as it slammed into the absurdly strong machine's arm, sending an ear-piercing screech as the smashed vehicle came to a complete stop.

The two boys chased the robot across the street, now devoid of moving cars thanks to Bobert's road block, apologizing to the winded truck driver and all the frightened onlookers as they pursued him.

They managed to make it away from the scene of the accident before both of them chastised their mechanical classmate for his carelessness and Bobert was thankfully able to understand his own error. Once he calculated a safer route for the three of them that also ran through some scenic areas, to Darwin's request, the trio was on the move again and they headed towards a park known as Alta Plaza which was pretty close to Jackson square.

It looked like any regular park they've seen, with plenty of open space, playground equipment for children, walkways and stairs leading up the hills, and several courts for recreational activities like tennis. They spotted a tree that matched the one in the second photo Mr. Small sent them and rushed over to take a selfie by it. Using Gumball's phone, the three stood by the tree and snapped a picture before sending it off to their school counselor.

Jumping up and down joyfully, Gumball hollered some and gave Darwin a double high five as well as Bobert, who asked if he join in with the celebration.

"Awesome! That leaves only two now!" Gumball shouted with glee as he pumped a fist in the air.

"Oh yeah! And this place looks really cool too! We should check out that playground!" Darwin joined in with child-like enthusiasm.

Gumball nodded in agreement, but was interrupted when Bobert suddenly spoke up,

"Estimated time until completion of assigned tasks is twelve minutes if we maintain a steady walking pace of 1.4 meters per second." Bobert rounded up with his computerized brain.

Darwin stopped celebrating and turned his attention to the big-headed android,

"Oh come on, Bobert! We can have a little fun while we're working, this is a field trip after all!" he exclaimed, placing a fin on his hip while the other directed Bobert's attention to the park's many recreational areas.

Bobert's single eye blinked once before he scanned the overall area and began processing,

"Processing new input… conclusion: inefficient usage of study time. The activity you suggested does not fall within the assignment's parameters!" he replied in monotone.

Sighing, Darwin tried thinking of a way to explain the concept of enjoying one's self while staying on task while Gumball just shook his head at the killjoy member of their group and wondered if they could switch partners at this point. It was right then he heard a sound coming from nearby and it was familiar to the kitten. Turning every which way to locate the source of the noise, Gumball spotted the colossal figure of Hector squatting in a field behind them several hundred feet away.

He was sitting by himself while eating a turkey sandwhich, but he was being pestered by a trench coat wearing fly shaped like a cube. The insect was man-sized and one look at his tattered coat told Gumball that he was homeless. He appeared to be targeting his the giant's sandwich, which made sense given how hungry he looked, but Hector was not allowing him near it.

Every time his swiping mitts would come close to striking the scavenger, the cube fly would spout off curses from his trunk-like mouth,

"Cut it out, you behemoth! There's something leftover on your face and I'm just making sure it doesn't go to waste! Good Jade!" he shouted as he narrowly dodged another swing.

Hector didn't care for the creature's pleas and kept his face protected as well as the lunch his mom made for him,

"I don't need your help, now buzz off!" Hector demanded, trying to keep his anger from rising, but the fly was persistent.

Gumball was joined by his two partners in watching the scene unfold before them and they pondered whether or not they should help him,

"Um, should we jump in and help him out?" Darwin asked, casting a sideways glance to his elder sibling.

Gumball rubbed his chin and watched as Hector took another swipe at the bug as he attempted another dive for his sandwich,

"We should, but how are we going to deal with him? He's too high up and I don't know if he'll listen to us or not." Gumball wondered out loud.

He needn't think too hard, for Bobert found a simple yet effective solution to the giant's pest problem. Priming his targeting reticle, Bobert's display darkened and a red crosshair appeared followed by an ominous hum. With a single blast, the robot's laser fired and the flying scavenger was knocked out of the sky. He fell to the ground right by Hector's feet, his clothes burnt, and his body battered, he twitched every now and then, but appeared to be knocked out.

Jaws dropping, the Watterson boy's jaws dropped in disbelief as they witnessed Bobert assault a homeless person with a dangerous weapon. Bobert, however did not seem to care much for the aggressive act he displayed and reverted back to "standard mode". Hector himself didn't seem too bothered either and just went back to eating his meal,

"Target eliminated. Hector's lunch and moral: sustained." Bobert stated, turning back to the boys with his usual apathetic expression.

Finally snapping out of his daze, Darwin turned to the robot and began chastising him for his actions,

"Bobert, do you realize what you've done! You just killed someone!" he screamed.

Also snapping out his trance-like state, Gumball inspected the fly man and pouted a little,

"But don't insects repopulate really quickly? I mean, there's gotta be hundreds of them in this district alone." he noted with a shrug.

"That's NOT the point, Gumball!" Darwin shrieked, snapping his head towards the unfazed blue cat.

Bobert raised a claw-like grasper and proceeded to explain himself,

"Negative. I merely disabled him with a non-lethal highly concentrated ionic pulse blast." he objected before adding,

"He should be fine as long as he is provided medical attention within 41 minutes." he casually remarked.

The two boys dropped a few shades of color as they wondered if the cube bug would arrive at a hospital in time. Luckily Bobert reassured them by calling the emergency number with an app that he installed onto his hard drive and with one message, the ambulance was on its way. Meanwhile, Hector had finished up his sandwich and reached into his massive paper bag to draw out a giant applesauce container that had to be at least fifty barrels worth,

"Thanks for helping me get rid of that pest, guys." he said gratefully before tilting his head back and downing the entire container in one gulp.

Bobert returned his gratitude by politely telling him that it was his pleasure, while the two brothers didn't really say much because they didn't really do anything. Nonetheless, the giant seemed very happy. After finishing his fruity sauce he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and stared down at the three boys gathered atop the hill some distance away,

"You three are out a bit early, are you playing hooky with the rest of the class?" he asked suspiciously, knowing full well that the Watterson boys were capable of causing mischief. As for Bobert, he could be there for any kind of reason.

Catching on to his confusion, Gumball spoke up and waved his hands to confirm that everything was alright,

"Actually the Beat Museum was a complete bust and the teachers sent us off on a scavenger hunt to get us off their backs." he answered.

Hector seemed to not mind and merely shrugged as a response. Darwin then explained to him the rules of the assignment and pointed out that they had only two locations left to find. Seemingly satisfied, Hector placed both of arms on his knees and looked about the city-scape,

"Sounds like a fun assignment." he remarked, carefully watching the streets swarming with cars and people from his heightened field of view,

"I'm not allowed to go to a lot of places while I'm here, so I'm just going to stay in this park and enjoy the weather." he explained.

He didn't sound like he was bored, but as far as the trio could tell, he wasn't very excited about his current predicament either. They wished that there was something he could do, but given how big he was, it was understandable why he couldn't just wander off where ever he pleased. Still being the nice guy he was, Darwin offered up a suggestion to the friendly giant,

"Um, would like us to hang out with you once we're done with our scavenger hunt? We've got a few hours to kill afterwards." he said.

Gumball found this to be an odd decision on his part because he thought that both he and Carrie had plans after the assignment, but figured he would work things out with the ghost girl when they eventually meet up. It still earned Darwin a puzzled look from him. Hector reached into his brown bag again and fished out a cheese stick as long as a canoe, answering Darwin's question as he peeled away at the string cheese,

"You guys don't have to, but I wouldn't mind the extra company. Actually, I am allowed to walk down the main roads, so you three can invite your friends along and hitch a ride on my shoulder while I take us to the golden gate bridge. It would be a very scenic tour of the city and we can make small talk while doing so." he said softly as he began munching on the shreds of cheese.

Darwin nodded in agreement and waved to the giant,

"Sure thing!" he chirped,

"I'll let everyone else know while we finish up with our scavenger hunt! See you around!" he shouted as he turned around to walk the other direction.

Following suit, his two companions trailed after him, waving at Hector who silently waved back and went back to finishing his meal. Walking side-by-side with his little brother, Gumball was about to ask him how he was going to tell Carrie about the change in plans when he noticed someone approaching them on the sidewalk. When the little cat looked, he saw that it was a very big man with the head of an Ox, chocolate brown skin, and shaggy brown hair done up in dreadlocks. He was very intimidating to look at, standing at eight feet in height with the build of a bodybuilder, his muscles could be seen stretching the fabric of his white tank top and black cargo shorts.

At first Gumball just wanted to steer clear of the big guy and was about to drag his companions off to the side, but then he noticed something. On one of the man's horns was a carving of sorts, but on closer inspection, Gumball noticed that it appeared to be a rune. It was different from the ones he saw Teri and Rob used, being a dot surrounded by six hands, but there was no doubt about it that this man was using magic of sorts. Now, it could just be that the Ox man just liked to carve symbols into horns as decoration or something, but after everything that has been going on lately, he could make a fairly good guess.

He also wondered if that gold person that ran into Teri and Molly was a Nephilim hunter too, given that she was wielding a mace in a public area.

He noticed that the burly man seemed to be in a hurry as he was steadily marching down the pathway towards them, but his dark brown eyes were looking beyond him. Feeling someone tug him to the side, Gumball realized that he had been staring at the man's horn for so long that he hadn't actually moved from his spot and nearly got trampled as a result. He watched the stranger pass him by, even catching a brown eye looking down at him as he did, before he continued on through the park.

Right next to him, Darwin was speaking and Gumball only partially heard him,

"Are you brain dead? You nearly just got stomped on by that big dude! Seriously, you need to be more attentive!" he said beratingly.

Gumball watched the dark-skinned stranger disappear over the hill where Hector was sitting behind, to which Hector shifted his gaze slightly before going back to enjoying the weather again. With him being gone, Gumball was driven to Earth and he wondered to himself if he should have talked to him when he rushed by. It probably wouldn't have done him any good though because he remembered that Darwin and Bobert were right by him.

Speaking of Darwin, Gumball quickly turned on a heel to face his concerned sibling,

"Oh, sorry about that!" he apologized, while rubbing the back of his head.

Darwin raised an eyebrow and looked over his shoulder where the man disappeared,

"What was that about?" he asked, now looking back at him.

"Just thought I saw someone from television is all?" he explained with a nervous chuckle before taking off down the sidewalk while tightly clutching both of his bag straps,

"Come on, let's finish the scavenger hunt and go have fun!" he exclaimed.

Darwin and Bobert turned to one another, both looking skeptical, shrugging, and taking off after the blue feline,

"Bobert, where's the next location at?" Darwin asked as soon as they caught up with Gumball.

"Continue one block down until Filmore street, take a left turn, and then two more blocks. We should increase our speed though." he explained with some urgency in his voice.

"Why?" Gumball and Darwin responded in unison.

Bobert pointed in a particular direction before saying,

"Because the local authorities are on their way with the paramedics and will be arriving in T-minus two minutes!" the little robot spoke in an alarming tone as his display lit up with an _!_

As if on cue, sirens could be heard from several blocks away and the three boys ran as fast as their legs could carry them.

 _-Lafayette Park, 12:48 PM, fifteen minutes later-_

Three minutes ago, they finally finished their assignment and both Teri along with Carrie were glad for it. Thanks to their abilities of flight, Teri, Carrie, and Masami were able to gain better vantage points in order to spot the targeted areas. It was still a bit of work, but the three girls were able to find all three locations and were finished in a relatively short span of time.

They did have a good time though. While they flew about the city in search for various clues, they would often strike up a few conversations with one another and while Masami was outwardly friendly towards Carrie, she wasn't so much as with Teri. Not being one to leave anyone out of a conversation, Carrie would often pull the paper girl into a talking session with her and Teri would feel more included as a result. This seemed to agitate the cloud girl a bit, but she seemed to just roll with it and indulged both girls.

Teri of course did catch on to this and immediately felt bad when she realized that Masami didn't want her to join in on the chat.

Soon the assignment was over and the trio of pale girls was officially disbanded when Masami took off to go meet up with Leslie and the other two were left to wander the park where their last location sat. Checking their messages, it would seem that most of the groups have finished their individual hunts and were now just wandering about the place with much to do. They had three hours to spare, so Carrie offered Teri to join her on a walk to a _Siren's Allure_ cafe on Vallejo street which wasn't far from where they were.

It was also the place where Darwin and Gumball were going to be meeting them, so Teri didn't mind stopping by the cafe,

"You said that Darwin had something in mind?" she inquired, picking from where their conversation left off. She saw Tina stomping through the park with Jamie and Tobias sitting atop her neck as they chased down some kids.

Carrie nodded and checked her messages once again,

"Mmm-hmm, he didn't say what it was exactly, but I'm not too worried seeing as Clayton has already saved us a spot for the _Broken Asylum_ signing area." she allowed her phone to fade away before continuing to drift beside her friend.

Lafayette park was a really nice place to be strolling around in, it was nature heavy with multiple trees and grassy fields with only a few paths cutting through them. It kind of reminded Teri of home and she was able to find some comfort in being in a place like this. She was riding atop an origami horse, not because she was tired, but because they were about to head out into the streets where there all sorts of nasty things strewn about. While Teri took to heart what Gumball had said, she was still very nervous about the environment and was taking precautions.

Old habits really do die hard, maybe that's why Masami was a little irritated with her today. After all, she did have to stop three times at different places to wash her hands and then there was the time refused to hold Masami's phone when they were taking a group selfie for the project. It wasn't her fault that Masami always wanted to be the one in the middle, but she did feel like she was being a little obnoxious.

Strolling onto the sidewalk bordering the street that will eventually take them to Vallejo street, the two girls spotted a street performer not too far away performing some tricks with real magic!

Gasping in delight, Teri watched as a green prism girl with a different face on each of her sides slowly dissolve into smoke before the small audience and reappearing on the top of a building across the street where she shouted to the astonished onlookers. They all clapped in amusement as the crystalline figure bowed and dissolved into smoke again. It took the shape of a bat and flew off into the open sky before disappearing altogether.

Clapping along with the audience, the paper girl and emo ghost continued on their way,

"That was so cool!" she exclaimed to an equally astonished Carrie.

"Heck yeah that was! I can't believe how much magic is in the air here!" she stated in utter amazement.

Turning her head in confusion, Teri asked Carrie wondered what she meant by that, to which she explained,

"Oh! What I meant was I haven't visited any major cities in six decades and the last time I was at one, which happened to be Los Angeles, the magic wasn't as dense." she looked at in hopes that helped cleared everything up.

She was still confused and the paper puppet couldn't quite get what she was referring to when she talked about magic,

"Do you mean like the magic Gumball, Rob, and I use?" she asked.

Carrie was about to say something right away, but stopped a moment to think of a better way to answer that question,

"Well, yes and no." she finally answered, causing Teri to become further intrigued,

"You see, the magic you three use is a simplified form of magic created by the Nephilim, but requires the user to possess a strong soul. There are other forms of magic that exist, some that can only be used by certain types of people, for example I can utilize magic that revolves around the dead, and some types that can be mastered through years of training and learning." she said, feeling as though that were a simple way of putting it.

This definitely came off as interesting to Teri and she wondered to herself if she could gain mastery of certain spells that weren't rune based. She also pondered the meaning to Carrie's words when she mentioned the Nephilim magic requiring strong souls. So the three of them could only use the runes because their souls were strong enough? Did that have something to do with the fact that they could see them?

Her thoughts were being drowned by the sound of ongoing traffic and she continued to question Carrie on the topic of magic,

"So how come magic is more widespread nowadays, why wasn't it more common back then?" she asked.

Carrie further elaborated by going off of past experiences and some theories of her own,

"I'm not quite sure." she said, starting off honest,

"I think it may have something to do with the children of Earth gaining a better understanding on how the universe works. It could also be that the spread of information helped further the study of magic for many people. There's also the possibility that it has something to do with the people themselves because back when I was little, most beings I've met were rather simple and animal-like." she realized that last part sounded odd so she tried again to further clarify her findings,

"Okay, what I mean is things like flying squids or sentient balls of slime made of Jade-knows-what weren't really all that common. As a matter of fact, ghosts were considered the strangest natural phenomenon before the advent of the twentieth century." she spouted off before taking a deep breath.

Very interesting, was all Teri could think of as she thought about it and looked down at the origami horse she was riding. The more she thought about it, her ability to manipulate paper seemed like an unusual ability in of itself and she wondered if it was an ability that started right around the time Carrie described or if it had been one of those odd cases of rare magic? She didn't really ask her mom for further details into her family history and reconsidered doing so when she got back to Elmore.

They reached Vallejo street and made a turn that would take them straight to the cafe. Having said enough about magic, Carrie asked Teri something,

"Hey Teri, you do know that you and Gumball don't have to follow Darwin and I around the whole time, right? Did you have any plans for when we got done with the scavenger hunt?" she asked, giving her a curious glance from beneath her ghostly bangs.

Thinking about what she said to Gumball on the bus, she shook her head and told her what she thought,

"Not really. We were just going to hang with you guys and break off only if we spot anything interesting." she said, maneuvering her horse around a garbage bag rolling in the wind.

Crossing her arms and tossing her hair with a shake of her head, Carrie looked the opposite direction of the horse riding paper bear,

"Wow, harsh!" she grunted,

"Didn't realize that we're just temporary entertainment to you two!" she replied with fake hurt.

Teri was in disbelief and her face showed it,

"What?! Wait, no, that's not what I meant!" she stammered in her defense, but stopped when she saw Carrie laughing.

"Just joshing, you dork!" she giggled playfully.

Rolling her eyes, Teri shook her head in an unamused fashion and settled in for a quiet ride. She was, however, surprised when her phone started buzzing and when she checked it, she found that it was from Carmen. The message was an invite of sorts and it read:

 _Hey, Teri! There's a tourist trolley car that's taking passengers all over uptown San Francisco. Please come join us. It'll be so much fun!_

It was a really short message and at the bottom was an address with an image attached showing the train car itself. She sounded like she really wanted Teri to come and the paper bear was torn between going with Carmen or cancelling to meet up with Gumball and Darwin. When Carrie asked what was up, Teri showed her the message and Carrie's eyes lit up in recognition,

"Huh, a tour of the city by trolley car, that actually sounds like it could be fun! They even serve food to the passengers or so I've heard." she stated, placing a hand beneath her chin.

Teri pulled the phone from Carrie's face and began to tense up with worry,

"What do I do? It would be rude if I turned down her offer, but I don't want to ditch you guys either!" she groaned, grabbing the sides of her head in frustration.

Carrie did not see much of an issue though and came up with a quick solution,

"I say you should go with her. The tours aren't that long and we can always meet up later." she suggested, seeing as she would then be able to hang out with all of her friends during the trip.

Letting go of her head, she was now looking at her with a vexed expression and was unsure herself,

"What? You really think I should?" she asked,

"But wouldn't that be like abandoning you and the others?" she was very nervous now.

But Carrie just grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her dead in the eyes, her face completely serious,

"Teri. It's not a long trip and we have three hours to kill. If you're worried about time, remember that I can teleport. Also, if it's Gumball you're worried about, then don't worry, he knows that you like hanging out with your friends. So, go have fun!" she gave her the brightest smile Teri had ever seen as soon as she uttered the four last words and drifted back a bit.

It didn't take her long to realize that it made sense and Teri took it as a win-win scenario, so with a nod, she willed her horse to trot away in the direction of the address,

"Okay. I will text you guys as soon as we're done!" she hollered back as the horse began to pick up speed,

"See you later!" she said as her flimsy white hand shot up to wave at the ghost.

Carrie responded back with a wave of her own,

"Catch you in an hour or so, and don't worry about the guys, I'll keep them occupied!" she proclaimed.

Letting out a laugh, the paper girl flew down the sidewalk towards her destination and Carrie was left on her lonesome. Letting out a sigh followed up with a smirk, she turned around and began to float towards the cafe where her boyfriend and his sibling awaited. She wondered what Darwin's plans were, probably something really cool or really cutesy, something she loathed. She also wondered if she could get him to buy her a brown sugar machiato, she found that _Siren's Allure_ had some very trendy coffee flavors and had been craving sweet drinks ever since she discovered this. She was sure that Darwin wouldn't disagree.

 _-Trolley station, five minutes later-_

Gumball had just about had it with Alan this time! He was told to meet him at the trolley station because it was _so_ _urgent_ that he come and then he finds the place devoid of overly nice balloon boys. The trolley sitting at the station was one of those old fashioned ones that looked like a wooden train car built on tracks that people used to get around in the 1900's before cars were invented and was half way filled with people at this point. There was still no sign of Alan and that was really starting to cheese him off,

"Interrupts my conversation with Darwin to tell me to meet him here, I leave early and wait here for seven minutes, and he's still not here!" he grumbled to himself as he paced angrily about,

"If he thinks he's so nice, then why does he keep tricking like this? First there was that hospital misunderstanding, then there was that one time he tells us that saying "yes" to everything is the solution to all our problems, and now he dares to stand me up on a field trip!" he seethed.

He whipped out his phone and pulled up Alan's contact number before tapping it. If he thought he was going to get away with making a fool out of him then he had another thing coming, this is what Gumball was thinking as he began typing. He was in the middle of completing his hate filled rave towards Elmore's "nice guy" when he spotted a familiar person in the station. When he looked up, he saw that it was Teri and quickly deleted the message before heading up to greet her.

The two met up in the middle and stopped just short of each other,

"Hey." he quietly greeted.

"Hey." she replied, mirroring his greeting.

Gumball saw that she seemed rather surprised to see him here and also wondered himself why she was here of all places. He thought that she was with Carrie and heading towards _Siren's Allure_ to meet them both. He went to go see what Alan wanted and promised to meet up with Darwin along with everyone else as soon as he figured out what it was.

Gumball looked around for a moment and didn't see anyone else he recognized with her before turning back to the solo school girl,

"Um, you here for the tour?" he asked, rubbing the back of his head nervously.

Teri responded with affirmation and pulled out her cell to show him the message she received when she was interrupted by the tour guide, a female android that resembled a rather attractive young lady with silver skin,

"Are you two Gumball Watterson and Teri Pepakuma?" she asked in a charming robotic voice.

"Yes?" they responded in unison, both very confused.

The female android then gestured towards the train car and spoke to them,

"Your tickets are already paid for. Please board the train, if you wish." she awaited their response.

Without a clue, Gumball and Teri did as the tour guide asked and stepped aboard the railway car. The interior was narrow and filled with cushioned benches, much like a bus, with open windows that allowed fresh air to waft within the cabin. They found an empty seat towards the rear and went to go sit down. They waited for a bit, with Carmen and Alan still not showing, and the female android announced that they were departing.

Gumball was sure that there had been some kind of mistake and discussed it with his partner,

"What the what? Where's Alan? He messaged me to meet him here because it was important!" he whispered.

Teri jumped a little in surprise and her mouth hung open much like a cave,

"Carmen sent me a message too! I came here because I wanted to meet up with her." she whispered back, causing him to jolt in alarm too.

It was at the moment, someone's phone buzzed and Teri quickly retrieved her device before flipping it open. She saw that the message was from Carmen and she held the phone up so Gumball could read as well. It read,

 _Hey, Teri! So I just got an invite from Darwin to meet up with him, Carrie and Hector at Alta Plaza. Turns out Hector's going to give everyone a lift to the Golden Gate bridge and well, I figured it was a good way to see more of the city. Have fun on your tour with Gumball!_

At the end of the message was a smiley emoticon and a shadow fell across their faces.

" _She did NOT!"_ they thought in unison as several tick marks made themselves visible on their foreheads.

Groaning inwardly, Teri wondered if she should have spotted that this was an obvious ruse to get the two of them alone together and felt ashamed for not spotting it. She noticed that Gumball also seemed duped and that she was not alone in this. Still, she couldn't help but feel a little gratitude towards the cactus girl for going through all the trouble to arrange this get together and already she could feel herself becoming happy.

Having already pieced it together, there was nothing Gumball could do, but grin and shake his head at Carmen's cleverness. She even got Alan to help her out too and what's crazier is that he actually agreed to help her with such a deceptive move. Then again, all she probably had to tell him was that it was all for the sake of helping out their friends and he would've jumped at the opportunity.

It was wonderfully well-thought trap that either one could enjoy being caught in.

"Well, since we're on this trip now, you want to just relax and crack jokes at the passing landmarks" he offered, wiggling his eyebrows in a silly fashion.

She giggled at his goofiness and responded positively,

"Yes, but no puns!" she exclaimed, but said it like a challenge.

Knowing her very well, Gumball took this as a challenge to tickle her funny bone and already made a crack at it,

"But once we got to the Golden Gate bridge, I was going to give you the abridged versions in order to get my point across!" he snickered, his eyes holding that playful glow.

A flurry of light slaps to the forehead was unleashed upon the blue cat as he giggled uncontrollably to an equally amused Teri,

"Why can't you just follow my rules for once, you goof!" she laughed.

Gumball's smile never went away and he continued despite the Pepakuma's adorable wrath,

"Oh build a bridge and get over it!" he shot back with another set of giggles.

"Stop it or else I'm going to tickle you until you pass out!" she declared, now using both hands to slap his forehead.

All Gumball had to do was wiggle his eyebrows again along with his whiskers and that was enough to set her on a tickling rampage. The two spent a considerable amount of time in the back with their fingers darting for armpits and stomachs while they laughed the whole time. They were soon shushed by a passenger in front of them and they both settled down to watch the scenery.

While the robotic tour guide pointed out specific locations and explained their history as well as their significance, Teri and Gumball were striking up a quiet conversation. Teri told him about how her parents used to go here and how she was actually starting to like the place. She then told him about the magical street performers, Carrie's explanation on magic before bringing up the ghost's plans.

Gumball was intrigued by this, but she when she mentioned how Carrie was going shopping, something else came up,

"That's cool! At least we're finally getting answers!" he joyously exclaimed,

"Oh, um, I was wondering, you know how we're going to the mall to look for disguises?" he placed his hands on his lap and leaned back a little.

Curious, Teri moved her head up and down before whispering,

"Yeah, you have something in mind?"

Here was the question and Gumball was nervous to ask,

"Yes actually, um, would you mind if we stopped at _Dinner_? It's a nice little restaurant at the mall and I was thinking you and I can have lunch there." he was shaking now and he could feel his palms getting sweaty.

Teri leaned back and tapped her chin in thought, before smiling and turning back to him,

"Sure, sounds like fun." she said to Gumball's delight before asking,

"What's it like?"

He was about to get into the details on the classy place, but was inconvenienced by the power going out. The train came to a sudden stop and all the passengers were thrown forward. The tour guide also lost power and collapsed right away, leaving many of the tourists in a panic.

What came next was a series of explosions that raced towards the train car and before the two Nephilim fighters could do anything, the car was violently thrown off its tracks. The two felt weightless for a moment as the trolley was tossed into the air, Teri screamed along with several others, and they were thrown about the cabin as the train slammed into the concrete.

Everyone in the car was okay, a little jarred for sure, but as soon as the sound of explosive blasts faded, everyone fled the tipped vehicle through the open windows. Climbing out a window, Gumball got a look around and saw something large fly by overhead. It was a Nephilim alright, shaped like a rhombus with black armor and flying in between the buildings as it discharged green bolts of energy from its wingtips to the streets below.

He jumped down from the overturned vehicle and was followed by Teri, who was also fine. She looked up and saw the flying oddity bank between two buildings before vanishing from sight,

"Come on! We need to catch it!" she urgently shouted to her partner.

Wary of the people panicking in the streets, Gumball was stunned by the mass chaos and with an angered grunt, he pulled the scythe out from his bag,

"Let's take that Fright Kite down, together!" he growled, unleashing the weapon's blade and handle.

Teri was already on it and pulled several sheets of paper from her own bag. She formed one into an origami F-22 and the others were made into shurikens decorated with her runes. She was glad to see that Gumball was keeping his word and hopped on the paper plane before extending her hand out to him. Gumball took it and climbed aboard.

"Ready?" Teri asked as he got himself situated.

"All systems go, captain Pepakuma!" he confirmed with a salute.

Another smile crept onto her face before returning to her more serious posture and she ordered the plane to take off. Within moments, the paper strike craft shot down the street and quickly gained altitude, the wind roaring by them as the craft began to accelerate. They passed over the wreckage strewn streets of San Francisco and pursued the airborne enemy down its trail of destruction.

 _-Golden Gate bridge-_

While everyone else had heard the explosions and fled to safety, Carrie could sense the familiar disturbance rupturing her senses. This was very bad, there wasn't one Nephilim this time, but several, and from what she could sense there had to be at least four located throughout the city itself. She knew thanks to Carmen that Gumball and Teri were on a tourist trolley somewhere and she was in a hurry to find them.

When the disaster struck, Carrie had been enjoying a ride on Hector's shoulder along with Darwin, Carmen, Alan, and Molly. As soon as she sensed the four abnormalities and saw the explosions erupting within the metropolis, she took off, but not before ordering Hector to take the others somewhere safe. He did as he was told and she informed Darwin that she was going to look for Gumball before teleporting away.

It was still quite a distance from the city, Carrie decided to take the main road back and would teleport as far as her abilities would allow her. On the streets below, the ghost could see people stopping to get out of their cars and looking back at all the mayhem happening behind them,

" _Most of these people don't know what's going on."_ Carrie thought to herself in a grim realization,

" _I hope the fighting stays in the city itself, if it spreads out to the bridge then all of these people will be in danger. I hope everyone else is okay!"_ her desperate feelings caused her to concentrate and the distances her teleportation covered increased drastically.

She was getting really close to the first few blocks, seeing several houses already come into view and she could feel her worry starting to increase. The closer she got, the easier it was for her to sense the Nephilim and she could tell that some were more powerful than others. They were moving throughout the city at a rapid pace and given Gumball's description of how the Nephilim's abilities work, anyone caught in their path would be killed.

She "jumped" to a location within the suburban neighborhoods and before she could make another leap through space and time, she sensed something coming. It was faint at first, but it gradually grew until it was that same form of nothingness within her senses and she realized that another monster had appeared nearby. Before she could try to place it's exact location, it appeared much closer than she thought and a house exploded to her right.

The debris flew around and right through her, not harming her in the slightest, but she still screamed anyway. There were several people nearby when this happened, thrown aside along with the pieces of broken wood, shattered glass, and destroyed material and Carrie was about to go down to see if anyone was alright. She could not see the Nephilim however, and when she approached a human woman struggling to get to her feet, she suddenly collapsed on the sidewalk.

Carrie could feel the stranger's soul suddenly blink out of existence and the others soon followed. They were all dead. While the malevolent spirit could not be seen, she knew it was there and she spotted some discarded house bits being crumpled underneath the sheer weight of the creature. It was very big and Carrie needed to find a body to possess, now!

Taking action, Carrie vanished in a flash of light just as something came crashing down where she was floating and split the cement as a result. She reappeared some ways away from the destroyed house, feeling sorry for the people who died there, and searched the streets she was hovering over. She spotted a parked police car next to someone's property, a pretty brown house with a few turrets, and shot towards it.

She sensed the Nephilim coming for her, several other houses were smashed as it pursued, and she sped up until she phased through the vehicle's driver door. Inside was a single human officer, a pale man with red curly hair, freckles, and green eyes. He was easily spooked by her sudden appearance and tried to reach for his radio, but Carrie stopped him,

"Sleep!" she commanded before pressing her hand through his forehead.

The officer was knocked out right away and Carrie slipped into his mouth. She took control of his body and got out of the car, just as a massive cleaver smashed through the roof, cutting the car in half. Turning to the Nephilim with her new body, Carrie saw the beast through the cop's eyes:

It was very big, a towering 87 feet of destructive force and its oversized kitchen knife was around the same length. It was human in shape, but it's body was like a broken mirror, smooth silver that was cracked in many places and covered the monster's entire body. It didn't have a face either, just a large web-like crack with a single hole running through where it's left eye should have been.

She could see herself in its reflection and she felt hopelessly small when compared to it. She almost failed to move away when its butcher blade was raised and brought down again. Using the strength only a possessed could utilize, she leapt out of the way, soaring through the air before landing on the roof of a nearby house.

She turned and saw the Nephilim struggling to pull its rectangular blade from the concrete it was embedded in. She found the sight very hilarious and laughed scornfully at the terrifying beast,

"Do you even know how to use that thing!" Carrie teased, her voice coming out more masculine thanks to the man she was possessing.

This seemed to set the monster off. With a hearty yank, the Nephilim's weapon was pulled free and the ghost found herself on the run again as the Nephilim's jagged edge came rushing towards her. It was faster than she thought because the moment she leapt upwards, the house shattered beneath her feet and when she landed some distance away, the monster was already swinging at her,

" _Me and my big mouth."_ she regretfully thought as she turned to run.

The chase went on for a bit, Carrie went from building to building only to have every single one demolished soon after by the rampaging cracked Nephilim. She tried to retaliate by hurling debris back at him, but nothing was hurting it. She even hurled someone's parked pick-up truck at the monster and the Nephilim just cut through that as well.

"Darn it! Looks like I'm going to have to tear you apart myself!" she growled in frustration.

Pushing the possessed body to the limit, she jumped as far away as she could and the eight story Nephilim attempted to stop her with another slash with its titanic sword. Landing down the street, several hundred feet away, Carrie crouched down and watched the Nephilim recover from its attack. Pulling its blade from the ground, the Nephilim's cracked faced peered back at her and Carrie wondered if the thing was starting to wonder if it was ticked off for not being able to finish her.

It began charging again, a beast with a one track mind, and Carrie made her move. Reaching out with her telekinesis, she pulled the mirror giant's colossal sword from its grasp and the Nephilim stopped in the middle of its charge. It seemed confused that its weapon was raised directly in front of it and before it could try to recover it, Carrie forced the edged weapon through the Nephilim's waist.

The sword cut through with ease and Carrie swung again and again, making the weapon dance on invisible strings as the Nephilim was reduced to pieces.

Stopping to catch her breath, Carrie collapsed to the ground and reconsidered her overall strategy. She needed to find a better means of defeating these guys and with Gumball's team already scoring a few victories underneath their belt, she was starting to feel a little embarrassed. She was about to leave the cop's body to continue her search, but she noticed that the Nephilim's shards were hanging in the air, as though gravity had no effect.

" _Wait, didn't Gumball say the Nephilim burned up when they died?"_ she questioned as she continued to observe the Nephilim's scattered remains hover in one spot.

To her horror, the pieces began to move. They flew towards one another, reassembling themselves like puzzle pieces until the giant's looming form was blocking out the sunlight again. Carrie could only stand there with her mouth agape as she wondered what it took to defeat this thing.

She stood still for too long and she could feel something start to press down on her. She recognized this intense pressure and realized that she was caught in the giant's Doom blast. A glowing red orb that hummed began to form within the hole in its head and was mixing a black substance within the glowing weapon itself.

"HEY!" a deep voice bellowed.

The Nephilim stopped to investigate this newcomer and Carrie turned to see another giant tearing down the street. He was a mess of orange and purple fur and his height rivaled that of the giant holding Carrie down. It was Hector of all people and Carrie never felt so happy, yet so horrified to see her classmate charging in towards them.

Recognizing the larger threat, the Nephilim switched targets and fired the doom blast right at Hector. The lance of red energy leapt towards the child of Fjel, but did not connect with his face as he caught the blast with his forearm instead. The smell of burnt hair filled the air and Carrie could see that the blast left a dark burn mark on Hector's limb, but all in all, he seemed fine and kept charging.

With the Nephilim's best attack otherwise negated, there was nothing it could do when Hector closed the distance and delivered a right hook to its cracked face. The force of his punch shattered the Nephilim's head completely, but it quickly reformed and the Nephilim delivered a powerful punch to the behemoth's gut.

"Oof!" was all Hector let out as he stumbled back with a hand on his abdomen.

He wasn't finished though and he snapped out of it quickly before lunging back towards the reflective giant with both fists raised. When the two titans clashed, the ground began to shake with every step they took, every punch delivered sent one of them flying into buildings, destroying the whole neighborhood within a few strikes, but the two remained ever so tenacious and refused to give any ground.

Carrie watched the colossal smack down in utter awe and fright from the human's body,

"Well there goes the neighborhood." she muttered to herself as she watched Hector grab the Nephilim by the head and drove his knee into the monster's face, brutally shattering his head again.

He then sent the rest of him flying with an upper-cut and the silver entity shot over several houses, before smashing through several more when he finally landed. Furious, the Nephilim reformed itself again and got back up before sprinting at Hector with its claws raised. Such a simple creature!

Hector, being the star athlete he was, realized that he wasn't going to be able to stop this guy from charging and threw his arms in a cross formation, protecting his upper body. Crouching down, the hairy giant prepared to jump to the side when the reflective monstrosity reached him, but was caught off guard when the Nephilim stopped just short of him. It reached out with a clawed hand and dug its talons into the burnt spot covering Hector's forearm.

An agonized bellow erupted from the powerful giant's mouth, as he repeatedly tried to pull himself out of the monster's iron grip, but the Nephilim just dug in even deeper. Hector then tried using his free arm to deck the Nephilim in the face, but the giant was faster and caught his fist before it connected. With the shaggy beast successfully restrained, another Doom blast began to charge up within its hollow head and was directed at Hector's hair covered face.

Seeing the dire situation Hector was in, Carrie moved to help her friend and brought the Nephilim's massive meat cleaver with her. Jumping entire buildings, carefully treading over wreckage and dead bodies caught within the giant's battle, Carrie raced towards the struggling Hector and the Nephilim that was almost ready to reduce his head to atoms. She made her way around them without being seen by either and moved the cleaver until it was right behind the Nephilim.

And with a quick attack, Carrie swung hard with her telekinesis and severed the arm that was clutching Hector's burn mark.

Completely forgetting that there was another threat in the area, the Nephilim shot back in surprise once it realized its limb was gone, but in doing so left Hector free to move again. Working with him, Carrie proceeded to remove the walking mirror's legs too and the Nephilim collapsed with only one arm to defend itself with. Dropping down on him with one knee digging into his chest, Hector batted the Nephilim's arm away and pressed his palm onto its forehead. A green rune formed on his palm and the Nephilim's head flattened like a pancake.

Soon the rest of the body followed and it turned black before bursting into purple flames.

Carrie sensed the vile spirit's death and allowed herself to relax this time. She was just glad that it was over and looked around at the damaged housing complexes. Dozens of homes were destroyed and several people had lost their lives too. It was a horrible scene.

Getting up from where the Nephilim's corpse had vanished, Hector checked around him and saw a single police officer on his knees as he stared off into nothingness,

"Oh, hey officer!" Hector said as he stood up and raised his hands to show that he meant no harm,

"I'm sorry for all the damage, I was looking for my ghost friend, Carrie, but when I saw that demonic salesman trying to take your soul, I tried to help out. Mom was definitely right about the city being a dangerous place, I guess I should've stayed at the park." he muttered apologetically, surprisingly calm despite what he had just gone through.

Carrie was too shocked for words and only gave him an empty stare. What he just said would have sounded very funny if this weren't a bloody tragedy that could have been avoided. She was thankful for his assistance and even more so when he defeated the demonic entity, but she was still wrought with terror and guilt over what just happened.

She exited the cop's body and the unconscious officer fell backwards. Hector was shocked to see Carrie leave the policeman he thought he was talking to, but only showed it with a slight raise of his eyebrows. This didn't register with Carrie however and the little ghost drifted closer to his face so he could hear her,

"Hector, thanks for the assist, but there are more creatures like this one in the city and they're causing trouble." she said, remembering why she came all this way.

Hector seemed to get the idea and displayed his acknowledgment with a single shake of his head,

"Okay, but I have to be careful though. I can't cause any more damage then I already have." he explained, pointing to all the destruction he and his opponent caused.

Carrie understood and flew by him towards the city,

"Don't worry about it, focus on keeping those monsters at bay. I'll worry about the people!" she called over her shoulder as she floated away,

"And Gumball is with Teri, probably fighting them too, so keep an eye out for them!" and with that, she kept going.

Hector once again understood, but couldn't help wondering why Teri and Gumball were fighting too. To him they were the least likely to be dealing with what he just fought, but just shook it off and decided to ask Carrie about it later. He got up and began trekking towards the forest of skyscrapers, some of which were dark and on fire.

 _-3 miles north of Jackson Square, seven minutes later-_

"Get back here you golden brat! You're an insult to the colors you wear!" came a shout from general Gorothim, a massive skeleton who, unlike all the other Nephilim, was transparent like glass and had six arms with a scimitar clasped in each one.

The person he was yelling at and was the center to all his frustrations was Amy Rajit, the mace-wielding Svarn that ran into Gumball's class after they arrived at the Beat museum. She stood atop an apartment building that towered over Gorothim's measly thirty feet and regarded the Nephilim with playful golden eyes. They had been fighting for ten minutes now and neither of them have successfully managed to damage one another, although Amy herself was clearly outmatched.

Which is why she was standing on a rooftop while mocking the terrifying general,

"I'm not wearing gold, that's just the color of my skin, you racist prick!" she shouted back, her voice heavy with an Indian accent as she pointed her mace at the growling menace below,

"And I know you're too short to catch me, so why don't you open your eyes and shoot me with your Doom blast!" she goaded him on without any concern whatsoever.

Very annoyed, the ghastly creature shook a fist still clasping his preferred weapon at her as he spouted another slew of insults,

"Nice try, bird brain, but I'm not falling for your paralysis trick a third time! Now get down here and fight me like a warrior!" he pointed down at the ground with his lower four hands when he finished.

" _Darn it, I really thought he was going to fall for that!"_ she puffed up her cheeks before letting out an agitated breath,

" _Looks like I have to go down there myself!"_ she thought as she raised her mace above her head.

"As you wish!" she replied before slamming the enchanted weapon into the concrete roofing below her feet.

The mace was enchanted with eight runes that delivered a concussive blast equivalent to that of an artillery shell and with a single swing from its wielder, the entire upper corner of the building broke apart like dry bread. The resulting blast sent debris raining down on Gorothim, who quickly shielded himself from the rubble and as a result, left him open for an attack. Amy fell with the rest of the building and landed on the flat end of one of his blades with the grace of a trained stunt double. With no time to waste, she rolled off the gargantuan weapon and landed on his elongated skull.

With a cry, she brought her mace up and swung down hard.

The resulting concussive blast sent the vexed giant stumbling backwards before tripping over a car and crashing to the ground. Amy survived this by hopping off at the last moment and landing herself next to his head as it punched a hole into the side of the shop opposite of the one she destroyed herself. Dragging the blunt, four-sided weapon, the radiant woman made her way towards the fallen Nephilim,

" _Gotta break his neck. This mace has eight concussive blast runes, but it's steel frame can't maintain its integrity. I've already used up six shots, so only two remain."_ she reminded herself.

She was far more proficient with a bow and had a repeating bow rifle of her own, but left her permit for long ranged weaponry back in Seattle, so she had to make do with one of Brock's sidearms. It was a handy weapon, but not one to be used in prolonged combat against a seasoned Nephilim such as the general she was fighting and like most rune enhanced weapons, it could only maintain its integrity for a certain amount of hits. She definitely wanted to end this engagement as quickly as possible, as Gorothim was not someone to be trifled with.

"It's been fun, general, but I gotta break it to you hard. Attacking San Francisco in broad daylight was a stupid decision!" she finished, tossing a bang from her eyes.

Within a few paces, she reached the ginormous noggin of the pesky Nephilim that had been for five long years, a thorn in their side and raised the weapon to deliver the finishing blow. She was prevented from ending the general's life when several explosions forced her to duck down and from the sky above, a paper jet carrying two kids, soared between the buildings with a rhombus-shaped Nephilim in pursuit. It's wingtips were blazing away with streams of green bolts, which were being easily deflected by a blue cat wielding a scythe and the paper pilot was trying to outmaneuver the bus sized creature.

She watched them fly by with a faint recognition, but was almost crushed when Gorothim brought an arm up and around before slamming a fist into the concrete. Seeing the attack coming at the last second, Amy gracefully dodged the oncoming fist with a backflip and landed some distance away. Now with her being farther away from his supposed vital area, Gorothim got up again and once at his full height, he turned to glare at her,

"You're quite the raging headache!" he growled, his jaw never moving while he spoke, and he rubbed the cracked spot on his cranium with one of his hands.

Amy backed up nervously, now caught between a rock and a hard place, she wondered how she was going to get away from the thirty foot skeleton,

"You know, maybe you shouldn't get up so quickly! I read that having head trauma can really mess with your sense of balance!" she cleverly remarked.

At this point Gorothim was done talking with her and swung two blades in succession right at her. She blocked both rapid strikes with her mace, but with the activation of the concussive waves, the steel mace head shattered like glass and she was now without a weapon. Seeing the T-shirt wearing girl lose her only weapon, general Gorothim engaged in another flurry of strikes directed at his tiny adversary and Amy was forced to run once his attacks became too fast to dodge.

Feet pounding the sidewalk, Amy knew she wouldn't be able outrun him out here in the open and she ducked into a nearby alley way where the transparent giant's maneuverability was reduced to nothing. She heard him closing in and when she turned her head behind her, she spotted the shuttered eye of the giant general peering down at her from in between the buildings and he snarled,

"Quit hiding, NEA scum!" he screeched.

He brought a scimitar down into the narrow passage, the wind whistling as the blade sliced through the air, and Amy narrowly avoided being bisected by leaping out of the way. She landed herself on the wall opposite of her and grabbed onto the gutter pipe nailed to the brick surface. Hanging where she was, she heard the Nephilim curse under his breath as he dragged the scimitar out and tried again, this time by cutting through the wall she was on. Seeing this coming though, Amy pushed off using her arms and legs before twisting her body in mid-air and catching herself on the window ledge of the wall opposite.

Frustrated and short on patience, the glass-like Nephilim continued to slice at the golden girl while she swiftly dodged every single sword strike before continuing her way up the side of the building. Thanks to her years of fighting Gorothim and his forces, Amy understood the general's deadly proficiency with melee combat and had seen hundreds of her comrades fall to his six blades. He was very fast, his six arms acting independently helped him deflect many oncoming attacks as well dish out serious damage whenever he got close and not only were his skills as a fighter on par with even the most elite of NEA units, but his mind as a strategist was not to be scoffed at either.

She reached the top of the damaged structure and began to make her move, she needed to stay out of his range in order to coax him to use his Doom blast or she could wait for Brock to show up, whenever that may be. Snapping her athletic legs into action, the Svarn began racing across the rooftops and Gorothim began to pursue her from below.

He knew what she was doing and felt it necessary to demoralize her,

"Keeping out of range from my blades, I see! A wise plan indeed, but it will bring you no victory!" he shouted up to her.

Amy kept a careful eye on him, but paid his words no attention for she knew it was a trick and kept on running. She spotted something flying towards her from her left and saw that it was a car from the street below. She dived forward into a roll as the vehicle slammed into the rooftop behind her and jumped the gap between the buildings as soon as it approached. After landing, she spun to her left and saw that he had thrown the car himself as a means to kill her.

Smiling, the young Svarn tossed another jeer his way,

"Your parking is atrocious and so is your aim!" she shouted.

"Still trying to use your little trick, I see!" he responded, having almost been guiled into firing off his signature weapon,

"But, I don't need to blast you myself, as a matter of fact, one of my comrades is on his way right no-!" he paused when he sensed something off.

His comrade, a Nephilim named Fennick, was coming alright, but way too fast! He had sensed that he had been engaged in some kind of conflict nearby and while he followed the little brat here, he had also been closing in on Fennick's position. He got his answer soon enough when a battered white fox-like Nephilim boasting a mane of red fur came crashing through one of the buildings and slamming into Gorothim himself. Amy felt the structure she was on rumble a bit when the two giants collided with each other and checked to see who it was that could have done this.

Once the dust had cleared from the smashed office building, another giant stepped through, bigger than both of the giants in the current area, covered in a fine layer of orange/magenta fur caked in dust and only his hands were exposed as well as his feet. He was torn up in a few places, with patches of fur missing and traces of blood were noticeable, but he merely looked unimpressed as he stepped through the opening he accidentally made. At least, that's what a baffled Amy thought as she couldn't read any of his fur covered expressions.

The fox Nephilim, being twice the size of an elephant, was unintentionally pinning the six armed skeleton down with its large body and the leading figure of the Nephilim task force was struggling to free himself. Seeing the behemoth approaching, Fennick weakly turned its pointed head and opened its mouth to discharge an energy blast in a desperate attempt to harm the newcomer, but he simply lunged forward and locked the Nephilim's jaw shut with one hand, effectively cancelling the attack.

Moments later, a green rune flashed on the palm holding the giant canine's snout and the beast was compressed into roadkill.

Amy was stunned speechless at this giant's quick killing power! When she saw the Nephilim come crashing through the building and into Gorothim, she hadn't the faintest clue what was happening. Following this, when she saw the Nephilim-sized figure step out, only to easily destroy a twenty foot threat with a single magic spell blew her mind entirely and she couldn't help but think to herself,

" _I don't know who or what he is, but I'm glad he's on our side!"_ she could already feel herself starting to calm down.

Unfortunately, such hopes were dashed when Gorothim, having been freed of his companion's weight due to his untimely death, lashed out at the magical giant and cut into his hand. Hector roared as he lurched backwards, blood gushing from the gash on his palm and Gorothim took that ample opportunity to deal further damage. Getting up, he was easily outmatched by the giant's size, but that was nothing to him as his middle set of arms moved rapidly, making quick work of Hector's knees.

"That'll teach you to throw my friends at me, boy!" Gorothim scoffed as he marched towards him.

Amy screamed when she saw Hector drop to his rear, crushing multiple cars as a result, and the six armed giant hopped onto his stomach and made his way up to Hector's neck. The Nephilim pointed a sword at his adam's apple and Hector froze when he saw where the weapon was pointing at. He wondered how was he so easily taken down by something that was no bigger than the last guy he fought and even shorter than the first one that arrived.

The answer was a broad set of skills and years of experience, Gorothim took pleasure in getting ready to slay the menace that killed two of his own soldiers,

"You know, I really gotta hand it to you, I was authorized by the senate to commit mass terror upon the citizens here and I think you did a better job than I did! You even had me scared for a bit and what you did to Fennick along with my second in command, Creighton-" he raised the other five scimitars until they were poised to cut into his exposed throat,

"-makes me really happy to see a threat such as yourself reduced to a headless husk!" his skeletal grin seemed all the more menacing for the frightened giant of Elmore.

He was about to start the shredding process when he sensed something else coming his way and he realized that Exxon was no longer in the air. He was quick to move and glad that he did because he spotted a crescent arc of grey fire tearing its way towards him. His upper right arms moved and formed an "X" with the swords before catching the long ranged attack in the intersection.

As powerful as the attack may have been, it was not enough to budge the ghastly creature and with a single horizontal cut of his lowest right arm, the arc of fire he caught was halved before dissipating. Following this attack straight after, a paper F-22 zipped by and from it a blue cat wielding a scythe leapt towards the evil giant. Screaming in anger at the sight of his injured friend (Gumball was surprised to see Hector all the way down here and facing off against their common enemy, but all of his questions needed to be answered later.) Gumball pulled his weapon to the side and began to spin like a top, increasing his power output to eighty percent.

"Hey, Bonehead! Get away from my friend!" he shouted while he spun faster.

Gorothim was surprised at the cat's bold move, but was prepared to counter and caught the blue feline's curved blade with his own elegantly curved blade, stopping his descent completely. Before he could fall though, a surge of grey fire erupted from the sickle's edge and Gumball discharged another blast of violent energy right at the Nephilim. The general's sword was forced back into face, smacking him hard with the dull side, and he stumbled back a few feet.

Having been propelled away from the powerful warrior with his own attack, Gumball landed on the soft belly fur of his classmate, dropping to one knee as he quickly looked up at his newest opponent. He was very tired, both Teri and himself tried to destroy the flying Nephilim in a short amount of time, but the airborne menace was just too fast. Even it's armor was thick enough to counter most of Teri's attacks and they had to kill by luring it into a tunnel where it crashed into the ceiling. They were able to unleash a torrent of magical attacks on the downed flyer, but it still took a lot out of both of them before it was killed.

And now there was this guy.

Recovering from his stumble, the house sized monstrosity was now focusing on his even tinier attacker,

"One after the other, it's like you hunters are just crawling out of the woodworks these days!" he snorted.

Rushing forward at the conclusion of his disgusted statement, the Nephilim's upper body, minus his head, began to rotate like a helicopter rotor and all six blades were now a whirling circle of destruction. With his mind reeling in terror, Gumball tried to back away from the approaching windmill of lethal edges, but Gorthim's pace outmatched his and Gumball raised his scythe to block the swinging weapons. If it weren't for his powers, he'd have been easily knocked aside and he felt one sword after the other crash into the scythe's incredibly durable handle with each collision sending sparks flying.

"Rrrrgggh!" Gumball clenched his teeth as the attacks sped up and he was coming close to losing a limb.

He was saved at the last moment though, when Hector attempted to rescue his friend by swatting a massive paw at the colossal death machine. Gorothim stopped and blocked with all of his blades, successfully pushing him back. Seconds later, Teri made another pass with her origami and several shurikens sprouted on his upper arms. Seven explosions erupted from the strike areas and the Nephilim screamed in rage as two of his limbs fell by his side. Taking advantage of the distraction, Gumball set off another grey fire arc and when the skeleton tried to stop it, he kept his head clear of damage at the cost of a hand.

Down three limbs now, the ranking general of the Babyloth army switched targets and waited for Teri to make another strafing run. With one sword, he stabbed Hector's hand to keep it from bothering him again and the giant screamed as he pulled it away to try to remove the offending object. While keeping Gumball occupied with his two remaining swords, he spotted Teri's plane closing in again and when she got close enough, he reached up, pulled her out of the air before throwing the crumpled wad of paper at Gumball himself.

The two were sent flying back and Gumball shut off his flames in fear of hurting Teri. Crawling out from the crumpled plane, Teri groaned a little as she straightened herself out and she tried to regain her bearings,

"Ow! I hate that feeling of being crumpled up into a ball! It's fine when I do it myself, but when others do it for me, it's very disorienting!" she muttered dizzily.

Pulling her to his side, Gumball stayed close to her and focused on the giant in front of them,

"This guy's all over the place, I can't keep up with him!" he gasped.

A good response to this issue would've been to create another origami to help them keep up with their quick adversary, but Teri was not given that luxury when Gorothim let out a frightening war cry and lunged towards them both with his blades crossed in a scissor-like position. Gumball prepared to catch the attack, but he was unsure if he could protect himself and his paper fighting partner once he started another series of strikes. Teri on the other hand, pulled something out to shield them both, a large sheet of paper with three barrier moon runes previously drawn on and stepped in front of a startled Gumball.

The twin blades closed in and when they reached the two children, a barrier popped up in between them. Unlike a single double moon barrier, which was a single pane of magic glass that covered a small area, the three runes together lit up at once and created a bubble around the classmates. The scimitars edges scraped against the glass barrier, but did not penetrate and Gorothim growled in frustration,

"You can't hold this for too long!" he roared as he repeatedly slammed his blades against the dome.

He was right, to their dismay, as all he needed to do was strike two more times and the barrier shattered, this time Teri collapsed from exhaustion. She realized that she used up too much energy trying to maintain three runes at once and was now too tired to do anything. Ready to strike again, Gorothim prepared to land the ending blows for them both and his swords danced through the air as they made their way towards the pair.

Luckily Teri's protection brought Gumball the necessary time to charge up a blast at one hundred percent and he set it off directly in front of Gorothim once Teri was clear of the attack itself. At point blank, there was nowhere for him to dodge and he was forced to abort his attack to instead prevent his lower body from being ripped in two. The crescent of blazing destruction was a lot stronger now and Gorothim needed to put his all into blocking the strike, failing to notice the hand sailing straight towards him.

Like an unbelievably large ragdoll, the three handed being was easily swept to the side and sent sailing down the street. Cars, buses, and bits of torn up concrete flew in all directions as his face as well as the rest of him carved a trail throughout the street. The noise he made was awful and everyone had to cover their ears.

"Auughh!" they both screamed as they cupped their hands over their ears.

Once he came to a screeching halt, Gorothim got himself back onto his feet, feeling no pain as a Nephilim spirit, and turned around with a hate filled fire burning within. So many insects were causing him so much trouble today and he had just about had it with them. Once the dust had settled, the kids were surprised to see a ferocious and horribly scraped up giant, glaring back at them.

His eye shutters lifted like actual eyelids and Gumball could sense something terrible coming their way. Sunlight began to collect within his transparent dome and the dark recesses of his eyes began to harbor a golden glow. Gumball had never seen a Doom blast that color and frankly he wasn't even sure if he could hold something like that back with his power alone.

Placing a hand upon a stunned Teri's shoulder, Gumball began to pull at her and tried to vacate the area,

"We gotta go, now!" he urgently shouted and the two began to turn tail to make a run for it.

The ground was shaking within moments and Gorothim's eyes began to glow with the brightness of the sun as his attack charged itself with more energy. No one was sure how devastating it will be once unleashed and Teri realized that Hector was still too injured to move! There was nothing either of them could do though, both were winded from the fight earlier and he was pretty close to firing at this point.

And then someone else stepped out in front of the three school children, a person with eyes that matched the Nephilim's own in brightness.

Just like that, the humming and the vibrations ceased, leaving everything quiet for once. With a single stare from his brilliant opponent, Gorothim was frozen from head to toe in a complete state of paralysis and was no longer a threat to anyone. Amy whipped around and found her attention planted on the little blue cat with the big head,

"Hey, bobblehead! Do you have any juice left in that scythe of yours? My paralysis gaze isn't going to hold him for long and we need to destroy him now!" she questioned.

Feeling rather offended by the nickname directed at his largest body part, Gumball answered a little snidely,

"No, I used up a lot of energy helping Teri fight off Fright kite and that last attack you just saw was the last of it." he explained before a tick mark formed on his head,

"And the name's Gumball, you blonde bimbo!" he shouted while raising his fist.

Letting the insult slide, Amy decided to turn her attention to the paper girl whom Gumball referred to as Teri, but saw that she too was winded and the giant was out of commission, so they couldn't utilize his abilities. This was bad, there was no telling how long the spell will last and the female Svarn was out of options. They had no choice but to pull out of there.

"We need to leave before the spell wears off." was all she said before turning to walk away.

Gumball and Teri first looked at one another then at Hector before voicing their concern,

"What about Hector?" Gumball asked.

"We're not leaving him here on his own are we?" Teri followed up.

Amy stopped and for a brief moment, the two were worried that she was going to snap, but she didn't,

"Hector is going to have to make do on his own while we regroup." she said coldly,

"Where's the rest of your unit?" she asked, turning to them again.

Once again, the two kids looked at one another in confusion before turning back to her,

"We're not part of a unit, we're students on a field trip from Elmore and Teri and I are the only Nephilim hunters in the class. Well, there's also Carrie and Hector too, I guess." Gumball muttered.

Amy's black and yellow eyes flashed in shock.

Teri also spoke up though she was more concerned with Hector's well being and was quite aggressive about it,

"And we're not leaving him behind either!" she declared rather loudly.

"Wait a minute, neither of you three are part of the NEA? Then how long have you been fighting-!" she was cut off when she noticed something in the sky above,

"Oh crap! Take cover you two, we've got more incoming!" she ordered before rushing off to find cover in the damaged streets.

Looking up, both Gumball and Teri could see another crack forming in the sky above as though the heavens were splitting. Frightened, the two kids ducked into an alleyway and wondered what they were going to do,

" _We're too worn out, Hector's injured and that blonde haired girl has only one trick. We can't fight any more of these things and if the other guy recovers…"_ he gulped as he squeezed Teri's hand, which he didn't know he was holding.

What came out of the dark portal were several slender limbs made of a smoky black substance and they were reaching not towards either of them, but towards the frozen skeletal giant. They snaked around his slender body and lifted him up off the ground, pulling him towards the portal. Everyone watching stared up in confusion as the Nephilim was pulled back into the world he came from and before he disappeared, the Nephilim moved again,

Twisting his glass skull around and regarding the four in the streets below with contempt, he spoke back to them,

"Congratulations on saving the rest of your pitiful nest, children of Earth, but my work here is done! Enjoy the hard times ahead!" he remarked before he was pulled up into the dimensional tearing.

The hole closed and just like that, Gorothim was gone.

Cautiously stepping out from their hiding places, everyone regrouped around a now sleeping Hector and to Amy, Gumball was the first to ask,

"Who the heck was that?" he was looking very ruffled from the overall experience.

Looking back up at the sky and sighing, she lowered her head,

"That, was general Gorothim. He's been leading the Nephilim expeditionary forces on Earth for five years now and once again, he's escaped." she sounded defeated and her body was slumping forward now.

Tired and confused, Teri tilted her flat head and a scowl could be seen etching its way onto her face,

"So that giant skeleton has been leading ALL the attacks on Earth, for five years now?" she asked.

Nodding, the golden woman recomposed herself and was casting both of them suspicious looks,

"So who are you two exactly? You said you weren't part of the NEA." she asked, looking back and forth between their faces.

Teri was the one to speak first this time and she introduced herself as well as her cat partner standing next to her,

"I'm Teri Pepakuma and this is my best friend and fighting partner, Gumball Watterson." she pointed at him and he waved a little,

"Now who are you and what's the NEA?" she fired off her round of questions.

Placing a hand on her chest, Amy proudly introduced herself,

"I am captain Amy Rajit of the Azura squad. My partner Brock and I were deployed here to respond to an imminent attack on the city and-!"

"There you are!" came a single feminine voice.

"Hector, sweetie, don't you worry! Momma's on her way!" another voice shouted, this one raspier.

In the sky above two figures descended into the partially destroyed streets and both looked furious as well as concerned. One was a very frightened looking little ghost girl, with long bangs obscuring part of her face and a bow shaped like a skull adorned with wings was the only article of clothing she wore. The second was a haggardly troll woman who looked much older than she actually was and was riding a witches broom towards her ginormous son. Amy could tell that the magical troll lady was the giant's mother and given the looks of recognition on Gumball and Teri's faces, the ghost must have been a friend of theirs.

The troll lady landed on her son's chest and inspected all of his wounds, she looked absolutely horrified,

"Oh my Jade, what happened to my baby boy!" she shrieked before casting a lopsided glare in Gumball's direction.

Holding his hands up in reassurance, Gumball fumbled his words until he found an explanation,

"Uh, sorry Mrs. Jotenheim, it's kind of hard to explain all of this, but, uh, you see, for almost a month now, there have been these giants known as Nephilim an-!" he was cut off by another shriek from the mountain dwelling witch.

"I know about all of that already! I can see into the world of the unseen and I was expecting you to a better job at protecting everyone!" she was very furious and everytime Gumball saw her like this, he would shrink back in terror.

Teri was listening to all of this coming from her and found herself feeling quite enraged by the troll's angry accusation. They already had enough trouble fighting one Nephilim at a time and knew that when multiple enemies showed up, keeping the damage down to a minimum was going to be very difficult. In all honesty, they were very lucky that have been surviving this long!

There was nothing Teri could say in their defense though as Mrs. Jotenheim snapped her fingers and Hector disappeared in a flash of light before she took off on her own.

"I don't my son having any part in all of this, all of you are to stay from him now, you hear!" she shouted back, not needing a warning to tell them what the consequences would be if they tried.

Silently watching her go, Carrie felt slightly guilty for letting Hector wander off on his own when she started helping other citizens escape and turned to the other two students once she realized that they needed to go,

"We gotta go you two! I got a message from Darwin and he says that everyone is at a bus garage where Rocky is waiting to take everyone back. I haven't been there myself, but I guess they may be very worried now." she explained with a little stressful sarcasm.

She couldn't have stressed the point even further and the two realized that they had been out together when the power went out. Everyone must be worried sick about them at this point and anyone who was already suspicious about their Nephilim hunting activities would be on to them, less they get back right away. They quickly grabbed Carrie's awaiting hands and within an instant, all three vanished, leaving Amy alone in a destroyed city block.

In the background, sirens could be heard blaring and several people were still screaming, but that was all so far away. Amy could count herself fortunate for surviving a close encounter with general Gorothim, but the more pressing concern for her was the bold attack he lead today. Normally, when the Nephilim attacked, they tried to remain obscure and would make the attacks seem like natural occurrences.

She thought about this as she hightailed through the emptied streets littered with wreckage and before she knew she ran into a massive Ox man with a single rune carved into one of his horns. She let out a little _eep!_ when she almost slammed into the muscle mountain that was also running at high speed and recognized her mistake in embarrassment. He threw his hands up in surprise when he saw her nearly run into him, but his brown eyes lit up in friendly recognition and he greeted his partner in kindness,

"Amy! Fancy running into you here, wish the atmosphere was a bit nicer though!" he chuckled in deep brass voice with a hint of an Israeli accent.

Amy's stunning eyes shot daggers when she eyed the bovine partner of hers before she stomped her foot in a fit of rage,

"Thanks for coming to my aid when I really needed it, Brock!" the blonde haired Svarn spat.

Recoiling in terror at his tiny partner, the horned NEA officer braced himself for a slew of angry curses and tried to say something in his defense,

"But the guy I was fighting was a sixty foot elephant looking thing that could shoot fire from its trunk, give me a break!" he squeaked.

Ignoring his excuses, the red shirt wearing Svarn stomped past him in a huff and ushered him to follow along. The dreadlock wearing bovine pursued, but remained at a distance in fear of triggering her wrathful gaze. He respected his long standing work partner, but he knew not to further upset her when she was in a foul mood and carefully spoke when they took another turn,

"Um, so did you defeat those other four guys because I actually called in Stevenson and Brookes for reinforcements." he was actually kind of surprised that he could no longer feel their presence and they were all defeated within a short span of time too.

However, all he got from her was a single shake of her head and a simple,

"No, I was helped by strangers" her tone was odd, not quite cold, but not friendly either.

She was pondering something and after a long period of silence, the two made their way into a hotel and when they finished checking in, they strolled towards the elevator. Once inside, Brock pressed the button to the appropriate floor and glanced at a thoughtful Amy with her arms crossed. With the seclusion the elevator brought them, Amy finally said something and remained in a neutral mood,

"We need to contact Central Twelve, the Nephilim's attack today was unusually direct and we're going to need to smooth out public relations right away. We can't have people panicking." she said, listening as another pinging sound could be heard from the elevator's speaker.

Scratching his hairy chin, Brock let out the breath he had been quietly holding in and turned to the side a little,

"That'll be difficult given how much destruction they cause this time." he muttered.

Amy silently agreed before adding in the other thing,

"And I also want specs to look into Elmore when we get back to Seattle, I want as much data on that place as he can get his hands on and I'm going to see if I can get authorization from C12 to mobilize a retrieval team within a few weeks." she stepped out of the elevator once it came to a stop and the doors slid open.

Stepping out after her, Brock was confused about this place she was mentioning and wondered if had something to do with those strangers she mentioned earlier,

"Why? What's so special about that place?" he inquired as they paced down the well lit hall towards their individual rooms.

They stopped at Amy's apartment first and after digging out her card key from her shorts, the militant Svarn opened the door before stepping into the organized space. She looked about the room before turning back to her Oxen partner and when he saw the triumphant gleam in her eyes, he knew she was onto something big. Lifting a finger to express her positive attitude, she spoke in a lighter tone,

"I may have found one of the anomalies the Nephilim are looking for, plus some promising new recruits." she remarked.

Brock got it right away and a pleased smile helped accent his bright eyes as he nodded in agreement,

"I see. This could spell out good news for us and if we're lucky the second one could be there as well." he began stroking his beard a bit before turning on his heel towards the room opposite of hers,

"I'll make a call to C12, the guys up top are going to love this one." he said as he waved once to her, indicating that he was going to be there all day.

As soon as he disappeared within the confines of his rented out space, Amy retreated as well and made her way towards the bathroom. Leaning against the wall was her repeating bow rifle that she couldn't bring out today and a sneer made its way into her plain expression as she regretted not being better prepared for the day's events. Still she was glad that something good came out of this disaster and she could already tell that coming weeks are going to be very interesting.

Looking up into the mirror, she saw a dirt covered face riddled with cuts staring back at her and she turned on the sink to begin washing off all the grime.

 **A/N: Here we are folks, the end of chapter ten and what a turn of events that was! I am actually very happy that this was a short write because I've been waiting to get this one out to you guys as soon as possible. There's still so much story to go and I still can't believe that this all just the starting point.**

 **So we have ourselves some new characters, both villainous and friendly alike, that have been introduced in this new setting and the stage has been set for future events happening in other places. We've got general Gorothim, who is a bit of a mystery, but will be coming back as a reoccurring villain and we have yet to see his true powers. I had a hard time coming come up with his design because I wanted something sinister, yet different from all the other Nephilim we've encountered. In the end, the design kind of got shaved down to something simplistic because I didn't want to waste too much time coming up with something I couldn't easily describe. His fighting style also matches that of General Grievous' from the** _ **Star Wars**_ **franchise.**

 **As for Amy Rajit, she was a character I had planned for a while now and her backstory will also be a mystery until much later. The name of her species is Svarn, which according to google translate means, "golden" in Hindi, I'm hoping that's correct and if not, please leave a comment about it. She's from India and has been involved in the early stages of Earth-Babyloth war. Her design is based loosely on Mina Ashido, my favorite female character from the My Hero Academia series and her ability is paralysis which she can activate upon eye contact with her opponents, but only lasts a certain period of time.**

 **As for Brock Braunwhen, as soon as I thought of Amy's character, I thought him up too because I wanted to have a kind of buddy-cop duo with these two and having a towering man-beast seemed to fit with the smaller, agile female character. He's from Israel and met Amy in Jerusalem when she was stationed there. I do have more planned for him and look forward to showing him alongside Amy in the upcoming chapters. He is very powerful, but is actually quite gentle and soft spoken, unlike his counterpart, who is very brass, calculating, and serious.**

 **These are general descriptions for both of them, but there's more yet to come.**

 **Next chapter, we'll be taking a bit of a break from the Nephilim fighting and will be focusing on the day after. It will be a brief chapter, but it will still progress the plot somewhat. The next is called "Saturday at the mall." and I look forward to publishing that one.**

 **Have a Fantastic day, all of you guys, please give this a fav and send your reviews, tell me how much you guys love this or hate it. I'm all ears. Anyways, later and do enjoy yourselves.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: Saturday at the mall**

Teri x Gumball

 **(A/N): whaaaaazup! I am back and with the eleventh chapter of the romantic fantasy story, Teri x Gumball: in between worlds! In today's chapter we'll be following Teri and Gumball as they head over to the Elmore mall in order to find something to wear as to not draw suspicion to themselves in the future. We'll be seeing the two trying to have a casual day as well as the other students and their regards to the terrifying field trip they were on.**

 **I hope you enjoy the chapter, please leave a review and let me know what you think about the chapter.**

 **(I do not own The Amazing World of Gumball. All rights belong to Ben Bocquelet, the staff, Cartoon Network, and other respective owners.)**

 _-Void, October 5th, 2013 time: ?-_

The everlasting darkness was just as suffocating as Rob remembered during the many visits he had taken to this place over the past couple weeks, but at least it wasn't as terrifying anymore and Rob actually grew to appreciate the inky black that cloaked everything here. He had long since passed the floating ruins of Sumer's greatest abominations and was now on a direct course to the barrier. Underneath his tin foil covered space helmet, a single eye penetrated deep into the abyss and when the HUD began blinking in alarm of a massive approaching object, a familiar smirk could be seen underneath the tinted visor.

He rode the depths on a modified portable scooter he fished out of the junkyard some time ago, the absence of the Nephilim brought him the gift of time and he was able to whip up a few handy tools in between trips to the Void world. The vehicle had been fitted with dozens of chemical rockets that allowed him to traverse the microgravity environment, a larger fuel tank stored the chemical propellant, and the basket in the back of the blue, rusty two-wheeler held his supplies. He still wore his rocket pack for when he needed to leave the vehicle and he could tether himself with a cable if needed so that he wouldn't lose his crafty mode of transportation.

As a matter of fact, he was planning on leaving it above the barrier once he arrived.

While his numerous journeys to the realm of forgotten knowledge yielded him many results, well over two hundred runes written in leather books all to be added within his upcoming masterpiece, _Leviathan Book_ , he still wasn't any closer to finding a cure for himself and Rachel. He has in his possession spells that can destroy his enemies, enhance his otherwise normal abilities to unbelievable levels, and assist him in ways normal tools fail at, but none of them brought him any closer to his goal. Which is why he needed to venture further into the source of all this precious knowledge and find out for himself.

"Okay and we're about fifty meters from the barrier, reverse thrusters." he said to himself.

While he could only see nothing in the empty space, his helmet's scanners were picking up the massive anomaly and with a tap on his modified touch screen, the frontal rockets fired a chemical burst forward with a bubbly hiss. Soon he could feel the craft start to slow down and when he was about ten meters away from the prison of the past, he deactivated the thrusters before dismounting himself from the vehicle. From the basket in the back, he grabbed a slender device shaped like a nail, only it was about a foot long with a rune printed on the nail head as well as a tether device and the inventor began to drift off towards the enormous object obscured in the shadows.

Rob could already feel his nerves wracking up as he closed in on the black, glassy surface and he tried to calm himself,

"Deep breaths, deep breaths, we've tested this out yesterday and the subject came back fine. So by that conclusion, you should too." he could already feel his heart rate starting to slow and he was calm again.

During the day prior, the young cyclops had brilliantly engineered a plan to test and see if he could send a living being into the world beyond the barrier while Gumball and Teri were off on their field trip. He bought a hamster and went straight to the void during the mid afternoon after confirming that there weren't any Nephilim coming today, not that he was worried. He then used a special rune he found to hold open the barrier itself and lowered the hamster's cage into the blinding white light. The little furball went in about fifty meters before he decided to pull the creature back out.

And the little guy was alright, albeit a little freaked out and probably blinded.

Now it was his turn and he was still uncertain if he was making a careless decision or not because he did not know what lay beyond the infinite boundary. Still, he couldn't just keep exchanging magic for snippets of unknown material. He needed to actually look inside this peculiar vault and find the answers himself. After all, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Rob hovered over the barrier until he planted his feet on the smooth surface and he felt the barrier's weak gravity lock him in place. Kneeling down, he attached the tether system on the surface via a series of clamps and clipped the cable onto his harness. He brought his rail cannon with him as protection and while it was a simple weapon, it was the only thing he could bring seeing as _Cuatro Oblivion_ and the RPCG had been torn apart to help him build his next project. Feeling fully prepared for what could potentially lie below, the brilliant adventurer grabbed the nail device and placed the sharp tip against the glassy ground he stood on.

On the nail's head was a circular rune divided into four sections by crossing "S" shaped lines with another circle being present within each section. The space around the tip glowed a shade of Beige and the rune on top could be seen on the barrier's surface. The four inner circles glowed brighter before moving to the center of the larger circle and expanding outwards again, this time opening a rectangular window upon the black wall itself. Upon being opened, white light began to shine through and Rob's helmet was filled with the immense brightness, luckily his visor prevented him from going blind.

Soon the barrier was opened and Rob was standing at the edge of the unknown.

Inhaling and exhaling, Rob checked his tether one more time to assure he was secure and then his ammo was recounted for good measure,

"Alright everything is set." he muttered to himself before turning on the helms built in camera,

"Oh man, this is going to be something. Got thirty minutes until this gate closes on its own." he reminded himself. He found that certain runes can last a while with minimum input from his soul and the wall window he was using had half an hour of runtime before he couldn't support it any more. He could also keep it activated at long ranges too, which was convenient for sneaking into places as well as escaping.

He thought one last time of the world beyond this place, his colleagues had informed of the attack yesterday on their way home and he was put off a bit by the grim news. He'd done his research, none of the Nephilim had ever committed to such a massive and direct assault in any given area around the world. It left him uneasy and with the giants being unusually vacant from his hometown, he worried that something was up.

He wasn't worried now though, Gumball and Teri were going to the mall today and if anything showed up, they would be able to handle it. This was his comforting thought as he prepared to make the plunge,

"Here goes." was all he said before he placed his foot through the man-sized hole followed by the other.

Within an instant, the blinding light swallowed him up and the cable began to quickly unravel as he fell.

 _-Nicole and Gumball, 2:55 PM-_

Looking out the car window with wide eyes, Gumball watched houses and cars pass by in what felt like slow motion as his mother cruised down the road towards the Elmore mall. The twelve year old in the back seat could barely contain his ever growing excitement as he was looking forward to meeting a certain someone today and couldn't keep his imagination from creating the most wonderful scenarios that only a kid his age could dream of. His mom noted the eager look on her son's face from the rearview mirror and couldn't help, but feel happy for him,

"Calm yourself, Gumball, you'll see her in the next three minutes." she said back to the now surprised looking child of hers.

"Oh, um, I wasn't too excited, I just want to make sure that I catch her car while we're driving through the parking lot." he responded albeit with a bit of a shakiness to his voice. Dear Jade, why was he sweating so much, he was only seeing Teri today?

And trying out some outfits for today.

And eating lunch with her at _Dinner_.

And possibly walk her home at night with his hand in hers.

Okay, now he could understand why he was so nervous, but it should be fine since they were best friends. Still all these scenes playing in his head made him feel very hot inside and he could already tell his face was burning up. He hadn't been to the mall with Teri and he certainly had never eaten lunch with her in a public area, just him and her.

He continued to look about the busy road and allowed his mind to drift elsewhere. He thought about the events yesterday and was amazed that Teri still wanted to hang out just like they planned before the attack. The terror that swept San Francisco was all over the news today and many were left uneasy about the unprecedented disaster. He remembered the ride back from the ruined field trip, the roads were backed up, so it took an entire six hours for everyone to get back home and the entire time everyone was completely gripped with fear.

There were kids crying, most of which had been nearby the explosions or even caught up in the attacks themselves, to one another, people asking the teachers questions that they had no answers to and lots of people were receiving or making phone calls. Even Gumball himself had gotten a call from his worried mother, father, and little sister, all of which were practically screaming on the phone about his safety and he miraculously managed to ease their nerves by reassuring them that he was nowhere near the danger when it struck.

After he got off the phone, he listened to Teri try to convince her parents that she was okay and was not suffering from any physical or mental trauma. He could tell by the stress burrowing wrinkles into her brow that she was just as worried for them and was glad that the two of them were able to escape unscathed during their deadly encounter with Fright kite and general Gorothim. She hung up after two hours of comforting her parents and telling them that she'll be home eventually. Not too long after, Teri grew tired from all of the stress and fell asleep on Gumball's shoulder again, this lasted the whole ride home.

Gumball avoided the news as much as possible when he got home because he'd already been hearing terrible things being discussed and wanted to avoid that kind of negativity.

His mom was completely overjoyed to see him home, safe and sound and she was feeling even better when she saw that he was still happily moving along with his life, it was actually unbelievable how well he was taking this,

"Well, I'm just glad that you and Teri still made plans after all of that." she mentioned with a smile, before her anger rose,

"Can you believe that the _Human Front_ is blaming bizarros for the attack! It hasn't been one whole day and that hot head, Nero, was already broadcasting the news that inhuman radicalists were targeting major human industries and neighborhoods. People died there for crying out loud, human _and_ bizarro!" she scowled, her fingers tapping the steering wheel.

He hadn't heard much what the human-centric groups were saying about the attacks, nor did he really care to, but he did get the estimates on civilian casualties. Over four hundred people were dead and most of those had been in the streets when the black outs washed over the city. Gumball remembered the aerial pursuit of Fright kite and the entire time they were behind the flying rhombus, it continued to fire round after round into the crowded streets below.

People died that day, lots of innocent, unaware people. Both he and Teri did their best to catch the creature, but it wasn't enough to save them. It was this regret that weighed down on him and he could still recall all those people vanishing within plumes of fire.

Sighing, he leaned against the car door and felt his eyes drift downwards along with his ears,

"Yeah, everything is really crazy right now." he quietly remarked.

"No truer words have been spoken." his mother sighed, angrily shaking her head at it all,

"You know, after you had gotten home, I've been thinking and was wondering if you would like me to teach you karate?" she looked towards the rear view mirror and saw Gumball's eyes light up in curiosity.

"Why?" he verbally wondered, turning his attention to the older cat.

"Well, I'm just worried with all the terrible things happening lately, it would be best if you knew how to defend yourself. You can bet that Teri would also be very impressed if you could defend her from thugs and all sorts of bad guys." she implied with a wiggle of her eyebrows.

This seemed to catch her son's attention as his jaw dropped in awe and he imagined what Teri would think if he had somehow gotten better at fighting,

"Huh, okay, but how will you be able to do that when you've got work and I have school?" he pondered.

It didn't take the hardworking, cat woman long to figure out a schedule that would benefit them both and she turned back with a smile,

"We can practice during the weekends, seeing as with my new position as manager I get out earlier during those days and we can head on out as soon as I get back home." she replied eagerly.

"Hmm, I'll give it some thought." he hummed, he wasn't completely sure if there was anything else he could be doing during the weekends and he wanted to alert Teri about this before he made a final decision.

"It doesn't have to be today, sweetie, just let me know when you want to start." she said.

The rest of the car ride was rather quiet until they got to the large shopping center and his mom found a parking space to pull into. Once the car went silent, they both got out and Nicole turned to her younger look-alike. Kneeling down, the motherly cat wrapped her arms around her kid and gave him a tight squeeze causing Gumball to feel a little better,

"Anyways, I'm glad that you're safe." she whispered affectionately and pulled away while keeping her hands on his shoulders,

"I want you to have fun now, understood, and be a gentleman to Teri as well. You two have both been through quite a bit and you need to make sure that she's happy." she looked at him and smiled when he nodded.

"Thanks, mom. I hope you have a good day too!" he replied in a positive tone before offering her a bright smile.

She nodded and stood up,

"Thank you, I will." she walked to her car and slid into the driver's seat. With a twist of the key, the yellow station wagon rumbled to life and she closed the door,

"Enjoy your date!" she said through the open window.

Gumball's face switched from Cyan to the color of a tomato within a heartbeat and he responded in embarrassment,

"MOM! We're not boyfriend and girlfriend, I told you this a million times already!" he shot back.

His mom only raised her eyebrows and peered back at him,

"Really now? According to your brother, you two seemed _very_ close on the bus ride to and from San Francisco and he also mentioned of a tour by trolley… with just you two." she replied in a slick voice that made him tense up.

He tried to defend himself by explaining that Teri was just tired and the trolley was a setup by Carmen, but his words got caught in his throat. His mom laughed at his uncomfortable situation and pulled out from her parking spot. She wished him luck before she drove off and left her flabbergasted son in the mall parking lot.

Happy to be here and ready to get this show started, Gumball turned around and set off towards the mall's main entrance. A rather curious sight made itself known to the walking cat boy and he noticed Hector, looking perfectly fine in light of yesterday's injuries, standing on the other side of the building while seemingly staring at nothing. He couldn't talk or wave at him because thanks to Hector's involvement in the battle, Mrs. Jotenheim decided to place him on a strict curfew and forbade him from having any contact with the defenders of Elmore.

Neither of them knew that Hector could perceive the Nephilim spirits, let alone fight them on his own and his injuries yesterday were not a result of their actions, so it was a little unfair for the mountain witch to be accusing them of Hector's predicament as well as punishing the poor kid for trying to help out. He understood that she was a little overprotective, but this felt like a slight overreaction and he was also bummed out too; he really wanted to know if Hector could help them in their fight as well as anything else the Jotenheim's knew about the Nephilim.

Nearing the entrance, Gumball spotted Teri standing by herself with her backpack strapped to her back and waved to her when she turned a head in his direction,

"Hi, Gumball!" she greeted, her eyes lighting up as she waved.

"Hi, Teri!" he returned, picking up his pace.

He was caught off guard when she quickly ran up to him and gave him a hug, her face was snuggled into his neck. It was so comfortable yet, surprising that Gumball didn't know what to do at first, but mirrored the gesture once he had his wits about him. Jade, he loved this girl!

He also noted that she smelled lovely today and he spoke to her ear,

"Ready to head on in?" he asked.

She peeled herself away from him and looked really excited,

"Yes! I know which place we should visit first, come on!" she explained rather fast before grabbing his hand and tugging him towards the door.

With no control over where they were headed, Gumball just went along with the surprisingly energetic paper girl and continued to make small talk,

"What place did you have in mind?" he asked, hopping over the sidewalk curb as they drew nearer to the building's sliding glass doors.

Looking back at him, she placed a finger over her lips and a mischievous grin accompanied her already bright features,

"You'll know when we get there!" she hinted, wanting to surprise him.

So intriguing! Gumball wondered what place she could possibly be guiding him towards and decided to keep guessing in his head,

"Very interesting! I'm surprised your parents allowed you to leave the house after everything that went down the day before." he proclaimed in amazement. He was actually curious about that seeing as her parents were very worried during their talk on the bus.

The white bear seemed to catch onto to his confusion and just simply turned back to him with another smile, although this one was smaller than the last one,

"Well, yeah, of course they were worried, but I convinced them that it was alright after I told them about how you kept me safe during the attacks yesterday." she proudly exclaimed, even though they were keeping each other safe during that whole fiasco.

"Oh!" was all Gumball could say. He was astonished that Teri would say something that placed him on a stand before her parents and he could feel himself already brimming with pure awe and joy,

"I, uh, I can't believe it. Thanks for telling them that." he replied sheepishly another shade of red filling his features.

Nodding, her grin became larger and she spoke in a light tone,

"It's not a big deal, you dork. I wanted to let them know that I feel safe around you and that you could be trusted. They were very pleased when they heard that story." she turned around again to hide her own face before he could catch on to her affectionate gaze.

It was a big deal to him and he was glad that her folks trusted him. He knew he could be a bumbling buffoon and unintentionally caused damage to everything he came across, but he did want her to be safe. He was so scared when they fought against that six armed skeleton at Jackson Square, he nearly lost several times and as a result nearly got everyone else killed.

This is why their trust matters to him and he was now more than determined to get better at fighting.

They passed through the doors and found themselves within the vast open space illuminated by the ceiling lights and sunlight pouring in from the skylight. They could see Hector's head through the opening and if Gumball were to guess, his mom was here today on a shopping trip so it would be best if they avoided her at all cost. Their primary objective was to find some kind of outfit that would obscure their identities as well as being practical in a combat situation. With a little bit of wandering, Teri brought Gumball to a _Burning Subject_ store and the cat's jaw dropped to the floor when he saw that this place was her first choice,

"What the what?!" he gasped, repeatedly waving both arms before turning to his taller counterpart,

"You seriously shop here? I mean, I can see Carrie shopping here because it's definitely her kind of place, but I mean- it's just that- well, you're so cute, I mean, pretty, I mean, um…" he was spinning out of control at this point.

Teri, finding his reaction amusing, merely laughed and placed a hand on his shoulder,

"No, silly. I don't shop here, but I do like to wander in from time to time. They've got a really cool anime section!" she explained, pointing towards the section where all kinds of anime products and clothes could be seen.

The sound of Gumball's brain fuses popping could be heard throughout the store as this stunning revelation that has eluded him for all this time was brought unto him with a simple point and explanation from the school hypochondriac. Before he could further melt down in a pool of sheer dumbfoundedness, Teri grabbed his hand and pulled him into the punk rock inspired store,

"Come on, there's a dragon mage hoodie from the _Thunder spear of Arcadia_ series and I wanna see you in it!" she commanded, as a quiet Gumball was towed in behind her.

 _-Tobias, Tina, and Jamie, Jim's heavy iron rig store, Elmore Mall, 3:18 PM-_

"Hey, Tina! Check it out, this one weighs 350 pounds!" Jamie's deep voice echoed throughout the athletics equipment store as she easily hefted the weights above her head.

Standing by a colossal lift machine with her tail pulling on the handle tied to a five hundred pound weight, she swung her massive head to the side a little and she spotted her orange haired friend tossing the extremely heavy material up with her stubby arms,

"Nice! I think we should get two of those and start practicing when we get out of here. Wanna go to my place afterwards and pump some of that iron?" she asked, her growly voice displaying her excitement.

"Heck, yeah!" Jamie hollored in consent.

"Yeeeeaaahhh…" a weak sound escaped Tobias lifted as he strained himself to pick up a twenty five pound Dumbell.

Seeing his struggle, Tina stomped on over before lowering herself down a bit and picking up the object before setting it back on the rack,

"Here, you should start with this five pound one." she suggested after plucking the miniscule Dumbell from the weight rack and handing it to the rainbow lad.

Tobias glanced at the puny weight sitting in his open hand and then at his even punier arms, feeling less than adequate,

"What?! How am I supposed to get ripped with this tiny thing?" he asked in frustration.

Tina rolled her yellow eyes and sighed at the jock wannabe's cries of insecurity,

"When starting a workout, you need to start with something you can handle or else the only thing that's getting ripped is your arms. And I mean that as in, you're going to tear a muscle." she warned.

He looked at the weight again and he realized that when he tried lifting it, it was actually a struggle! He knew he wasn't that athletic, but every time he's reminded of that, it's quite an embarrassment. Setting the tiny, yet somewhat heavy weight down, he breathed heavily and made his way towards the store's entrance,

"Whelp, I gotta stroll, can't spend too much time looking for iron to pump when there are plenty of girls looking to get pumped when they meet a hero who was present at the San Francisco attacks." he sang as he gave the other two girls a single wave, something he always thought looked cool in the movies.

Tina watched him walk before turning to Jamie with an eyebrow raised and she saw that the half cow, half troglodyte's eye was twitching with her mouth twisted in a confused grimace,

"Did you understand any of the words that just came out of his mouth?" Jamie asked, completely weirded out.

"Uh, kind of. It was way too cringey though and by the way, Tobias, we found you crying in the fetal position under a pile of rubble." she called back to him.

He was almost out the door when he heard Tina's comment and he froze up, completely overwhelmed by the terrifying memory that he was trying to suppress. As sad it may have been, it was true, and the fluffy cloud boy was very embarrassed about it. He didn't even see the thing that attacked, he was in a souvenir shop taking selfies when the power cut out and some _thing_ blasted the roof off the shop he was in. He was lucky to be alive, it was all really terrifying when you were buried underneath a mountain of rubble with no way out, less air, and no way of telling what was going on.

However, it didn't take him long to realize that a story like this would earn him some serious pity points from chicks and while he was still remembering those awful few moments, his ego could not be suppressed. Puffing up his chest, the little blue/orange ball of fluff turned and looked Tina in the eye, he still seemed chummy,

"Well, it doesn't matter because chicks dig survivors and who cares if I fudge the details a little." he turned and walked out this time, putting a little bounce in every step,

"Laters!" he shouted with the same wave again.

To the tyrannosaur, this was nothing out of the ordinary and she had been dealing with this kind of behavior ever since they became friends, although she would "correct" him if he overstepped his boundaries. She was happier though, when he wasn't being a self centered narcissist, he actually tried to be a good friend and was considerate of her feelings. It was hard to do things together that didn't require a lot of physical action, he wasn't exactly durable like her friend Jamie, but he still tried his best.

Unfortunately, today was one of those days where his head was starting to swell again and she might have to save him from his own stupidity,

"Well, that was a… thing that happened." Jamie remarked, obviously disgusted.

Picking out another workout device that allowed her to bite down and work on her jaw strength, she replied with not much care,

"Eh, just let him run his mouth a little, a few slaps to the face oughta set him straight and he'll go home soon after. I've seen it before." she bit down on the steel bar sticking out for her and squeezed with all her might.

The device the bar was attached to displayed her bite force as 10,000 pounds, very strong for a rex her age, and the bar split in two halves, distributing enough resistance to her jaws. She continued to work her maw and Jamie picked up a barbell set with 300 pounds and started doing deadlifts. She didn't understand why Tina liked hanging out with that loser so much, he's an overinflated wind bag and a complete wimp that couldn't back up all the things his mouth churned out. Still Tina seemed happy and was actually easing up on the other students as well.

As for her? She still hasn't eased up on her physical means of ending conflict and wanted to prove to Tina that they could go back to picking on Tobias seeing as he no longer had the spine to get back at them. For the sixtieth time, she lifted the dense iron bar to the level of her chin before lowering it again in a squat,

"What do you think of the thing that attacked? I honestly doubt that it was a bunch of terrorists that did it and when all the power went out like that, it kind of reminded me of the strange thing that happened two weeks ago." she grunted as she lifted again,

"Do you think it was the same creature that attacked your dad?" she asked.

The bar was almost clamped shut when Tina bit down as hard as she could, her anger levels spiking and she released her grip on it. Jamie noticed her aggressive reaction and set the barbell down before standing up again. Tina turned to the olive green midget with a glare that threatened to kill and Jamie was mildly concerned,

"I'm sure it was and if it ever shows its invisible hide here again, I will chew it's head off!" she snarled, completely ignoring the contradiction in her otherwise passionate declaration of vengeance.

She wiped her saliva off the bite bar and picked up the weights to purchase. The two best friends quietly exited the athletics store and set out through the central hub of the mall. Hector could still be seen through the ceiling windows and the others in the mall were still going about their business, albeit with a few upwards glances towards the giant. Tina and Jamie glanced up at him once, like everyone else was doing in the mall and they also noticed that a few people were giving them some curious stares, which were dismissed with a single snarl from Tina.

Thanks to Tobias, they had a bit more money to spend (Tina insisted that he didn't have to give them anything, but he informed that he may wind up leaving and if they wanted anything else, they should be able to do so.) and decided to make way towards the food court,

"This stuff has been going on for a while now, first all over our town and now in San Francisco. I wish there was some kind of explanation for all of this." Tina said.

Jamie's eyes lit up and her chin lifted a little when she remembered something from this morning,

"Well, I got some good news on that very subject! I got a text from an old buddy of mine, she told me that she's putting together an investigation looking into the strange phenomenon and wants us on her team!" she exclaimed, lifting Tina's spirits.

Tina was interested now and allowed her curiosity to take the reins,

"Really? Wait, are you talking about that pink bunny? You know, Gumball and Darwin's little sister. The girl who was your buddy last year, but left once she moved onto high school." she questioned.

"That's the one! We have been keeping in touch every now and then, but yeah, she's looking into figuring out what attacked your dad and trashed your trash home. She's got her best friend helping her out too, and even managed to include Bobert as well." she replied excitedly to her scaly lizard friend,

"I think we should join in on this, so what do you say?" she asked, looking up at Tina with a toothy smile.

Now this was getting more interesting and a devious smile tugged at the corners of Tina's lips, while her eyes flickered greedily with revenge. Finally, they were on the path of progress and Tina could figure out all these things that left the entire class completely baffled. Not only could she avenge her father, she could avenge all the people who've died during their field trip and she finished this thought with another smile, before she walked up to a service counter to _Porky's exotic meats and sandwiches_.

Waiting in line with everyone else, she whispered down to Jamie,

"Yeah! let's join and kill that coward who attacked my family!" she hissed.

Jamie could feel the heat of Tina's bloodthirsty desire and she found it all too inviting. She loved it when Tina was put on a bloody rampage and the buildup to that confrontation was going to be undeniably enjoyable. With a mouthful of sharp teeth, Jamie placed a wicked grin and slammed her fists together in anticipation,

"Yeah, let's rip this guy a new one!" her voice an eerily smooth tone that seemed to display her sadistic nature very well.

The two chuckled together and then their turn came to order,

"I'll have the 1 ton special and five of the mammoth T-bones." Tina ordered and the pig man working behind the counter nodded before turning a permanently scowling mug to her little friend,

"I'll have… your regular hamburger and a medium sized alligator-ade!" she put in.

Tina shook her head and nudged her with her foot,

"We can't afford the drink, Jamie!" she started.

 _-Rachel Wilson, Clare cooper, and Agathe Clementine, Elmore Mall fountain, 3:29 PM-_

While Tina and Jamie went about the spacious building arguing whether the extra two mammoth T-bones to Tina's three was necessary, Rachel watched the two stride on by from her bench near the mall's central water fountain and listened to their heated argument with mild amusement. On either of her sat her two friends from high school, Clare Cooper and Agathe "sissy" Clementine. They weren't really doing much except for people watching while Clare finished messaging someone,

"Those two are so loud." Clare, a grey humanoid with green hair that partially covered her face, muttered, watching the two girls disappear with uninterest.

"I'll say! Though that's nothing compared to the tall one's appearance. She needs her scales scrubbed and waxed, that way they'll shine more. Like mine!" came a sassy comment from Sissy as her forked tongue flickered in and out of her mouth.

Sissy was a diamond-back Rattlesnake with golden locks of fine hair, always done up in Nordic braids, she also had slender arms that protruded several feet below her head and she wore a lot of green: green T-shirt with an ironic message in gold stating a proverb from the Jadite holy book, "thou shalt not betray thy friends or thy kin, for those who do climb no higher than serpents!", a green skirt that allowed her tail to poke through and green hair clippings in the shape of clovers. She was outgoing and talkative, like Rachel, but she had a bad habit of flaking out on everyone when things get tough, hence the nickname.

"Hey, don't go around criticizing other people's looks, she looks fine. In a terrifying, prehistoric death machine kind of way?" Rachel said, defending the T-rex from the other reptile's hurtful comment.

"I'm just saying girl needs to shower." the serpent whispered back sarcastically.

Rachel had no idea how she became friends with these people, she felt so out of place at high school and had no idea how to make friends again after her past had been erased. However, the universe had a funny way of twisting things and she wound up hanging out with Clare a lot after just one project at the beginning of the school year. They didn't even talk that much, but when Clare mentioned how she felt so isolated in her new school environment (her old friends transferred to another school.), Rachel told her about her experiences while leaving out some disturbing details and boom, just like that, friends that sat at the same lunch table.

And then there was Sissy, who literally walked right up to her on the fifth day of school while she was at her locker and complimented her hair. She took the compliment and returned with a compliment about her hair and how her outfit matched her emerald green eyes. Then the conversation moved on to favorite colors, then to clothes, and before they knew it, they had chatted all the way to their classroom, making plans to see one another again.

Putting the phone she had been texting on away, Clare stood up and waved the other two over,

"Alright, I've finished texting Wilson, let's head on over to _Burning Subject_." she said in monotone.

Following after the grey female, Rachel and Sissy got up and placed themselves on either side. They walked and talked amongst the menagerie of colorful shoppers as they neared their desired location. The weather forecast displayed signs of colder weather and all three girls wanted warmer outfits, especially Sissy, but Clare had a specific style she liked to wear,

"I feel like updating my wardrobe, I mean the pink hoodie is nice, but I kind of want something a bit darker now. It'll better match my mood for the upcoming winter." she explained pessimistically, still feeling sad for her friends departure. She was also depressed because Jared, the love of her life, also transferred to another school and was interested in another girl.

Sissy seemed to have other ideas though and snapped her triangular head at Clare,

"What!? But pink is so your color, you should wear something that's at least a little bright! Why not go over to the _Forever 15_ store and pick up one of those parkas with the furry lining?" she suggested, wanting to help Clare out of her bad mood.

Ever since they started hanging out, Agathe had taken quite an interest in Clare's social life and would take any opportunity to hang out with her. She would more often than not try to hook her up with someone or take her and Rachel out to do something fun and crazy. When it comes to clothes, the snake's eyes would shine like precious jewels and there would be absolutely nothing to stop her from trying to get her grey, depressed friend into something magnificent. There was also the fact that she loved the color of her hair, being green and all.

As much as she appreciated the effort, Clare was not up for it,

"I'm sorry, but anything bright is too happy of a color and I kind of just want my look to flow with my feelings. Plus, Rachel's favorite brand of eyeliner is at _Burning Subject_." she said.

Sissy turned to Rachel and the fluffy haired rainbow lass nodded in response,

"Yeah, it's not the only one I like to wear, but I do like the way it brings out my eyes." she responded, secretly hiding the fact that she liked it because Rob once complimented her when he saw it.

" _Wow! You look really nice!" Rob said when he got a closer look._

 _Rachel's face lit up a little and she smiled like a ray of sun,_

" _Really, you think so?" she said in surprise, completely amazed that he noticed a detail so minor that most people would've missed it._

 _Rob nodded, his distorted face showing genuine honesty,_

" _Yeah, I've never seen you wear make-up before, but this is a good look for you." he responded, still bobbing his head up and down._

 _Rachel chuckled a little,_

" _Dude, it's just eyeliner." she retorted._

" _Well it still looks nice. I like it." he commented, refusing to let his opinion to be swayed._

And after that, she started wearing it more often. Even though it happened a month ago, she still smiled at the memory.

Being outvoted two to one, it was an obvious decision to press on to the store and Sissy insisted that they go check out her recommended places after they visited this one. Rachel agreed, although Clare was a bit more reluctant to do so, but Sissy reassured her that it will be fun and also suggested they hang out at the skatepark. No doubt to flirt with the boys there.

They reached the local punk rock store and sauntered right on in. There was a song by _Broken Asylum_ blaring through the overhead speakers and the store wasn't overly crowded. There were a few people here and Rachel even saw a blue cat boy checking out a rack full of cargo pants by himself. Moving to the front counter, Rachel selected her preferred eyeliner and some lipstick too, she never wore any before, but wanted to try it out.

After a few minutes of picking through some sweaters, hoodies and leggings, Clare selected several that matched her tastes and joined up with Rachel and Sissy,

"Okay, I want to try some of these on." she said, looking back towards the girls changing room.

The other two freshmen followed her into the changing area, Sissy had also found some outfits she thought to be cute and Rachel was just joining them to offer an opinion. They went right in and found that the only other occupant in the somewhat large room was a paper puppet in the shape of a bear who looked to be in her preteens. She was wearing some paper outfits that could be fastened onto her flat body, a navy blue pair of short shorts, a purple tank top with a black logo of a broken moon printed on the front, and black hoodie with white angel wings printed on the back.

She was checking herself out in the mirror, she heard the girls come in, but paid them no attention and continued to observe how the shorts matched with the rest of her outfit. The paper girl wasn't really eye catching to either Sissy or Rachel, but Clare on the other hand seemed to recognize her right away. She let out a quick gasp that alerted the middle schooler,

"Teri Pepakuma?" Clare gasped, her one eye wide with surprise.

Following Clare's reaction, Teri's eyes shot open upon recognizing the former eighth grader that once roamed their halls,

"Clare Cooper?!" her airy voice whispered in surprise.

Surprised and confused, Rachel and Sissy looked back and forth between the girls several times. Then Rachel turned to Clare while raising an index finger towards Teri,

"Wait, you know her?" the fluffy haired high schooler implored with a quizzical glance in the bear's direction.

Clare's green head snapped side to side and she shrugged,

"We never hung out much, but we used to exchange a few words in the hallway. She really liked to visit the nurse's office, so I would run into her often." she explained while rubbing her sleeve covered hands over one another.

Teri turned red a little and chuckled somewhat nervously at Clare's mentioning of her various trips to the infirmary,

"Yeah, heh heh, that was me alright." she tapped her index fingers together,

"I remember you used to go to the bathroom a lot because you wanted a private place to write poetry. Do you still do that?" she asked.

Clare seemed to show no embarrassment towards Teri's query and her blank face shook to the side again,

"Not as much as I used to, especially when I have these two constantly badgering me and following me all over the place." she said with a single head tilt in both their directions.

"Hey!" Rachel barked in offense.

"Girl, we can't have you wandering about on your lonesome or else you'll just end up moping about again, also we can't let you go alone when Justin is around. Jade knows that jockey jerk-bomb will pick on you any chance he gets." Sissy huffed in indignation, placing her scaly hands on where her hips would be and giving Clare a sassy stare.

Rachel nodded in agreement and further added on to the snake's comment,

"I know, right! I think he may have something against bizarros, I mean, he picks on all of us and leaves his human friends alone, he even tortures poor little Anais and her goat headed friend, Macey, for crying out loud!" she snorted, already feeling her blood boiling at the mentioning of Elmore High's Sophomore meathead.

Having been listening in on their conversation, Teri had picked up on Clare's new life with her very extroverted companions, feeling very happy for the normally pessimistic girl to have people who cared so much for her, and also understood the terrible situation happening at the school itself. She realized with dread that if Gumball and herself were to graduate from middle school, they would have to endure one year with the same bully they were describing and while Tina's gang as well as Julian Oppenheimer's group of lackeys were bad enough, having a human-centrist as a bully did not bode well for either of them. The one name that really jumped out at her was Anais, Gumball's little sister, whom she'd forgotten was in highschool,

"Wait, are you guys talking about Anais Watterson, little pink bunny girl, five years old and is outrageously smart?" Teri cut in, using her hands to also showcase the little girl's height.

Rachel and Sissy's eyes seemed to light up a little at the paper puppet's description and Sissy nodded in response,

"Yes, that's her alright. We share the same chemistry class with her. Cutest little thing I've ever seen, although she has quite the wit for a toddler. Wasn't she in your middle school as well?" she hissed, her forked tongue flickering about.

Another quiet sign of agreement from Teri and she explained what she knew about the youngest Watterson member,

"She was and you know my friend out there in the store, the blue cat in the brown sweater? That's Gumball Watterson, her older brother." she said with a single point towards the door.

Clare's eyes seemed to widen a bit, she knew who Gumball was, and her mouth seemed to curl downwards,

"Oh, so that was Gumball, I thought he looked familiar, but I haven't seen him around that much. Given how Anais had described him as well as past experiences, I thought he and his little brother would have set the town on fire during the summer." she quietly remarked, rubbing her chin with a covered hand.

Teri didn't say anything about that, seeing as she, along with the rest of Gumball's class, knew the reason to Gumball's lack of chaotic activity and honestly was just glad he was up and running again.

It was Rachel's turn to ask Teri something and after giving her outfit a quick look, she already knew what she wanted to ask,

"So what are you two doing here then? Do you guys come here often?" she asked, her head turning back to the door for a brief moment then back at her.

Once again, Teri was forced to fudge the details a bit to someone who was asking, but it was a total stranger, or at least, that's what she thought. That lemon/magenta hair, those piercing dark eyes, the sporty head wear, and her outgoing persona all seemed very familiar to her for some reason. It was all very confusing, but Teri just brushed it off as deja vu,

"Um, no not really. This is my first time at the mall with him and were checking out some of the stores together." she looked into the mirror for the umpteenth time and gave her figure a quick look over,

"I like the hoodie and the top, but the shorts are a little tight on the waist. Plus I don't know what to do about my face. Do you think I should just ditch the outfit altogether and go for something simpler? I always thought that worked with me." she pondered, after giving her reflection another distasteful glare.

However, with Agathe Clementine always jumping at an opportunity to give an incredibly beautiful girl a makeover, did not hesitate to slither on over to the paper puppet for a closer inspection,

"Let's see now… mmm-hmm… yes, yes, yesss, we can definitely make this work!" she excitedly proclaimed in a sing song voice as Teri backed up a few feet at the reptile's sudden lack of personal space.

She shot back to Clare, whispering to her before bringing Rachel in on the quiet conversation, all three girls giving Teri a curious glance every now and then,

"Alright, Clare you're in charge of coloring and Rachel, you need to get some more clothes, something with the colors of Fall." Sissy rattled off to her companions who all eagerly agreed.

"You got it!" Rachel replied before shooting out of the room so fast, the door swung back and forth on its hinges before coming to rest.

"Good thing I brought my art supplies with me today." Clare sighed, opening her bag to pull out some coloring materials.

With that being said, Sissy slithered back on over to a very confused Teri and a wide grin was cracking a wide grin that made Teri even more uncomfortable,

"Don't you worry now, I have a few ideas that will most certainly bring out your appearance!" her eyes were glimmering in delight and Teri finally noticed that the snake lady's golden hair was very well kept as well as her scales too. She looked very pretty up close and Teri could feel herself beginning to relax a bit,

"Would you mind if we drew some bangs on your head? I think it would outline your face in a flattering way, we could even color in some highlights!" she politely asked, not wanting to frighten her.

An image of her mom came to the young paper girl's mind and she remembered how nice she looked with her raven hair. She didn't really add too much to her face because she always thought she looked cute in a plain sort of way, but since Gumball and her were trying to look unrecognizable to their fellow classmates and citizens of Elmore, this might be the opportunity she was looking for. With her mind reaching a conclusion, she quietly gave them permission to do so,

"Actually that would be very nice, but could you make it black, please?" she added, still thinking of her mom's image.

Bobbing her triangular head so much, Teri thought the gust of air coming from the motion would blow her over, the green admiring high schooler agreed and ushered Clare on over,

"Yes, that would look lovely on you!" Sissy complimented.

"We could do a single highlight streak in your hair if you want to maintain a heavy dark presence." Clare offered, showing several shades of erasable color pencils within her hand.

Feeling a little adventurous, Teri decided to go with it and showed Clare her approval,

"That sounds like a good idea. Do you have any Cyan?" she asked, thinking of a certain cat in particular.

Clare thought about it and brought out the requested color, holding it up for her to see,

"It is a bright color, are you sure you want to use this shade?" she asked.

Sissy turned to her grey companion with a look that said, _"well, duh!"_ before she hissed out an answer for her,

"Of course, we want brighter colors, it'll pop out more!" she explained in a raised voice before turning back to examine Teri.

One minute later, Rachel came back with several piles of paper clothes suited for two dimensional figures and made her way towards the paper girl. She began cycling through articles of clothing, holding each one up for Teri to see while Clare began sketching locks of black hair onto Teri's forehead as well as the sides of her face,

"Yeah they had a lot of options seeing as most of these can fit within a compact storage space." she said, holding up a dark grey blazer with a black ribbon and a plaid skirt that was black and white in color.

Sissy scanned the attire with immense skepticism before turning to the paper girl before both started to shake their heads, Teri only doing so slightly,

"Mmm, no I don't think so." Sissy said dismissively,

"Too gothic school girl." she waved her hand as she continued to scrutinize Teri's face.

Setting the clothes down, Rachel began to throw together another set and talked the whole time,

"Do you think Rob is the gothic type? I mean he wears a lot of bright clothing, but his mood definitely seems to match and he could pull it off with the way his hair looks." she wondered aloud.

Teri felt her face twitch a little at Rachel's mentioning of Rob and she looked about confusedly. She couldn't be talking about the Rob they worked with, right? There were plenty of people around Elmore that shared that name, so it wasn't completely out of the question she was referring to someone else.

Clare's answer helped clarify her suspicions,

"Well, yeah, I'd imagine so, I mean that distorted look and all that static does put off a bit of a dark vibe. I'd tell him to go for it." Clare said, having heard of Rachel's neighbor, according to her. She did not know that Rob had been helping provide for her and even masqueraded as her guardian at one point. The official story from the rainbow lass was that he was a neighbor that she was close friends with and that he was always very busy, so he couldn't hang out much.

To Teri though, this was definitely their enigmatic ally and she wondered why Rachel would be associated with him.

Sissy was now looking up other ideas for makeup on her phone, but also chimed in with the girl's topic of Rob,

"Maybe we should ambush him at your place, tie him down and make him wear makeup." Sissy teased,

"We could make him look like one of those heavy metal band members, like _Bisou_!" she cackled.

Teri wanted to shake her head in disbelief, but Clare was shading in her hair and couldn't mess up her work,

"I don't think he would like that. From what I've seen, he really hates surprises." Teri joked, referring somewhat to one of the fights he's been.

Confused, Rachel spun around towards the paper girl and a look of concern mixed with curiosity was ever so present on her blue face,

"Wait, you know Rob?" she inquired, her bafflement making her voice louder than she intended.

Taken aback by what she said, Teri could feel herself start to sweat and she fumbled about with her words until a reasonable explanation surfaced,

"Not entirely… we've just met a few times in the past and Gumball would bring him up every now and then because evidently the two shared a history. Something about him being his nemesis or whatever." she explained, feeling slightly at ease because most of what she had said was true, in a way.

Now Rachel was less stressed, she had been worried that he had gotten into some trouble with this girl, who started to seem a little familiar for reasons unknown to her, and was glad that their association was brief and vague. Seeing her relaxed, made all of Teri's stress sink like a sub and she cooled down. Shaking her head and pinching her forehead ridge, Rachel sighed,

"I swear there's so much about that kid that eludes me and I live right next to him for Jade's sake!" she sounded exasperated now and Teri could tell how she felt.

Looking over at the colorful teenager with eyes that agreed, Teri showed some understanding on her part,

"I know what you mean, he's not exactly one who is very open with his activities and he only shows up when something important is going on." she felt like she may be revealing too much, but it felt right to be saying these things.

Not exactly sure how well Teri knows her fascinating roommate, Rachel was quite surprised at the level of detail Teri was going into and her expression resonated with her a bit,

"Yeah, that's a given alright. He never really explains what he does during the days I'm at school or at work, but he's been doing a lot more when I'm home. He's a lot nicer and inclusive with some activities recently, I'm not sure why this is, but I appreciate it." she was smiling to herself now.

Everyone was quiet now and Rachel picked up on the awkward silence, quickly holding up the next set of clothes for Teri and Sissy to give their opinion on. She wanted to move on from the topic before Sissy started gushing about them both again and asking prying questions she did _not_ want to answer.

"How does this look?" she asked before adding in,

"I think the leaves contradict the stripe, but in a good way and its simple too, so it works! At least, that's what I think." her nails scratched at her scalp as she looked about the room nervously.

Both Teri and Sissy wanted to know more about Rachel's life with Rob, Teri wanting to know because this was all interesting to hear and Sissy feeling the same, but for different reasons and Clare not caring at all because she was too busy focusing on her craftsmanship. However, like a switch being flicked, Sissy's mind returned to fashion and she brought forth her opinion on the dress Rachel presented before them. She thought it looked too simple, but Teri really liked it and just like that, it was thrown in the "maybe" pile.

Several minutes had passed and Clare was done with Teri's hair, allowing for the cute paper girl to try on some of the outfits. Eventually one was settled on and when Sissy offered to do her face, she declined, but did her nails, er, rather her finger tips.

Soon the girl standing before them was a transformed middle schooler, with soft, ebony hair with a single blue highlight streak drawn on a single lock that parted her forehead. Her new attire was a simple white spaghetti strap dress with leaves that ran down from the top to the hem of the skirt in a line that swirled a bit, as though they were being blown in the wind. Starting from the top, the leaves were green, but gradually switched to orange/red as it lowered. Her nails were also the same color as the trees of Autumn and for an added bonus, she pulled a sheet of paper out of her bag before folding it into a clip-on flower that she wore on her ear.

All in all, she looked very pretty and the three girls were in awe of their work,

"Very nice." Clare said softly.

"Splendid!" was all Sissy could say.

"I'm sure once you step out there Gumball's not even going to recognize you!" she said with an amused smile.

Giving herself one last look in the mirror, Teri was beaming happily and her face was ever more radiant. She admired the work done on her hair and her nails, also Rachel's fashion sense was nothing to sneeze at either. She absolutely loved what they did for her and she turned to the high school trio with a grateful little bow,

"Thank you, so much. This looks incredible!" she squealed, barely able to contain her excitement.

They all smiled back at her and Sissy said,

"It was our pleasure." she simply replied, still fascinated with their effort.

With another gracious bow, Teri skipped past them and cracked open the door just a bit,

"I'm going to show this to Gumball. When I get back, I'll help you with anything you need." she promised.

They all nodded and ushered her out, with Clare making one last call to her,

"Be sure to pick up his jaw when it hits the floor." her voice was still lacking in any emotion, but she was smiling a little.

She assured them that she would and went out to surprise her cat friend. Eager to see how he would react, Rachel and the other two followed her into the main shop and hid behind a clothing rack where they could see the whole thing. All eyes were on the well dressed Pepakuma child as she slowly strode up to Gumball before stopping just short of him and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey, Gumball see anything you like?" she asked very subtly.

Gumball, who was checking out some embroidered rock shirts and sunglasses, turned around to answer the paper girl's seemingly inconspicuous question,

"I'm not one hundred percent sure if I want this green forest Ninja shirt with the pullover mask or if I-!" right then and there, Gumball was sure a Nephilim fired a doom blast from space and annihilated him because he swore this was heaven he was staring at.

The beautiful figure standing before him was Teri, but so very different, a good different! Extraordinary even and it made his eyes pop, his heart pump like a motor, as well as his jaw dropping to the floor. Teri giggled at the beauty struck boy when he couldn't say anything for the first few minutes and instead marveled at her appearance. Needing to say something now, Gumball just used the first things that came to his head,

"What the what!? Where did this summertime angel come from? Where's Teri?" he blabbered as he stared at her and the dressing room multiple times.

At this point Teri was crying with laughter and the three teenage onlookers were laughing too. They thought themselves a job well done and listened to the boy continue to prattle on with how nice she looked, he was stuttering too which just made the whole thing even more adorable. Teri seemed to love the attention she was getting and every compliment she was given made her smile even more.

Once he had finished running his mouth and took a moment to breathe, Teri finally spoke to him,

"Well seeing as you really like it, maybe you won't mind me wearing it more often." she said, her voice somewhat teasing.

Realizing how he had been reacting towards Teri's stunning transformation, Gumball straightened himself out and tried to act cool,

"Um, well, that's entirely up to you. I think you look very hot- PRETTY! I mean very pretty, but that's just my opinion. Your opinion matters most to me, so like I said, totally up to you!" he was very red now and was hoping that she didn't think he was weird for calling her hot, although she very much was.

Another giggle and she was already heading back to the dressing room,

"I'm going to take this off and try on some others. After that, you wanna head over to _Dinner_ and grab something to eat?" she asked, flashing him another smile.

At this point, steam was coming out of the poor boys ears and the red faced child fired an affirmative answer,

"Sounds lovely!" he nearly shouted, but managed to keep it under control.

With that, she spun around on her heel and Gumball saw that her dress also covered her back too. He watched her walk off until she was behind closed doors and he turned around before placing an arm against the wall to steady himself as he mouthed the word _WOW!_ Now he couldn't stop thinking about her in that dress, her newly added hair looking fantastic with that blue streak giving her a slightly rebellious look, and that little flower to top it all off. If he had known that shopping was going to be this much fun then he would have asked her out here a while ago.

With a silly grin carving across his jaw, Gumball shook his head and got back to browsing, his hands aimlessly sifting through shirts while his mind was preoccupied. He didn't even notice that he was looking in the female section.

When Teri announced that she was heading back to the dressing room, Rachel had ushered her friends back in and covertly made it back to the room. When Teri came back in, she was very happy and all the girls asked how it went despite seeing the whole thing. They all shared laughs when Teri described Gumball's amazement and when they had finished, they immediately went on to dress Clare up in her new Fall attire.

While Rachel held Clare's clothes, she spoke to Teri, who was in the stall with her and giving opinions,

"You and Gumball should hang out with us sometime, we can even try inviting Rob too." Rachel offered,

"He actually knows a few places up in the mountains that are really good for stargazing!" she figured that would be a good place to start, but if it was too far for them to go, then she had other places in mind.

"Yeah, that doesn't sound like a bad idea!" Sissy proclaimed in acknowledgement, standing in front of the mirror while trying on some of the eyeliner Rachel picked out to see if it worked on her.

"As long as we have mosquito spray." Clare said, pulling her head through the sweater's neck hole and giving her image a look,

"I'm not really an outdoorsy person." she sighed, remembering some camping trips her father brought her on.

"Yeah, I'm with Clare on that one. Mosquito bites are known to carry harmful infections, plus we should also bring some first aid in case something else happens. The woods are very dangerous!" she gave Clare a careful look while talking and smiled at the way she looked,

"That looks really good with those leggings." she commented before turning her attention to Rachel,

"We should also invite two more guys, that way our men aren't feeling outnumbered." she suggested with a chuckle.

Rachel snickered at that too and offered a wisecrack towards Teri's last comment,

"Are you sure? I thought it was every boy's dream to be lost in the wilderness and surrounded by pretty girls." she grabbed the sweater Clare tossed over and handed her another one.

"I don't know, Gumball and Rob don't seem like the careful types." Clare answered in a completely straight voice.

This caused a round of laughter from all the girls present, Rachel couldn't even picture how awkward Rob would be if he was left alone with a group of girls and given how flustered Gumball looked when he saw Teri with her new getup, she could tell that Gumball was also a big dork. Hilariously, Teri was thinking the same thing and shook her head as she finished laughing. Gumball probably wouldn't last long in such a situation because he'd probably freak out and cause an accident,

"I'm not so sure Gumball is capable of handling a situation as complex as that and also there's the fact that both Rob and him have a bit of a rivalry, so having more dudes to talk with may be a safer option." she said in between giggles,

"I would like to come and I'm sure Gumball wouldn't mind either." she leaned back against the wall, feeling pretty sure that she wasn't wrong, although the idea of spending an evening under the stars with the boy she loved sent more butterflies fluttering about her innards.

It was then decided that they would all try to get together sometime, although figuring out a good schedule was best left for later and a certain paper bear had something else to worry about, something worse than mosquitoes and ticks. They exchanged phone numbers and within a few minutes filled with intriguing banter, Clare had decided on what she wanted before making her way to the outside. Teri, Rachel, and Sissy followed after her and when they reached the cash register, the paper girl thanked them for the makeover and bid them farewell before dragging Gumball off somewhere else.

Rachel also said her goodbyes and promised to message her sometime soon. She turned back to her small group and while they exchanged a few pleasant words regarding their new friend, Rachel couldn't help but wonder about something. Rob never actually told her anything about what he did in his free time and yet, these two knew about him.

She knew none of what he did was really her business, but with all the crazy things that have been happening lately, she was really starting to concern herself with Rob's reclusive nature.

She needed to see how these two strangers interacted with him and if that didn't yield any results, then she was going to have to ask him herself. After the attacks on San Francisco, she was starting to notice a pattern within her own town and ever since the news broadcast this morning, a feeling of unease was ever so present within the high schooler. Clutching her skirt with her free hand, she feared something very odd was happening around here and after her experience in the void, she prayed that nothing would ever shatter the peace she had recently found.

 _-Fifty sense, Elmore mall, 3:52 PM-_

Banana Joe twirled around several times before coming to a stop, flaring his fingerless hands to the sides of his face, googly eyes spinning and on his face he wore thick rimmed glasses, a fake nose and mustache. Standing in front of him as a viewing audience to his comedy act was Idaho, Anton, and two lego construction workers, a red one named Hank, and his younger brother, a green one named Eric. They all snickered as he began bouncing up and down while saying in a gruff voice,

"I'm Banana Bob, look! Slapstick comedy!" he said as he stepped on a rake conveniently placed in front of him, causing the handle to fly up and smack him in the face, sending his glasses and fake mustache flying.

Stepping back, he felt his face with his own limbs and once he realized his getup was gone, he screamed in a high pitched, female voice much like his father would whenever he misplaced his mustache. Another round of laughter from the food friends and a chuckling Eric elbowed Hank a little in the arm,

"I think he's talking about you, Hank." the bulky, lego green man teased.

"No way, that's what you sound like when _you_ scream!" he teased back, lightly punching his little brother in the arm.

Suddenly from one of the many aisles, Carrie appeared and was holding a basket full of red chalk, a special ingredient for her summoning ritual. The ghost girl had heard the laughter coming from the other end of the cheap item's store and went in to investigate. She wasn't surprised to see Banana Joe here in the gags department, but invited herself in to chat when she saw the company that was with him,

"Hey guys! Wow, never thought I'd see the entire breakfast set in one spot, all we need is Sarah and we could call you guys lunch." she joked and every one of the boys just rolled their eyes a bit,

"So what bring all of you guys here?" she asked after getting her laughs in.

Picking up his goofy glasses and putting them back into the bin, Banana Joe answered in a happy-go-lucky tone,

"We all met up here after our friends ditched us!" he said, sounding a bit too happy when he said that.

"Yeah, Tina and Jamie are too busy hanging out with Tobias nowadays, so we all decided to get together instead." Anton claimed, also sounding pleased.

Idaho shifted his gaze between the banana and the slice of toast a few times before turning his attention back to the ghost,

"Actually, I'm here just because my ma and pa wanted me to get some paper plates. We're having an outdoor barbecue tonight with a bonfire!" he said in his heavy southern accent, sounding very loud and overjoyed.

Slowly nodding, Carrie then noticed the two lego construction workers and looked at them expectantly. Luckily Hank caught on and introduced himself along with his little brother,

"Oh and I'm Hank! The little brickhead standing next to me is my little brother, Eric." he said, although Carrie could see that they were both the same height and while Eric had a thick, handlebar mustache, the only real difference between them was their skin color.

"We're friends with the little yellow fellow and when we saw him walking around the mall with his other friend, we just happened to tag along."

His green brother grunted and turned to his older sibling with an irritated look,

"Yeah, she probably knows that and quit calling me a brickhead, you gorilla!" he shouted in respite.

While the two lego men began to argue back and forth, Carrie picked up on the previous conversation. The two weren't disturbing anyone with their banter and they haven't destroyed anything yet, so it was okay for them to talk. With the four of them standing around, Carrie spoke while Banana Joe checked out another pair of specs,

"So you guys seem very happy. Did anything happen recently?" she asked, tucking her basket under one arm.

Anton was practically ready to bounce off the walls at this point and with a slew of cobbled together words he said something like,

"We just learned that Ms. Simian has retired!" he babbled, his gloved hands waving in the air as though he were at a concert.

The floating spirit had to catch herself from flying back into a shelf full of party streamers and napkins when she got that,

"Wait, what?! That can't be right, Ms. Simian would never retire from teaching! Being alive for so long, she has no other outlet to vent her misery and trust me, I know what that's like!" she gasped, still not believing what she was hearing.

Banana Joe returned with a pair of glasses with popping eyeballs and shrugged his shoulders,

"Well, retired isn't exactly the correct way to put it, rather she quit entirely." he corrected.

This was unprecedented for the ancient ape and while Carrie was more than glad for the teacher's announced retirement from her job, it was still very surprising. Why would she leave now of all times? There was only one recent event that could have explained her disappearance,

"Could it have something to do with what happened yesterday on the field trip?" she asked, her voice almost a whisper.

The three food boys thought for a moment before Idaho initially shrugged his stick arms and exhaled,

"I'm sure that has to be the case, but I'm curious as to why that would be the last straw when the school itself has been through many devastating accidents." he wondered.

"Maybe, she just has something against San Francisco!" Anton thought out loud, but on the turn of a dime, went straight back to celebrating,

"But who cares! She's gone now and I have one less person making my life a living misery fest!" he screamed with glee.

Having heard the mentioning of San Francisco through their argument, the lego brothers ceased their petty bickering and joined in with their own thoughts to share,

"Hey, my dad works in San Francisco! He was caught up in those accidents too, but he's alright because he's a tough geezer!" Hank exclaimed.

"Hey, I have a dad that works there too and he was also nearby the explosions that went off! What a weird coincidence?" Eric muttered as he rubbed his chin with his clasper hand.

Hank turned to his green counterpart with a dumbfounded look and raised his hand to slap the back of his head,

"Of course he works in San Fran, you dummy, we're brothers!" he said before delivering the smack upside his noggin.

Under the powerful blow of his brother's strike, Eric was sent face first into the tile floor, cracking the surface with his forehead and leaving a lasting impression. The three food children gasped while Carrie just stared on with no clear indication of surprise and watched as he slowly got back up. Dusting his clothes off, Eric looked mildly annoyed and wasn't scuffed up in the slightest by the impact.

Meanwhile, his sibling continued to chastise him,

"You really need to clean out the space between your ears, it's got cobwebs again!" he groaned in irritation.

The mustached man looked about confusedly and then back at his red worker companion,

"Really? Huh, you're probably right." he said as he pulled off his cylindrical head with both hands and held it out to Hank,

"Little help here?" he asked.

The bulky figure leaned over and blew some air in the lego's head hole, sending dust and cobwebs spewing out from the other side. The green man then slid his head back on and his brother looked at him with an eyebrow raised,

"Better?" he asked.

"Better." Eric replied.

After witnessing the construction brother's comedic routine, the four children went back to their original topic. There wasn't much more to discuss on Ms. Simian quitting other than Banana Joe hypothesising that she may have known who was behind the attacks and the conversation was steered to another topic. Taking the lead, Idaho remembered something Sarah told him during their time yesterday spent as a group and he got everyone's attention by clearing his throat,

"That's right, I almost forgot to tell ya'll about Masami's birthday party on the first of November." he chided.

Intrigued, everyone was listening in now and all eyes were on the walking ball of starch,

"Are we all invited?" Joe asked, clasping his hands together hopefully.

"I reckon we all are!" Idaho answered with a happy grin.

"That's cool. Where is this party taking place, exactly?" a curious Carrie exhorted.

"At her mansion, if I do recall." he replied before adding in,

"It'll probably be after school though, seeing as it's on Friday."

Anton was more than pumped at this point and he was bounding with relentless, youthful energy once again,

"Wa-hoo! Party at a mansion! This day just keeps getting better!" he was bouncing like a grasshopper and his tiny size made it to be quite a sight.

Everyone seemed to be on the same page, except the construction workers who kept asking who's birthday was it, and Carrie was feeling the same energy they were, but for another reason entirely. She already knew that the gathering of materials was going to take time, but Masami's birthday party gave her more than enough to get everything started. It was also a great distraction, mainly due to the fact that such an event will attract many people, and would allow her to summon Malabranche without others noticing the ritual's side effects.

Now she had to go tell Gumball and Teri, which luckily, she saw them earlier and knew where they were headed.

Drifting towards the counter to go pay for her supplies, she was stopped when Banana Joe noticed the red chalk she was bringing and asked her what it was for,

"Uh, it's for a coloring project." she answered with a nervous rub on the back of her head and an awkward grimace allowed itself to show.

Banana Joe didn't seem to pick up on her facial cues and merely looked on without mentioning it,

"Sounds like a big project. Is it called ketchup explosion?" he chortled.

Rolling her eyes, she sarcastically responded to his joke,

"Ha ha, no, but is very gruesome though and I'm going to work on it in the gym, so I'd stay away from there if you value your sanity." now it was her turn to laugh, but in a morbid fashion.

The class clown didn't find that very funny and quietly went back to his small friend group. Satisfied in her solitude, the emo went to the front of the store and began checking out her items. She had eight of the seventy three items listed in her father's demonology hand book and could probably go home to learn some other spells or just grab dinner with Darwin. Either one worked with her.

 _-Dinner, Teri and Gumball-_

Despite the ironic name the restaurant displayed on the outside, the inside definitely gave off a late-night vibe and boasted a number of dishes best suited for an evening stay. It had a classical fifties look, with elaborate walls hung with black and white photos, bare bulbs that hung from the ceiling on a single pole, illuminating the whole place in a comfortable orange/yellow, the tables were dressed in checkered tablecloths sporting colors of white and red and the sound of frying food could be heard from the kitchen, enchanting customers with that soothing sizzling sound. The smells were also very delightful and there were quite a lot of couples and families already seated around the tables with staff dressed in fifties-style uniforms and aprons, catering to their needs.

One such couple was already seated in a booth farthest from the store window and while their food has yet to arrive, they were still delighted by each other's company. Listening to Gumball telling a funny joke, Teri quietly rested her arms on the table, still rocking her new hair and flower while keeping her gaze on the talking blue cat in front of her. She was doing everything in her power to keep herself from laughing, but she could already tell he was getting close to the punchline and her face was already tightened up as she held back,

"...and then George Washington enters the campus and says to Thompson, _'you're under arrest for treason!'_ " he stood in his chair, striking a pose like a general before assuming the pose of a frightened man,

"He gasps in surprise and asks him how could this be and George Washington says back to him, _'because my spies have delivered me your report card and it says here that you're an English major!'"_ he finished with a laugh as he plopped back down into his seat.

Nope, she couldn't do it anymore and Teri collapsed onto the table, laughing hysterically as her fingers clawed at the tabletop. She should've known that the joke was going to end that way, puns were just how he communicated, and now she has surrendered herself to the tidal wave of belly aching laughs. Ever since they left _Burning Subject_ it's been joke after joke with him, some were hit-and-miss, but a lot of them were able to get a chuckle out of her and ones like this were able to knock her over in a wheezing fit.

Once she was done laughing into the tablecloth, she wiped her eyes of the tears that had leaked out and saw the kitten looking at her in delight,

"Seriously where do you get all of these?" she asked in a wheezy voice, chuckling every now and then.

Another slick smile and a wiggle of his eyebrows told her something bad was coming up and he said,

"From punderground, obviously! Not as many dirty jokes as you would think, surprisingly." he snickered.

Teri groaned,

"Uggh! Of course you would find them there." she reached over and grabbed a ketchup bottle to read the ingredients.

"Yeah, and that last one was revolutionary in my opinion." he commented, continuing to give her his sly looks.

Teri popped the cap on the ketchup bottle and shot a playful glare at him,

"This is going all over your shirt, you know. Don't underestimate me either, it can squirt pretty far and I won't even have to move." she warned, although her smile definitely told him she was only kidding around.

Gumball didn't seem frightened though and he moved his shoulders vertically,

"Actually, I love ketchup and if you spray my shirt I'll save it for school then because let's face it, it's leagues better than Monday's mystery meat." he replied with a wink.

And then Teri made a gagging sound while pushing herself away from the table,

"Ew! Don't joke like that, we haven't even gotten our food yet and you're NOT doing that either!" she glared at him as she set the bottle of tomato sauce as far away from the cat boy as possible.

As soon as she said that, Karen arrived with their food on a tray and set both of their burgers in front of each kid,

"There's your Philly cheese steak sandwich with fries and I believe that's the Hash brown double stacker also with fries." the pink Axolotl first handed Gumball his and Teri's last,

"Do you two need anymore refills?" she asked after placing her tray underneath the crook of her arm.

Casting a glance at their half-way finished glasses, the boy and girl looked each other in the eye before shaking their heads at the same time,

"I think we're good, thank you." they said in unison.

Checking her notes and giving their food one last look, Karen was nodding approvingly and slunk off to another table. Checking out the steaming sandwich in front of him, Gumball could feel his mouth starting to salivate as the smell of burnt beef and toasted bread wafted into his nostrils. He could already tell this was going to be a delicious meal and he wrapped his paws around the sandwich, lifting it up to his awaiting mouth.

Before he could take his first bite, a frustrated grunt from Teri reached his ears and he paused to see what was wrong,

"Something up?" he asked.

She was holding her burger in one hand and was lifting the top bun with the other, inside were two hamburger patties, hash browns, lettuce, tomato, and… cheese. This was the main object of her irritation and she angrily set the burger back on her plate. She then got up from the table and picked the plate up as well, but didn't leave until she told Gumball,

"I specifically told them not to put cheese on this. I will be right back." she growled, before storming off to the front counter.

Watching her leave to go argue with the waitress, Gumball set his sandwich down and waited for Teri to come back. He wanted to enjoy his meal with her and if he hadn't ordered what he had, then he could have traded with her. Oh well, nothing to do about that.

It was about a minute into waiting when someone spotted him sitting by himself and she came marching right towards the unaware kitten. At first, he didn't notice anything off as he was preoccupied with dowsing his fries in ketchup before Teri got back and the person remained unseen for a while. When he finished drowning his food in a morbid amount of red sauce, he then noticed a presence at the table and thought that the waitress had returned, hopefully with the realization that she made an error with Teri's food.

His eyes widened in surprise when he saw that this was not the case,

"Molly?" he gasped in surprise.

The quiet Sauropod waved a trunk at him before smiling a little, although her eyes seemed a little sad,

"Hi Gumball, are you busy?" she asked, sounding hopeful.

"Uh-uhhhh…" was the only sound he made when he looked back over to see what Teri was doing.

She was still at the counter, waiting for customer service to come, but her back was turned to them. It wasn't like he was embarrassed to be seen with her in a public place like this, but he'd hoped that Teri and him could enjoy some time alone together. However, he felt inclined to ask what was troubling Molly and sucked in a deep breath.

Turning back in his seat, Gumball's attention was now on her,

"What seems to be the issue?" he politely questioned, his gaze shifting to Teri every few seconds.

This seemed to make Molly a bit happier, as she stood up a bit taller and seemed a bit more radiant,

"Well, I was thinking about what happened yesterday and I wanted someone to talk to about it. Everyone else is too busy and I'm really terrified." she explained very sincerely and Gumball can even hear her voice shaking a little.

It was as Gumball feared. She wanted to talk to him about something important and he would really like to, seeing as she was very upset right now, but Teri and him were in the middle of something, the former of which could be coming back any time now. He needed to find a good compromise and make sure Molly didn't go home sad.

His eyes searched the area until through the window, he looked up and spotted Hector still standing beside the mall building. What exactly was he doing? He's been standing there for nearly an hour and hasn't actually done much. What exactly was his mother shopping for?

These questions were waved aside when an idea popped up in his head.

Turning to Molly with his eyes closed, he took a deep breath, placed his hands together and exhaled before opening his eyes again,

"Molly, I understand how you're feeling and I would like to discuss that with you, but now isn't a good time…" he explained slowly, carefully thinking about what he wanted to say.

Right away her smile turned into a frown and her eyes became even more downcast. Gumball could see right away that she was hurt and quickly sprung up to keep her from walking away or crying, both of which would have been terrible things to see,

"...but that's where the good news comes in!" he quickly cheered, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Confused, the very tall cheerleader just stared at him with a perplexed expression and Gumball took that opportunity to quickly lead her outside. Tugging her by one of her trunk-like hands, they were soon outside the restaurant where the hub was and Gumball could see Hector clearly now. He directed her attention to the ceiling window with both hands and his face was riddled with excitement as he presented her with someone to talk to,

"Hector! You can talk to him! He's not doing anything at the moment and he's always open to listening to other people talk." he exclaimed, still waving his hands about frantically.

Molly seemed to freeze up on the spot, her lips were tightly pursed, and her pupils seemed to shrink in fear. She shook her head in defiance,

"I… I can't do it!" she squeaked and turned to head the other direction.

Before she could go though, Gumball grabbed a hold of her elbow and she stopped to look at him. He seemed very concerned and he asked,

"What's wrong, Molly? Hector isn't bad, he's very nice!" he spoke calmly, trying to keep the blocky sauropod from panicking again.

Molly seemed to shrink back a little and if Gumball weren't so sure, he could have sworn that she would have disappeared if she could,

"I know, it's just that…" Molly found her words getting caught in her throat. She was so nervous and didn't want to tell him how she felt, but with another shake of her head, she decided to spill it,

"He's so big a-and I don't think he'll ever hear me and even if he did, he probably wouldn't want to hear anything I want to say." she was on the verge of tears at this point.

So that was it. The idea made sense to Gumball, Hector was indeed a colossus and just simply walking up to talk to him was really intimidating to think about. He remembered the first time he and Darwin tried talking to him the first time in Elementary school, it took them both weeks to muster up their courage. For someone as shy and quiet as Molly, approaching someone of that immensity had to be a daunting task.

As for her fear of him not hearing her and also not wanting to hear what she said, that wasn't necessarily true. Gumball knew Hector, the big guy was quite lonely and told him that he wouldn't mind talking to anyone. He figured that Hector wouldn't object if Molly decided to keep him company and they both had… well, not-so-interesting tastes in how to spend their spare time, so maybe they would really get along.

He checked on Teri again and could see that she was now talking to the chef. He probably had about a minute or two before she came back and moved to wrap up things with Molly. Once again, another compromise and he knew what he wanted to say.

Looking back at her with a steady expression, he let go of her elbow and relaxed his shoulders,

"It's okay. Hector has big ears and will be able to hear you just fine. As for the other part, he would like to listen because he has barely anyone to talk to and trust me, he is a good listener." he explained.

After hearing him out, Molly seemed to calm down some and looked from him to Hector. Her frown was still present though and Gumball knew he needed to make one last push to get this cart rolling. Here comes the compromise,

"And if things don't go so well, just shoot me a text and we can meet up tomorrow on Sunday to talk about things." he added in after clearing his throat.

That seemed to just about do it for the dark middle schooler and she was now looking down at the blue cat with a hopeful light in her eyes,

"You will?" she asked, her voice almost a whisper.

Gumball nodded once, his face a solid block of serious,

"I promise." he agreed, although the back of mind was screaming _what have you done?!_

With one final gesture towards the door leading outside, Gumball began to jog in place as he slowly headed back into _Dinner_ and waved Molly good-bye. She was hesitant at first, checking first on the retreating Gumball then on Hector once more. She then heard Gumball wish her luck and also mentioned:

"Yeah, I'd introduce you two, but his mom made it very clear to me that she didn't want me anywhere near her son, but don't be scared of her either." he halfway shouted from inside the restaurant.

He gave her a thumbs up and raced back to his seat just as Teri turned around from the counter. Gumball watched as Molly took a deep breath and walked towards the main entrance. From what he saw, she still seemed nervous, but something told him that this was all going to work out just fine.

Eventually Teri came back looking very irritated, but not as much as she was before she left,

"Well, that was interesting." she fumed as she adjusted herself in her seat until she was comfortable,

"Turns out they had my order, but they sent Karen out with the wrong dish. They're finishing up right now, so it should be out here in a minute or two." she grumbled, still a little peeved.

Listening to her giving grief, Gumball felt bad for her and placed his hands on his lap,

"I'm sorry." he said.

Shaking her head, she waved it off and sighed,

"It's alright, it's not your issue to begin with." she replied, looking back at him with calmly written face.

"Want one of my fries?" Gumball offered, sliding his plate towards her.

Not one to refuse such an offer, Teri's hand darted from its resting spot and snatched up a seasoned, ketchup covered potato slice,

"Thanks." she said before popping it into her mouth and chewing. She noticed that he hadn't started on his sandwich yet, but she already knew why that was,

"So how did your talk with Molly go?" she asked as she reached for another fry.

Gumball swallowed the food he was working on and his eyes met hers shortly after. He didn't know that she had seen that entire thing and was feeling slightly embarrassed now for feeling like he had to talk to her in private. Wiping his paws against one another, Gumball sat up and cleared his throat,

"Oh, you noticed that?" he asked, even though he already knew the answer to that question.

Teri shrugged and from her relaxed posture seemed alright by this,

"I turned my head a couple of times." she popped a fry into her mouth, chewed, and swallowed,

"So how did your talk go?" she repeated, raising an eyebrow.

Feeling more at ease, Gumball simply told her everything that happened and while he did so, Karen arrived with Teri's order, the correct one this time, before leaving with an apology. They both ate and talked, Teri telling him that she wouldn't have minded inviting Molly in to talk with them. He kept that in mind and peeked out the window, looking through the skylight where Hector could be seen.

Teri followed his gaze and they both saw that Hector was holding something in his hand,

"Oh my Jade! They're really going at it with that conversation!" Teri exclaimed in surprise.

Gumball was just as surprised as his friend, he could see Molly in Hector's hand, her stubby arms waving about while she spoke in that rapid machine gun way of hers and Hector was just intently listening to everything she said, nodding every now and then,

"I can't believe it! It couldn't have been that long since she left and they're already talking like they've known each other for years." he gasped.

The giant and the dinosaur seemed very intrigued with one another and the two kids in the restaurant couldn't help but watch this amazing spectacle unfold before them.

Eventually Teri turned around and gave Gumball another bright smile before she teasingly said to him,

"You know, you make a pretty good wingman!" she laughed.

Stunned, Gumball shook a little as he tried to figure out the implications of what Teri was telling him and as a result, spilled some steaming hot steak onto the back of his hand,

"Wha-! Ow!" he yelped, as he shook his burnt hand.

Seeing what he had accidentally done to himself, Teri leapt up from her spot, rushed to the bathroom, grabbed some paper towels, wet them with cold water, and rushed back out to where Gumball was sitting. He had managed to clean off the stain with a napkin and Teri dabbed the red spot with the wet paper towel wad. It didn't hurt too bad in Gumball's opinion, but having Teri being in such close proximity to him wasn't all that bad and he could already see that her face was a few inches from his.

"Sorry for startling you like that, I should've waited for you to finish eating before I said anything." she apologized as she continued to apply cold water to the burn area.

"It's alright, no need to apologize. I'm a huge klutz anyway and I forgot that the sandwich was hot." he replied back with a chuckle.

Beneath Gumball's notice, a mischievous smirk carved its way onto Teri's face and the paper girl stood up straight, both hands now on her hips,

"Oh, I see now. So the sandwich is hot and I'm just pretty." she remarked in a faked offended tone.

Gumball wasn't sure where this was coming from and he assumed that he must have said something wrong. His entire body dropped several shades in color and the burn from his food spill seemed colder now. His jaw fell and a sound matching a creaking door came out from his open maw.

Time seemed to stand still as the two just stared at another and the quiet between them was broken when Gumball flipped his lid,

"Woah, woah, woah, wait a minute here!" he frantically sputtered, he was moving in all sorts of crazy motions now,

"I don't know what I did wrong, but I didn't mean it like that!" his heart was threatening to stop right now and he still didn't understand what was going on.

All the while this was happening, several customers were now staring at the overreacting kitten and Teri just found the whole thing amusing. She had to force herself from cracking another smile and just folded her arms before turning away as though very disappointed in him. Gumball felt another shade of blue fade when she started speaking again, this time sounding very hurt,

"Back in _Burning subject_ , you called me hot, but then you took it back and called me pretty instead. I guess you just find sandwiches more appealing, but I should've known that already." she said in indignation before switching to a more sassy approach,

"I just find it hard to believe that I had so much competition with Anton, but then again, you could do so much better than a flimsy piece of paper like me." she turned her back on him now and her smile was even more evident.

The whole restaurant _ooh_ ed at Gumball, some even _Tsk_ ing him, and the blue cat felt himself die a little on the inside,

" _What is going on here? All I did was comment on how that piece of meat was hot and now she's acting like I'm comparing her!"_ this and many other regretful thoughts threatened to force the bipedal cat out of the restaurant and back home in shame.

Completely red faced and feeling very humiliated, Gumball got up to somehow fix things with her, even though he had no idea where to start,

"No, no, no, Teri I didn't mean it like that, I think you're very hot- no wait- actually, yes, you are, but I don't mean that in a creepy way! I mean-" he stopped himself before taking another deep breath and calming down, his heart still thundering within,

"What I meant to say is, you're very spectacular! I think you're very kind, wise, funny, creative, scary enough to keep me from doing dumb things, caring, and so much more! I'm glad to have you as a friend because you mean so much to me!" it was everything that came out of his grey matter, but it was the best he could think of on the spot.

A moment passed, then another, followed up by a third and Gumball was wondering if he should apologize for that last statement or try again with another. Should he tell her how he actually felt about her? Is that what she really wanted?

Without warning, laughter could be heard from Teri and she turned around, her eyes squeezed shut as her pearly whites glistened within her grinning face. Soon everyone there began to fall in with the laughter and with a grim realization, Gumball knew that he had been duped. His ears flattened against his head and his face was lit ablaze as he tried to think if there was a rune he could use to make himself vanish.

Suddenly, he felt a pair of arms wrap around him and he saw a chuckling Teri hugging him tight,

"I'm sorry, I was just teasing you. I didn't mean to put you on the spot like that, but you're reaction was pretty funny." she whispered in his ear,

"Also, did you just call me scary?" she looked him in the eye while still hugging him.

He didn't really hear her question and if he were to be honest here, he wasn't too upset with her joke either. He was just glad that it didn't escalate even further and that he didn't actually confess his true feelings for her, though he came really close. He gave her a hug too and they both sat back down, the rest of the _Dinner_ staff and customers had their laughs before they went back to their own activities.

They both joked about the scene they made for a bit before Teri hopped onto another subject,

"What would you think about working here?" she asked before sinking her teeth into her juicy burger.

Gumball panned his head around and scanned the restaurant carefully before formulating an opinion,

"It's not too bad when I think about it, but Darwin and I already did the burger gig once and that's not something I'm willing to make a career out of." he said before finishing the final bite to his sandwich,

"Why do you ask?" he inquired with his mouth somewhat full.

Teri swallowed her bite and pulled her drink over to her,

"Well, seeing as you're amazing at cooking, I figured maybe that's a career you should look into and please don't talk with your mouth full, you could choke." she replied, giving him a brief warning on his eating habits before taking a sip of her lemonade.

Having long since gotten used to Teri's health tips, Gumball quietly finished his food before raising his head to ask her something,

"I feel like I already know the answer to this one, but what job would you like to do when you're older?" he sipped his soda through a straw.

Teri shrugged and placed her arms on the table, looking off in another direction,

"I want to be a nurse, but being a doctor also sounds nice. I haven't really decided which one is more preferable." she said thoughtfully, her eyes drifting back to Gumball.

Snickering a little, Gumball pictured Teri being a nurse, with the white coat and little white cap embroidered with a red cross, as she nagged patients about their lifestyle choices and then another funny thought formed,

"Maybe you could be the next school nurse! Mrs. Markham is pretty close to retiring anyway, all you gotta do is increase your visits from three times a day to six and you may just run her out of the job!" he joked.

A snort and a roll of her eyes was the answer Gumball got and expected from the school hypochondriac,

"Oh, ha ha ha! Yes, it's so funny that I treat my health so seriously. I'll remember this conversation when you catch a serious cold at school and wind up having to pay several visits yourself." her voice came out as a low growl and she leered at him from the other side of the table.

Gumball laughed and began to play around with his straw, twirling the piece of plastic in between his fingers as it slid around the rim of the glass,

"You know, I actually think owning a bakery of my own wouldn't be so bad! I get to bake sweets and bread for several hours straight and owning the place would do me some good too!" he thought about it and the image of him wearing an apron along with those big chef hats really tickled his fancy.

Teri was also thinking the same thing and she found the idea to be adorable as well as delicious and she voiced her own opinion,

"Yeah, and you can also give me free samples whenever I come by. Just me though." she shot him a look and went back to working on her half eaten burger.

Gumball looked up at her with amusement and wondered what was going on in that head of hers,

"What makes you think that I'm just going to give you free stuff?" he asked, still grinning.

Teri looked back at him with an equally amused glance and set her burger down to point at him,

"Because you're going to like me so much that giving me free samples will be just the smallest favor you could do in return." she boldly claimed.

Jade, this girl was just so awesome and Gumball was already releasing a few snickers in response to such a ridiculous answer,

"Oh, you're just too good for me, aren't ya!" he remarked, the sarcasm as thick as syrup.

"You bet your big head I am and you're not allowed to be anything other than a baker!" Teri declared.

Throwing his hands up, Gumball was utterly shocked at her declaration,

"Whoah, hey now! Give me some personal freedom in my life choices!" he cried out, his smile getting bigger by the second.

Teri shook her head and munched on her burger before gulping it down,

"I am giving you choices. You're going to choose what you're going to bake me tomorrow night!" she gave her eyebrows a little wiggle after she said that.

The two shared another laugh and Gumball talked to her about tomorrow's plans, seeing as she was the one who brought it up. They spent the next few minutes talking about their favorite foods and then somehow transitioned to favorite lines/episodes from _Under the Stethoscope_. Soon an hour had passed with the two still talking about just anything at this point and both of their plates had long since been emptied before being taken care of by the staff.

With it just being the two of them engaged in conversation, the world itself seemed to disappear entirely and the only person Gumball could see was the girl in front of him. It's been a while since he'd felt like this and the more he thought about it all, the more something began to dawn on him. It was at this very mall, this very restaurant where he shared moments just like these ones with another and something that he thought was so far away came crashing back to him.

His thoughts were on Penny now and a wave of guilt followed soon after, he shouldn't be thinking about her, not right now.

He continued to go along with the flow while keeping a straight face and making sure he kept his thoughts on his previous lover at a low. They continued on like this and completely missed the familiar sight of a ghost girl drifting into the restaurant. She spotted the two right away and floated over to their table, she was carrying more bags from other places she's visited, not saying anything until she was practically at the edge,

"Wow! You two really went for it!" she butted in with a witty remark,

"Tell me now, who asked first?"

The two immediately stopped talking and like two synced devices their heads turned until they could both see the transparent emo spirit grinning at them both,

"Carrie?!" Gumball shouted in surprise.

"Does this look like a date to you?" Teri also shouted, answering her first question with another one.

Carrie placed an index finger and thumb on her chin as she observed the setting before her,

"Hmmm…" she mused.

Teri quickly realized her mistake and angrily waved her off,

"Never mind, don't answer that!" she barked.

Carrie giggled softly,

"You guys are so cute." she replied, giving Gumball a wink before saying,

"Nice hair by the way!" she commented, eyeing Teri's new look.

Teri realized she was talking about her and a smile quickly presented itself,

"Thank you!" she replied happily.

The ghost nodded and her head twisted in Gumball's direction,

"So how you guys doing?" she brushed some white locks from her face.

Clasping his hands together, Gumball settled down into his seat,

"We're doing great, we haven't found anything to cover our identities yet, but honestly that isn't even the worst of our problems." he said in a somewhat gloomy tone.

Teri agreed with him and nodded towards Carrie,

"Yeah, we've fought some powerful Nephilim before, but general Gorothim was definitely something else. He took down Hector with ease, tossed me and Gumball around like we were mice, and even dealing him some damage didn't slow him down." her gaze was now on the table as she fiddled with her fingers,

"That golden woman Gumball and I encountered, she told us that he's been leading the invasion of Earth from the very beginning and if that's true, then he's probably our biggest threat." she muttered uncomfortably.

Carrie shared a grimace at the mentioning of the powerful Nephilim that appeared, though she didn't see it herself, she saw how banged up Hector looked and how the two Nephilim fighters were completely exhausted afterwards. She also felt bad that there was very little she could do against the invading spirits during her second encounter with them because she failed to save multiple people and she was the one in need of saving in the end. For her, being a ghost and all, she should have an edge when it came to such things and yet, her powers had proven to be less than effective.

Carrie's mouth continued to twist itself into a snarl and a dangerous glow was present in her dark eyes,

"I know what you mean. I told you guys about my encounter with the cleaver-wielding giant and how it was Hector who came to my aid." she sighed in frustration,

"Even with my magic and the weapon I stole from it, I still wasn't able to cause any lasting damage. I really need to brush up on my magic skills and I think the forbidden book might help." she thought out loud.

She felt a hand pressing onto her shoulder and when she looked up, she saw that it belonged to Teri,

"Don't feel too bad about it." she said in a lighthearted tone,

"You were still able to help Hector when he needed it and for a while I was in the same boat as you were. I had no magic of my own to defeat the Nephilim with and I was still able to help Gumball in my own ways." she said with a gentle smile.

Gumball hummed in agreement and also turned to comfort Carrie,

"And no one is going to fault you for not being able to single handedly take these guys on. They are very dangerous, even by themselves, and you already know how my first attempt to take one on by myself went." he shot Teri a glance and saw that she was staring back at him.

He gave her a crooked smile and there was a brief moment of uncomfortable yet, peaceful silence between the two before they switched their focus back to the ghost girl. This did indeed make her feel better and she went on ahead with the news she wanted to deliver,

"Thanks guys." she said quietly before digging out her phone,

"I have the list of materials needed to summon Malabranche and I'm still searching for some of them, but I learned from Banana Joe that Masami is throwing a tremendous birthday party at her place on the first of next month!" she explained in excitement.

Teri and Gumball looked at one another in surprise and then back at her again,

"That sounds awesome!" Gumball whooped gleefully, pumping a fist into the air.

"What's this got to do with the summoning?" Teri asked, being more practical of the two and also feeling less enthusiastic about the cloud girl's birthday celebration.

Putting her phone away, Carrie looked rather pleased to answer the paper girl's question,

"Since a lot of people are bound to show up and spend a majority of the evening hamming it up at her manor, the ritual can proceed unnoticed at school by the citizens of Elmore." she spoke in a cool tone that matched her overall aesthetic.

Now that sounded practical and the two students were already feeling satisfied with how everything was falling together. There were still the uncertainties surrounding the conjuring of the demon, but at least it was a step in the right direction for themselves and plus, there was the party to consider. When they briefly touched upon it, Carrie simply stated that she wasn't really into those sort of parties and would spend the beginning of the evening setting up the spell in the school gymnasium while Teri and Gumball could go on ahead and enjoy themselves during the birthday festivities.

They were all in consensual alignment with this scheme and when they were just about to get back to their private activities, Gumball had to ask her,

"Hey, Carrie. Why do you have to perform the conjuring at the school? Why not at your place?" he cocked his head to the side a little and Teri did the same.

The little ghost shifted a little in place, her eyes watering up a little and she hid her face from view, something was upsetting her,

"I can't perform the ritual at home because my mother despises demons." she rubbed her own arm a little and spoke quietly,

"Back when she was alive, there was a wealthy man she once loved named Thomas Hempson, the two lived in the same village for many years and were bound to be married at some point. However, tragedy struck when Thomas died of tuberculosis and when my mother eventually joined him in death, she found that he had sold himself to Mephistopheles in order to amass his fortune." she now faced them once again, this time with a pain none of them could describe written into her features,

"She learned that he had also planned on giving his first bride to him for his soul's release, but Mephisto could not claim her because she was not to be given unto him, so he took Thomas' life instead. Ever since then, my mother has hated anything related to the pit of darkness and the things that dwell within it, so I can't summon the demon there." she finished by wiping the tears from her eyes.

Upon hearing about her mother's heartbreaking story, a waterfall of tears were flowing down both Gumball and Teri's cheeks, forcing Carrie to jump back in surprise at how touched they were,

"Okay, I think we understand now." Gumball replied through the waterworks.

"That's so cruel, I can't believe someone could be so heartless to someone who only wanted to love him." Teri sniffled, dabbing at her eyes with an eraser.

Deciding that it was best for her to leave, the big-headed spirit grabbed her shopping bags and sailed towards the door, turning back to wave them good-bye,

"Thanks for letting me join you guys for a bit, but I gotta head off to get more things, plus Darwin invited me over to Juke's place. They're having a dance off, which I guess is their way of forgetting the attack." she explained with a shrug,

"See ya guys at school on Monday!" she called back as she disappeared into the mall center.

The cat and bear waved back and watched until she vanished. They then looked up to see if Hector and Molly were still talking, but they had already left, much to their surprise. Receiving a check from the waitress, Gumball paid and left her a tip before they rushed out to find more places to look into.

 _-Void, time: ?-_

White. It was all Rob could see through the protective barrier that was his visor and after being suspended in such a dull space for so long, it seemed as though the cyclops himself had been erased in this world of serene nothingness. He wasn't alarmed though, not even mildly concerned for his well-being, there was nothing here and Rob was only falling or was he? It didn't matter, this was nothing after all.

He could feel his cable still attached to his safety harness and when he looked back to the rectangular entrance, he could see that it had long since disappeared, lost in a sea of light. He read his phone's display and found that he had been falling for ten minutes, another five and he'll have to go back up. He was quite disappointed that he hadn't found anything down here yet and wondered if the only way he could get anything out of this place was through magical exchange.

He checked his HUD and sighed to himself,

"For a place wrapped in total mystery, never thought it could be so boring." he groaned in boredom and continued to survey the blank landscape.

That was until something happened. The problem was, he didn't exactly know what occurred: One minute, he was in the barrier void and the next, the environment changed altogether. The white light was washed away, replaced by darkness, and his body jolted to a halt when he slammed into something soft. The disfigured adventurer flailed his arms as this happened and the first few sounds that came from him were incoherent grunts of surprise followed up with,

"What in the blazing-?" he realized that he had come to a complete stop now and was a little dizzy from the experience of falling before stopping so quickly.

His tinted visor was making it very hard to make anything out, so he pressed the button on the side and the concealing glass shot up with a _shp_ , allowing him to get a better view of his surroundings. Unobscured, his yellow orb began to scan the strange new place and he found that he appeared to be in a bed room of sorts. It was an ordinary American bedroom, belonging to a boy it seemed, as was evident with all the space posters and action figures spread throughout the room. He could also make out a dresser with many drawers crammed with clothes and some model spaceships placed on top, a desk with a computer on top along with crumpled up wads of paper and discarded empty soda cans.

It was an ordinary room for what seemed like an ordinary kid, probably around his age and Rob was very confused as to how he wound up here of all places.

He felt his fingers grasp the cable he was attached to and when he followed the metal wire, he saw that it lead out the single bedroom window, which overlooked a starry night sky. Very strange. Could it be that he stumbled through a window to another place on Earth? Rob was very sure that couldn't have been the case, but this was a very bizarre place, so there was only so much he could know. Checking his phone again, he saw that he had only three minutes left and needed to get moving.

Clutching his rail cannon tightly, Rob crawled off the bed and carefully made his way to the door,

"Hopefully no one's home." he whispered to himself.

He carefully opened the door and leaned against the wall with his weapon's barrel pointing upwards. Once he heard no one approaching nor any sound coming from the hallway, he crept out and into the empty hall with his weapon raised in front of him. He had a flaming claw rune armed and if anything were to prove hostile in this strange environment, then he would be ready to reduce it to ashes.

The hall itself was dimly lit, but showed no signs of life and Rob continued to creep along the corridor with his other hand tightly grasping the safety cable. He could eventually make out a noise coming from the other end, it sounded like sizzling, as though a person were cooking something in a fry pan and a delicious smell made itself present to the curious cyclopean wanderer. Given the time of day, someone was definitely making dinner and Rob was starting to get the suspicion that he may have found his way back to Earth, maybe he was back in Elmore too.

Feeling braver, Rob picked up the pace and made his way to the end of the hallway. It led him into a large living room with a couch, two comfy armchairs sitting in front of a large flat screen TV where some video game consoles could be seen along with several racks containing video games and films. There were some decorative plants in pots lining some shelves and the more Rob got a look around, a large sense of nostalgia would pick up in the back of his mind.

He couldn't help but feel as though he's been here before and that this was a place of comfort for him,

"This place…" he muttered out loud, placing a hand on the side of his tin foil covered helmet,

"...that bedroom, the smell of grilled cheese, this living room. Why does this feel like…" he couldn't place it in his head and also, how did he know what he was smelling was grilled cheese.

Curious, he wandered over to the television set and crouched down by the video game consoles. It felt odd to be going through a stranger's things, but once again this all felt surprisingly normal for him and he picked up a few cases for the video games set on the rack. They were mostly space based, some were shoot em' ups and others were about exploration, but they all looked really cool and Rob could feel a smile come to his face when he thought about playing these games on the couch.

"Rob, get yer butt down here! It's dinner time!" a gruff male voice called out from what was perhaps the kitchen.

Breaking from his occupied thoughts, Rob sprang up from his kneeling position and spun around so fast that his world began to spin itself. A lot of perplexing things were channeling through his head, how did that guy know his name? Why did his voice sound familiar? Why was this whole place eerily familiar to him? Was this a trap set by the void?

Rob was completely silent and stood in place for a moment as the sound of whoever that was began to shift from the kitchen to the next room,

"Robby, It's grilled cheese with tomatoes, your favorite, and if you don't get down here right away, I'm going to gobble it all up and leave you the crust!" the voice called out again in a not-so-threatening tone.

More silence as Rob just remained still, unsure if he should answer the voice supposedly calling out his name. He didn't know who it was? Even if he did, this was probably all an illusion anyway, so why even bother with all of this? He came here for answers and now he was in a strangely familiar place listening to a strangely familiar stranger calling his name as though this were a normal evening.

So why did he want to answer and play along with whatever this may be?

He didn't get much time to ponder this as a large figure stepped into the living room and spotted Rob by the television set. He was very tall, probably six whole inches taller than Robert, with violet skin that covered his body except his hands, which were yellow, he wore a simple work outfit which consisted of a yellow polo shirt, a navy blue tie with diagonal yellow stripes, and black trousers with brown leather shoes. His white hair was buzzed short, he had no distinguishable nose, and his face was aged to that of someone who appeared to be in his mid-forties.

He regarded Rob with a single, pink eye, and smiled when he saw him standing in the living room,

"Ah, there you are, champ? Playing _Galactic Space Marine_ again? Can't believe you would dress up for a simple computer game, but what do I know about kids these days." He spoke with a lighthearted chuckle to a surprised Rob, who couldn't believe this stranger was talking to him as though he were a member of the household rather than an intruder.

The older cyclops waved him over to the kitchen, his happy expression seemingly cemented into his features,

"Come on, it's gonna get cold. You can defend the galaxy from the Xenobloods when you're done eating." he explained before scuttling off to the dining room.

Completely flipped, Rob suddenly found himself again and took off after the old cyclops, which he wasn't sure if he should, but he seemed friendly, so far at least. He entered the eating area, a room with plenty of windows that seemed to only display a night time sky, centered with a circular table surrounded by four chairs, the walls were painted in a lovely shade of red with geometric decor, and sitting at the table with a plate stacked with ten grilled cheese sandwiches straight off the frying pan.

He stared suspiciously at the dining room before setting his gaze upon the cyclopean house owner, who had taken a position at one of the chairs and was waiting for Rob to join him,

"Sit." he said, waving a hand towards an empty seat.

Rob refused to move, instead he clutched his rail cannon even tighter and glared at the man,

"Pardon my bad manners, but would you mind telling me who you are and where I am. I know I'm still in the void and while this place seems familiar, I still don't know you." he finally said to the old stranger.

The purple cyclops seemingly disregarded Rob's questioning tone and pointed at the seat once more, his expression still calm and patient,

"Sit down and we'll talk while we eat. I made this for you so that you'll be comfortable here." he explained and Rob realized he wasn't referring to the food.

The other cyclops then pointed at the rail cannon Rob kept raised and shook his head,

"And you won't be needing that." he said.

Suddenly, Rob could feel nothing in his hand and when he looked, he saw that his only weapon was gone causing him to gasp in shock. The older cyclops then pointed to his tin foil covered suit and that too vanished from Rob's body,

"And that too. Don't worry though, your memories will stay intact once you leave." he calmly explained.

Rob was completely flabbergasted, how did he do that? Whoever this guy was, it was clear his power was immense and even controlled this entire space. He wanted to shout in alarm and demand that he return his suit and weapon, but given that he was being polite thus far, he may as well humor the entity. His mind was still screaming in protest, but the overall familiarity and sense of comfort this place brought him made him feel at ease.

He took his place at the table, right next to the old cyclops, and selected a crispy sandwich from the stack and set it on the plate in front of him. The food felt very real and he was more than certain that if he ate it, it would taste very good. The scent, the texture, and the overall delightful appearance of the grilled sandwich oozing with melted yellow cheese made his mouth water.

He picked up the sandwich and shoved it into his mouth. The moment he bit down, an explosion of flavor erupted throughout his taste buds and he tore away the bit, leaving a trail of cheese and shredded tomato as he started chewing. While he enjoyed his first bite, the other cyclops began talking,

"Glad you could make it down here. I don't think anyone has ever visited my dreams before, although I have been in yours." he lifted up his own food and began eating.

Rob finished chewing and swallowed his food, his one eye now locked onto the old man,

"Wait, what? Dreams? Are you telling me this whole place is a dream?" the baffled boy questioned as he scanned the room for the umpteenth time.

The white haired figure nodded and took another bite,

"Indeed. You're technically in my head and this house is a dream I'm having right now. I've been sleeping for so long you see." he still sounded pleased, but Rob could detect a faint sense of loneliness coming from him.

Now another slew of questions came pouring forth and the disfigured inventor sat up a bit more in his seat,

"So, if this is your dream, then why is there magic in here? I keep entering the void and firing runes into the barrier, then I get more runes from it. Why is that?" he asked.

The older cyclops reached over and grabbed two more sandwiches before plopping them onto Rob's plate. His yellow finger tapped the toasted bread several times and he gave Rob a stern look,

"Eat. It's going to get cold if you keep asking questions." he commanded in a fatherly tone.

Rob could care less about the food sitting in front of him, but given that the stranger has been very hospitable so far, he obeyed and dug into his food some more. Once again this all felt very familiar to him and he could picture something like this happening every so often, although it seemed so distant. His obedience was rewarded when the purple figure continued on with his explanation,

"This space is not only the place my sub-conscious manifests itself, but also exists as storage for the library of magic." he started with a sigh.

"Two million years ago, I was but a simple mammal living on this planet. The Nephilim were also here at the time and it was their divine duty was to protect the Earth and its creatures from Mephistopheles and his demons. They would come here from the depths to possess helpless animals, turning them into corrupted monsters with the powers of the dead and wreak destruction across the planet. The Nephilim were also capable of possessing animals and used them to combat the demonic forces, preserving life as it was." Rob continued to eat as he listened to his story, already finishing a couple sandwiches,

"Despite their divinity, the Nephilim were also very curious about life itself and sought to figure out its secrets through experiments conducted on the animals that lived here. I was one of these creatures they tested on and when they found out about my capability for storing memory, they sealed away many of their secrets within my head and granted me an extended life span. Unfortunately, while their spirits were fiery and not bound to this Earth nor to death, their strength could only come through the possession of living creatures and many soon became corrupted in their search for power, causing the Jade Emperor to banish them to the prison dimension of Babyloth." he kept his gaze to the window and his voice trembled a bit at the memory.

Finishing his fourth one now, Rob wiped off his mouth with the napkin provided to him and asked,

"What of Mephistopheles and his demons? Were they allowed to roam free?" he took more from the center plate and began eating those as well.

The purple cyclops shook his head and placed his clasped hands in front of his mouth,

"They too were sealed away when the emperor scorched the Earth with his divine flames, although Mephistopheles' shadow still lingers, causing a great manner of evil to remain present, especially in the minds of the fledgling human race, which was starting to advance in the period of their banishment." he wiped his hands together and told Rob about himself,

"I was lucky to survive and when the Jade Emperor reached out to me, he gave me two important tasks: to guard the library of magic I now possess and to watch over the children of Earth through their dreams. I was allowed to interfere only when I had to and when the Nephilim were pre-determined to show up once more, six thousand years later, the Emperor of the heavens instructed me to awaken certain individuals in order to defend the world from Nimrod and the forces imprisoned on Babyloth. When they were prepared to show themselves on Elmore, I selected Gumball Watterson, Teri Pepakuma, Chimera, and you, through your dreams, to defend the city." he finally said, giving Rob a gentle smile as it all finally came to him.

It all made sense to the disfigured cyclops and his eye widened as he nearly dropped his grilled cheese,

"You… you're the one who's been giving us the premonitions?" he asked and the other nodded in response,

"But why are the Nephilim invading Elmore? It's not of any strategic importance and it's not housing any powerful figures that I know of." he asked.

Another frown and the older cyclops fidgeted with his fingers a little, shifting uncomfortably in his seat,

"That's not entirely true." he said, his voice barely a whisper,

"My son, Hector, possesses a magic power so great, he will become your most powerful ally in the war against the Nephilim, but he also has access to the library of magic. That's what the Nephilim are after, they want access to his mind so they can find the spell that will allow them to enter the library of magic, which lies within the void. The Nephilim are but a shadow of their former selves and in order to gain that power back, they need the magic that I guard and once they have regained what they had lost, they will make short work of your race. Plus, once they have what they want from my son, they will kill him before he becomes too much of a threat to them and that's why I've selected you as well as the others to defend Elmore. My son must be protected until he is ready to take on the otherworldly threat." he was clenching his jaw now as a raging fire could be seen burning within his single iris.

Clattering onto his plate, Rob's half eaten sandwich finally dropped as his eye widened in shock and the chair creaked as his back pressed against the back support. It actually made sense that the Nephilim would want to access to the barrier, he'd never seen a Nephilim in the void and he always questioned why that was since they could use it as a means to attack undetected. No, what really came to him as a shock was what he called Hector, the giant he had seen wield a power immense enough to smite a Nephilim in one strike, he called him his son, which meant that this mysterious entity was in fact…

"Fjel… Fjel Jotenheim!" Rob gasped.

There was a glow in the man's eye, accompanied with a smile so warm and welcoming, like someone who had just been found after ages of being lost. Someone who seemed so lonely being found and he nodded with a hearty chuckle,

"The one and only." Fjel announced, standing up and giving a little bow before sitting back down,

"Not quite who you were expecting, was I?" he chimed with a mischievous smirk.

Rob shook his head, his features glitching a bit as he tried to digest everything he'd figured out up 'til this point,

"No… I do believe it's you that I'm talking to, I've met your son and your wife, she told me about you and I know that you're asleep, somewhere, but I want to know…" he took a moment to bring both hands to his face, rubbing his forehead before bringing them together and pointing his closed hands at the giant as he looked at him,

"If you're as powerful as they say and you knew of the approaching Nephilim threat, why haven't you done more to help prevent their invasion? I mean, if you're capable of awakening people to the threat as well as creating all of this in your sleep, then surely you can do more to help us, right?" he wore a dumbfounded look as he couldn't believe that Fjel could detect the Nephilim as well as reach out to others in order to warn them of their approach and yet, remain slumbering beneath the Earth.

There was a pause between the two and for a moment, Rob was worried that he overstepped some kind of boundary by asking more of the powerful titan. However, the only thing Fjel did was point a single yellow digit towards his pile of food, indicating for Rob to eat up while he spoke. Rob did as he was quietly told and was chowing down again while the white haired cyclops sighed to himself, his expression forlorn,

"I wish I could do more, believe me, I wish I could be there for my family as well as protect the rest of the world from the giants, but you've no doubt heard of why I sleep from my wife, have you not?" he asked with a single tentative glance in the polygonal kid's direction.

Rob nodded and remembered what Mrs. Jotenheim had told him back in the mountain. He slept for five years because he needed that time to replenish his energy for the five years he was awake. It obviously made for a rather absent marriage between the two and it meant that Hector would go long periods without really interacting with his father, but there was only so much he could guess.

Moving on, Fjel kept speaking while holding a somber look and his tone was no different,

"I can't wake up now because if I do, I will not have the strength to maintain consciousness for more than a few hours at most and believe me when I say the last you would want is a mountain-sized colossus collapsing into a coma when passing by something as fragile as a city." he explained and Rob was taken back to when he first met Hector, how the hairy giant managed to destroy so much forest just by moving around a little. If Fjel was as big as he was implying, then surely any move he makes up on the surface will likely result in mass destruction for any civilized area he comes across.

"The same rule applies to my magic power as well, I have to preserve as much as I can while I rest or else I won't have much to use when I awaken. The glorious emperor who resides above has placed me in charge of guarding the library where my magic is most effective and has left the children of Earth in charge of protecting the planet. If he has faith in you and your kin, then I will too, for I have faith in him as well." he spoke with confidence and gave Rob a look that the latter could only describe as fatherly assurance.

Speaking of father.

There was the real reason for why Rob was here and while he was glad to finally have answers on the Nephilim as well finally meeting Fjel for the first time (though not in person.), there was still something he needed to know. He had told him that this was a dream he was standing and Rob found it as no coincidence that he would model this place into something he would recognize. He said it was to make him comfortable, but Rob suspected there was a bit more to it than that,

"It's an honor to hear that you and Jade have faith in us to protect this planet, even though we're also the ones messing it up…" he had no doubt that both of them were well aware of the damage mankind is wreaking upon the planet's ecosystem and was quite surprised that, first off there was a god that existed, and second, it still has enough faith in its creation considering what happened to the last ones left in charge of protecting Earth,

"...and I'm glad to be hearing all of this as well as meeting you for the first time, but that's not what I'm here for." he explained truthfully.

There was no change in the cyclops' features and Fjel merely nodded in acknowledgement, as though he knew this to be the case from the very beginning, in which he did in fact,

"You recognized this place the moment you arrived, if I am not mistaken? From the moment you landed in that bedroom, explored your surroundings, and met me for the first time, a sense of deja vu that has you confused, yet nostalgic?" there was truth in his words and Rob could only peer about the dining room several times while taking it all in, it was indeed very familiar, yet distant to him like a foggy memory,

"This dream is not just mine, but yours as well, I can see into the hearts of others when I peer into their dreams and this is what your heart longs for, the return of things once forgotten." he waited for Rob to confirm this himself, to which he did with a nod and certainty in his eye.

With that, Fjel got up from his seat and made his way over to Rob's side, who remained seated as he did so. He held a hand up in front of his face and from the air itself, a turquoise mist materialized. The cloud coalesced under a mysterious force and formed a disc that easily fit within the palm of Fjel's hand before he handed it over to Rob,

"What you seek lies within both Elmore and the void, your missing pieces scattered by the void's wrath." he explained as the young lad turned the object over in his hands.

It was turquoise in color, made of a shiny material that was smooth to the touch and on one side, a rune was engraved, complex in design, it was a spiral with a series of dots and circles arranged in the pattern of a constellation. Another exchange, Rob was curious as to what this rune was capable of, but an answer was given from the intuitive giant standing next to him,

"This spell should help you travel in between worlds, pour your spiritual energy into the symbol and a window will open to any place you can think of, as long as you can clearly picture it." he proceeded to then place his hand on top of the disc Rob was holding, helping the boy to his feet before pouring his spirit energy into the rune.

The symbol glowed the same color as the material it was imprinted on and before them, a circular portal materialized from thin air. The place Fjel thought of was displayed clearly through the magical opening, the space just outside the barrier that held his mind and the library. When Rob peered into the darkness, he could see the space scooter he came here on floating just outside where he left it and he realized the middle aged looking cyclops was sending him on his way.

There was still a question left for Rob to ask and he turned to Fjel once more with a look of concern,

"But how will I find my missing pieces? I barely remember anything about myself!" his voice raised a few notches as it cracked a little.

Keeping his stance tall, Fjel let go of the rune disc and raised the same hand until his index finger was tapping the spot above his heart, his eye boring straight into his,

"Even if most of the world has forgotten you, there are still places that exist where your presence lingers, places from your past. Find those places and find out who you once were before you were lost. Same goes for your friend, if you two want to be saved from the void's grip." he took his finger away and with a wave of his hand, Rob's suit and rail cannon reappeared on his person.

He could travel through the void again and Rob was thankful for the return of his items, but he was also alarmed that he may have to bring Rachel here if he were to cure her. He wasn't even sure if he could confront her on such an issue given that she already made her peace with life and now that he thought about it, was it even right to force this journey upon her if she was already willing to be happy with what she had? He figured he could bring her the solution and let her decide for herself, but hell if it were that simple and he really needed to think about this when he got back.

From his space helmet, he looked at Fjel one more time and thanked him for his help,

"Thank you for your help, Fjel, I never would have dreamed of meeting someone I've only heard stories about in a place that holds such sad memories for me." he bowed his head a little as a sign of respect, but something terrible came to mind when he realized something about the void,

"Did Jade consider me a mistake in the past?" he asked, his tone and his expression sounding very hurt and a faint rage could also be detected in his eye.

Fjel's shoulders heaved as he breathed out heavily and he looked away, but only for the briefest of moments before looking back at him,

"What Jade wills is sometimes a mystery to me, but what I do know is that when someone is left in the void, sooner or later they will be found. That, I believe, is due to the will of the ruler of heaven, whose command even reaches the darkest depths of the void and I wouldn't blame you if you feel very frustrated with him, his plans are often complex and often won't become clear until much later." he apologized, his pity feeling very genuine.

To be honest, the name of Jade had reached Rob's ears multiple times and every time he heard of this enigmatic god's mercy and goodwill towards all his children, he would often come down with grinding hatred that forced his teeth to gnash, his eye to burn red, and his fingers to curl into claws. How could such a god exist that was said to be benevolent and merciful, yet left unfortunates such as Rachel and himself to be forgotten. The idea in of itself was ludicrous and the nihilistic inventor would dismiss the cries of those who claimed the emperor of the heavens was an all-good, all-loving creator. All of them be damned!

While he may have disagreed with the giant on the concept of Jade, he understood why he would devote himself to such a being and didn't bother to let his rage be known, though it was clearly displayed on his face for him to see,

"Yeah… sure." was all he said before looking back through the window he aimed to step through.

After taking one last look at the familiar setting he was leaving behind, he put his foot through the opening and fell back into the dark, microgravity environment. He turned and spotted the white haired entity standing in the opening, watching him as he began to drift away. He gave him a wave and Rob waved back, the glare of his visor obscuring his features.

Fjel said one last thing before the portal vanished completely,

"Don't forget, keep Hector safe. They already know about him and I fear that they will try harder to get their hands on him, but fear not, for more help is on the way." he warned and with that the portal shrank and vanished, leaving Rob alone in the darkness.

Floating seemingly in nothingness, the mad inventor reoriented himself using the thruster nozzles on his pack and set a course for his vehicle. He thought about the place he had been in and felt a sense of ease whenever the image of that bedroom, that house, and that dining room where he sat and ate with someone so familiar. One thought came to mind whenever he thought of the cyclops Fjel impersonated,

" _Dad."_

 _-Teri's house, 6:17 PM-_

The setting sun dipped low in the red sea of the western horizon, unveiling the purple of oncoming twilight towards the east. An ever changing masterpiece of the skies, the triumph of a day having already passed, and the symphony of insects signals night's coming reign. Along the street, motorized vehicles seldom passed on by, leaving the streets feeling empty and the sidewalks too were vacant of people, making it feel as though the world had misplaced its inhabitants.

For the two children approaching the suburban household that the Pepakumas called home, this emptiness was welcomed as they were both only interested in each other and how they were feeling in the present. In their hands were bundles of shopping bags filled with various purchased materials from all the shops they had visited in the past few hours. They hadn't succeeded in their goal of finding disguises, but at least they had fun today and that's all that mattered to them.

Heeding to his mother's advice, Gumball had been a gentleman and walked Teri home from the bus stop, planning on returning home himself once they had said their good-byes. He joined her at her house's door and the two stopped short of the entryway, swiveling on their heels to face one another,

"Well, today was fun." Gumball remarked, smiling pleasantly at her while setting his bags down,

"Never thought I would find myself in so many different stores in a single afternoon, but you certainly had many places in mind." he snickered.

Teri giggled in response before setting her bags down herself and placing her hands behind her back,

"Well, I figured you wouldn't mind the exercise, I mean we couldn't train today, so we can't let it go to waste doing nothing." the paper puppet was grinning ear to ear.

Gumball shot her a look dripping with sarcasm and cocked an eyebrow,

"Hey now, I worked out this morning, what you did was overkill!" he shot back.

"Well, at least you're double prepared then, maybe this could count as tomorrow's exercise too?" she said.

The two let out a laugh and Gumball looked down at the bags at their feet,

"Well, we didn't find anything to keep us from being recognized by others, but at least we got some cool stuff." he said as he pulled a sweater that had an alien's face on the front that was actually a projection from a flying saucer.

Teri knew that if he wore that sweater more often she was going to end up stealing it, for a while at least. She may even give his red jacket back, but that was only a maybe. He was right about the cover up thing though and she felt a little regretful that they hadn't thought about that when they were in San Francisco,

"Yeah, I've read a few reports before I went to the mall and some people have spotted us while we were chasing Fright Kite. Luckily they only saw the underside of the aircraft and none of the phones or cameras were working thanks to the EMP, though a lot of people saw Hector in the outskirts." she muttered before quickly adding in,

"It's fine though, we can look again tomorrow and the better part is, Hector hasn't received any blame for the attacks either, thanks to the mayor vouching on his behalf." she felt her mood lighting up a bit more when she mentioned it and she could see that Gumball was optimistic as well, but there was a trace of concern within his being.

He shuffled his feet a little and placed his hands behind him much like his paper counterpart,

"I hope we can gain Mrs. Jotenheim's trust again, I really wish I was able to protect him before he got attacked by Gorothim." he knew it wasn't his fault, but he was still upset that he wasn't able to prevent one of his friends from getting hurt. A moment sooner and the shy giant would've been killed too.

Shaking her head, the paper puppet made a crackling noise as her flimsy noggin came to a stop and Gumball soon found a dark pair of eyes gazing into his own,

"Don't beat yourself up about it. You did the right thing and your training has also improved, remember when you were barely able to control the scythe's flames? Now you're shooting fire waves left and right without so much as snapping!" she exclaimed, jumping up and down while pumping her fists up in the air like a cheerleader would.

This would have looked so cute if she had pom poms and Gumball chuckled at the thought,

"Come on, I can only fire off four of those before getting winded and I still get tired after using thirty percent for half an hour." he said rather nervously.

Teri then made a shushing gesture with her finger and shuffled up to him, her face very close to his now and Gumball could feel a blush starting to spread like wildfire,

"Enough of that, you're still a hero and that's what counts." she proclaimed.

She then proceeded to tackle him in a hug, although her weight wasn't enough to send him to the ground, he still took a step back though out of surprise. He reflexively wrapped his arms around her as well and felt her face brush up against his, her cheek felt very warm. Not too long after, she pulled away from him and her eyes were shining while she maintained her grip on his arms,

"Besides, we're going to train harder on Monday after school, the Nephilim have left us alone for some time now and I say we should use that time to our advantage." she noted.

Gumball nodded in response and spoke his own thoughts,

"You're right, tomorrow I'm going to look on the web and see if I can pull anything up on the NEA, or that golden lady." he said before giving some thought on another matter at hand,

"Also, sometime this week we should try to make it up to Hector and his mom, that way we can gain their trust and figure out what they know about the Nephilim. They're bound to know something seeing as Hector was able to smash two of the Nephilim yesterday." he wondered, while Teri released her grip on him and backed away.

She seemed rather pensive and her eyes shifted towards the ground and back at Gumball several times while her finger tapped her chin,

"Well, we never did anything wrong and her judgement is completely askew in my opinion, but you're right in that we need their help as well." she replied in an agitated manner. She was still rather peeved at Mrs. Jotenheim's misdirection of blame for her kid's injury and wasn't particularly fond of the mountain witch.

Gumball understood her discontent and animosity towards the little troll, which is exactly why he believed they should wait a little bit before approaching them. At least they still had Carrie's summoning to look forward to and there was at least some guarantee they would get some helpful information on the evil giants. Maybe they'll find a way to defeat them for good?

Before the cat could say something, a repetitive wailing sound like a siren was heard overhead followed shortly by the roar of jet thrusters and the two looked up to see what the sky's commotion was. Turns out, it was only Ocho and Bobert, chasing one another through the air and both were attacking one another. Ocho, who was bigger than his usual form was firing 8-bit white bolts from his sides while weaving up and down in a serpentine pattern while Bobert closed in from behind, dodging bolt after bolt while exchanging laser fire,

Ocho laughed maniacally as he dodged several laser blasts from his robotic pursuer,

"Keep firing all you want, you puny trash compactor, you'll never hit me!" he laughed as he swerved around another lance of red light,

"Maybe it will help if you switched to aimbot. Oh wait, was that insensitive." he continued to jeer at him as they soared through the sky.

Bobert ignored him and continued to train his optic on the slippery spider, all the while, his voice modulator made an electronic sound,

"I would not underestimate me you simple-minded, obsolete hack! Your accuracy is off by 78 percent and you wouldn't be able to hit the broadside of an oil tanker at arms length. Plus I have also analyzed your flight pattern while you were mocking me. Preparing non-lethal counter-measures!" he warned as a blaring alarm sounded and his display lit up in a dangerous red glow.

He began to fire a rapid stream of short laser pulses, causing the flying spider to panic and swerve in a crazy motion, much akin to a drunk helicopter pilot piloting said vehicle, all the while screaming and swearing loudly. Sadly these laser pulses were but a decoy as the real attack was unleashed in the form of two laser-guided stun missiles that sprang from a panel in the Robot's back. The two rocket propelled pieces of heavy ordinance streaked towards the spider sprite, who only looked on in absolute horror, as they detonated at close range and sent a shockwave that rattled the trees as well as Teri's house.

BOOM! BOOM!

And down Ocho went, making a death sound matching the Pac-man death cry as he flipped upside down and fell straight into the neighbor's yard. The sound of crunching leaves could be heard and a stunned Teri and Gumball were pretty sure that he fell into a pile of freshly raked leaves, at least they hoped so. Once his aerial foe had been defeated, Bobert disengaged his weapons system and looked at the two students once before giving them a single wave and jetting off to some other location.

The paper bear and blue cat listened as a shockwave could be heard from the robotic unit surpassing the sound barrier and they both turned to one another,

"Are they still going at it?" Teri asked, completely shocked that she had just witnessed the two having a scuffle over her neighborhood.

Gumball scratched the back of his head and shrugged in confusion,

"I guess. I remember that they started a rivalry last month and it doesn't seem like that's going away anytime soon. I think I saw them both at the mall today after we left _Dinner_." he said, wondering if that was the likely cause for their deadly aerobatics display.

That seemed to just about do it for Teri tonight, so she picked up her things and made her way to the door, which Gumball was polite enough to open for her,

"Thank you." she said as she passed him by and set her bags down in the landing area,

"I guess I'll be seeing you again on Monday?" she said as she whipped around.

Gumball crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe a little as a reassuring smile played across his lips,

"You know it! I hope you had a good time today?" he said.

She nodded and flashed him another smile, this one very warm,

"I did! Thank you for hanging out with me today, you're so much fun to be with!" and with that she leapt forward and gave him a fourth hug that day.

Dang he was really liking this and he squeezed her back with a bear hug of his own, almost lifting her off of her feet. Once she felt as though her breathing had been cut off, Gumball released her and she gave him one last look,

"Have a good night!" she exclaimed.

"And you as well! See you at school on Monday!" he swore.

The two stood in the door frame for a bit, keeping their eyes on each other, neither of them really wanting to leave or accepting that the day was over. They had so much fun together today, that both of them were thinking up something else to say just to prolong the little moment as much as possible and just wanted to stay together. Unfortunately, Teri promised to help her mother out with the dishes tonight and Gumball had to be home so he could vacuum the living per mom's orders.

This reality came crashing down on them at the sound of Teri's mom calling her from the bedroom and asking if she was home. She hollered back, claiming that she was before she sent Gumball off with one last hug and the door was shut behind her. This left Gumball standing by himself in the Pepakuma's driveway and while he was about to turn around to head home, Yui must have said something embarrassing because the next thing Gumball heard coming from the house was a mortified scream from Teri,

"MOOOOOMMMMM!" and he wondered what it was she said that caused her to burst like that.

Homeward bound, the lonely blue cat walked with his ears and tail perked, almost swishing actually. He was so happy today, he'd never had this much fun since Penny's departure and seeing Teri looking so happy during those various moments, just put the kid in a happier mood altogether. He felt as light as a feather, his heart was making all sorts of rapid beats, he was purring like an engine and nothing could bring him down now! He was invincible!

He had a resolve now, he knew what he was going to do on Monday now and even though it was going to take him a lot of courage, he was going to do it! The next time he saw her in class, he was going to tell her how he really felt. That's right, on Monday he will go straight up to her and tell her that he loves her. He knew that he was still a little broken up over Penny, but he couldn't help it anymore, he'd been falling for Teri for a while now.

It was time to start embracing the future and he wasn't going to let his past affect them both,

"Oh! Speaking of…" he muttered to no one, but the air as he paused in his tracks.

Placing his bags in one hand, he fished his phone out of his pocket and dialed his mom's number. There was an audible ringing sound that followed and a click could be heard from the other end of the line. A feminine voice spoke up and with only one word, Gumball knew it was his mom,

"Hey, sweetie! How's your day been?" she asked right away.

Gumball could have bounced to the moon and back as a means of answering, but somehow remained composed,

"It was fantastic! How are you doing?" he quickly responded, his mind running a mile a minute.

"That's so wonderful to hear, Gumball! I'm glad you had a good time with Teri and as for me, I had a pretty decent time. Just got back from picking Anais up from her friend's place and I'm on my way with Richard to pick up some pizza for dinner tonight." there was a loud rumbling noise through the phone's speakers as a car passed by and his mom's voice could be heard again,

"Would you like us to come pick you up, seeing as we're already out and about?" she offered politely.

Gumball shook his head, even though he knew that she couldn't see him on the other side and began rapidly chattering again,

"Yeah, yeah, that would be awesome! Also, there's something else I would like to do." he replied.

"What's that, sweetie?" she asked.

"Is it possible that tomorrow evening, you could teach me some Karate?" he finally asked, as he grabbed his swishing tail with his bag hand.

 **A/N: Finished! What's that I see on the horizon? Oh my goodness, the ships are sailing, the ships are sailing! This has been another fine chapter written and once again I'm exhausted.**

 **For starters, everyone's reaction to the destruction wrought upon San Francisco. Most of the student body isn't exactly phased by the attacks mainly due to the fact that mass destruction is something they're kind of used to, given the Watterson's crazy antics. Although Miss Simian has indeed retired from school and I wonder why that may be, hmmm? Everyone else is a little spooked for sure and the rest of the world outside of Elmore is reeling from the tragedy that occurred that day.**

 **Groups such as the** _ **Human Front**_ **for example, are especially riled up and we finally have a confirmed name within the group, Nero. I wonder what role this vile group of despicable human beings will play later in the story and who will this Nero person be? Another time, perhaps.**

 **As for the elephant in the room, Fjel Jotenheim, husband of Mrs. Jotenheim and father of Hector Jotenheim, the mystery is finally revealed! Well almost, there's still much to explore on this character. So yeah, basically his powers are great and so are his son's, but unlike his child, he must rest a lot in order to maintain his colossal form and to clear something up, his powers do not reach beyond the barrier world in the void. The barrier world serves as a resting place for his mind which contains an immense index of magic, both ancient and modern, that he can guard easily with his powers. The Nephilim cannot enter this library without Fjel's permission, but they can enter the void as long as they know where the entrance is.**

 **The two anomalies mentioned by the Nephilim in previous chapters were indeed Hector and the Void entrance, these are what they are targeting.**

 **As for Rob's home being presented in Fjel's dream, this was something I was planning for a while now and honestly, I wasn't sure how I wanted to execute it. The goal was to have Rob meet Fjel in the shape of Rob's father and to have the latter exchange important information to him on how to cure himself and Rachel of the void's curse. This is now where Rob's true journey begins and as a side note, when I first saw Rob's smiling picture in the TAWOG website, my first thought was "this kid wants to be an astronaut when he grows up, I can just tell by the look on his face." so, that's why his room and videogames were all space based. Just a fun fact.**

 **When I thought about who Rachel would hang out with as an afterschool clique, I first thought of some fanart and paired her up with Clare Cooper. Then I thought it would be better if she were part of a trio because three's company too, you know what I'm saying? So, I came up with an OC straight afterwards and I always thought that snakes were beautiful and Agathe also sounds like a snake name, so that's how I created Sissy Clementine. I thought her having an unusual obsession with the color green would make her seem more quirky.**

 **I also loved the idea of the girls meeting up with Teri and giving her a complete makeover, so that scene was just adorable throughout the entire writing process.**

 **Okay, wrapping this up, we're now leaving the familiar abodes of chapter eleven and venturing boldly into chapter twelve, "At universe's end." and this chapter is going to be spectacular, so stay tuned when that one comes out.**

 **Have an awesome day you guys, leave a comment and review down below and stay Fantastic!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: At universe's end**

Teri x Gumball

 **A/N: Hello, hello, hello, hellooooo! My single man quartet right there, give a round of applause if you thought that impression was nice! Anyhow, first impressions aside, this is a very special chapter of the Romantic/fantasy of Teri x Gumball: In between worlds. I wonder what will happen and what does this foreboding title mean? Let's find out as we dive into the chapter.**

 **Thank you for your support by the way, I've been loving all the messages, discussions, and drawings you guys have been doing for my story. All of you are so, so awesome and if you're just a casual reader, then you too are amazing because you took the time out of your busy day to read this. Thank you so very much!**

 **Also special shoutout to DevilMegaUltraMan for being the first to message me about** _ **Under the stethoscope**_ **being a reference to** _ **Scrubs**_ **. I was really worried that no one was going to get that one, I really love that show!**

 **Side note: Chalon = Window in Hebrew.**

 **Please leave a comment and fav down below and if you have any criticism you'd like to share, please do so!**

 **(I do not own The Amazing World of Gumball. All rights belong to Ben Bocquelet, the staff, Cartoon Network, and other respective owners.)**

 _We'll run where lights won't chase us,_

 _Hide where love can save us,_

 _I will never let you go!_

 _-Spectrum by Zedd_

 _-Elmore Park, October 9th, 2013, 4:55 PM-_

"Move it, Rob!" Gumball grunted as he pushed the cyclops out of the way of an oncoming boulder.

He was very successful and not only did the boulder crash into the grass covered Earth and not their faces, but Gumball was able to hurl the rock back at the attacking Nephilim hanging in the sky. With his superhuman strength, throwing the boulder was as easy as chucking a baseball, but the Nephilim's portal proved to be very effective, yet again, in neutralizing the threat. Gumball and Rob cursed at the floating creature and drew up a defensive stance.

Having his scythe raised, Gumball kept an eye on the skyborne giant and spoke to Rob,

"Rob, fall back to the tree line and try taking out its eyes, see if it works at a distance!" he ordered and the cyclops nodded his helmet covered head in response before doing as he was told.

"Beware of that boulder though, he still has it in clutches somewhere and he'll try to use it when your back is turned!" Rob warned as he retreated.

Gumball nodded back and kept his guard up, not wanting to get creamed by an accelerated chunk of mass. His one eyed companion was wearing a Kevlar armored vest he had "acquired" from the police station that he raided at the beginning of summer and a motorcycle helmet that obscured his face. He was still avoiding the police after that incident at the _Joyful Burger_ restaurant nearly three weeks ago and was risking a lot by coming out here in the open park, especially with his pistol-like rail cannon.

As for Teri and himself, they too were wearing different outfits today, to help avert the attention of others. Gumball was wearing a black zip up hoodie with two green stripes running along the arms and shoulders, an orange T-shirt with the _Ninja Legion_ logo printed on the front, and some black cargo shorts. Teri was wearing a green paper shirt with black horizontal stripes, a light white hoodie was worn over her shirt, she also wore a skirt that was drawn on with a few ruffles added for texture and some shaded in leggings that had star-shaped holes on the knees.

Gumball carefully pulled out his phone and called his other companion, who was also in the sky,

"Teri, have you figured out a weakness on that thing, yet? I think I see a car pulling in and if it's a family then we're going to have to wrap this up fast!" he kept his voice calm, but his panic was starting to rise when he saw a red Jeep starting to pull into the park's parking space.

Teri's voice came in through the speaker and the first thing she did was grunt in frustration,

"No, that Nephilim's got eyes surrounding it's entire body and the only thing I can confirm looks like a weak point is that core at its center." things were sounding very grim and Gumball could hear it in her tone.

"Thanks for the update. We'll try to draw it further away from the open grounds and I'm going to see if Rob can obscure it's vision, maybe that'll work." he replied before hanging up and he looked the Nephilim up and down again.

It was another strange one, lacking an actual "body" per say, the fearsome giant was a pair of golden rings with one set inside the other and tilting at different angles. On the outer edge of these rings were emerald green eyes that watched the defenders of Elmore carefully, giving it a 360 degree view of the battlefield and making it very hard to sneak up on the creature. The eyes also served as its primary weapon and defense, wherever an eye looked, a shadow of said eye would appear on the designated area and would generate a portal that would pull any kind of material into an unknown realm before ejecting the object via another portal, typically at high speeds.

They've been fighting it for seven minutes now and neither of them have been able to score a hit on the darn thing, but the good news was, it didn't seem capable of generating more than eight portals at a time. Rob deduced that this may have been due to the amount of energy required to generate these gates, but in reality, it was anyone's guess as to why this was. For all they knew, it could just be cautious and waiting to figure them out before unleashing a barrage of overwhelming strikes.

"Aw shoot!" Gumball exclaimed as he spotted the silhouette of an eye hovering above him.

He leapt backwards as the eye's iris widened into a portal and out came the boulder he chucked at it, raining down at high velocity like a stray meteor. The rock broke the ground as it landed, sending dirt flying in all directions like a blast from a cannonball and Gumball was on the move once again. He noticed a glowing light forming in front of its core, a spherical object that matched the color of its skin that levitated in the center of its concentric rings, and from this light multiple bolts of green energy shot out seemingly in no particular direction.

That was until he saw the second portal and watched as the green bullets disappeared within the gaping hole. Then he saw Teri riding atop her origami sparrow and when the Nephilim started shifting its inner ring to focus its eyes on her, Gumball's eyes widened in terror. He quickly dialed up Rob, who was already in the forest area of the park and obscured from sight,

"Rob, we need a smoke screen on that Neph ASAP!" Gumball called into the phone.

"Roger!" was his reply and there was a click soon after.

Meanwhile, the beast itself was already locking onto its airborne prey and Teri could see this clearly. She had a hydro-trident rune at the ready as well as a moon barrier rune for defense, what she wasn't seeing was the portal opening up behind her. Rushing up for an all out attack, Gumball shouted at the flying Pepakuma,

"TERI, BEHIND YOU!"

Luckily she was close enough to catch that and without even spinning her head to confirm Gumball's warning, she willed the sparrow to dive, just as a stream of glowing green projectiles tore out from the empty space behind her. Her bird's tail got grazed by the first energy bolt, charring it a bit, but for the most part, she was still flying. On the ground, she could see Gumball leaping at incredible heights, heading towards the floating spirit with his scythe already burning with silver energy.

From the forest, Rob eyeballed the shot and pulled the trigger. There was an electronic hum and the copper projectile was launched on a rail through a series of electro-magnetic accelerators. Moving faster than sound, the enchanted bullet reached the Nephilim before Gumball closed the halfway point and a cloud of smoke erupted from the copperhead, blinding everything within an inky black vapor.

Although, Gumball couldn't see the Nephilim anymore, he knew where it was and discharged the grey fire in a deadly, amplified swinging arc. At the same time, Teri launched her hydro-trident right into the smoke cloud and the water formed fishing spear sailed right into a blackened, unknown fate. Seconds later, however, two portals opened up behind them and a wave of grey fire shot out towards Teri and Gumball's head was nearly skewered by three icy tips. The two barely dodged an untimely death by their own attacks and when the smoke threatened to clear up, Rob unloaded a newly equipped magazine of Mica shatter arrow runes into the Nephilim's general vicinity.

The enchanted projectiles darkened and shattered into dozens of arrows comprised of the grey, layered stone with a pearly luster. Multiple arrows were swallowed up in the eight portals, but some actually made it through and struck the Nephilim in the eyes, causing five to shatter. The Nephilim was angered by this and moved its rings out of the smog where it could see everything clearly once again, looks like relying solely on its spirit senses wasn't going to cut it.

Teri caught onto what had happened and formulated a plan,

"It's got excellent vision and senses, but it can't take overwhelming firepower, especially when it can't see very clearly." she realized and flew down to where Gumball was now standing, having landed after leaping up to attack the sky rings.

He spotted her approaching and made way for her to land, he still felt happy whenever he saw her. He told himself that he was going to confess his feelings towards her on Monday, but it was Wednesday now and he hadn't managed to utter so much as a peep about it. In all honesty, it was because he kept chickening out at the last second, he would get all flustered when he approached her and whenever she spoke, he would make a buffoon of himself trying to think of a topic that wasn't about _that_.

He wanted to tell her today after school when there were very few people around to see how badly he would mess up, but then they got a call from Rob about the Nephilim showing up at the park and they had to head on out. Seriously, of all the times these dastardly deviants could show up, they wait for nearly three weeks and then show up during one of the biggest internal dilemmas of his life!? What a lousy way to end school, but at least Miss Simian wasn't teaching anymore, so there's one bucket of stress never coming back.

He watched Teri make her way up to him after dismounting from her ride and Gumball found his eyes locking back onto the Nephilim, which had hovered to another spot to begin attacking them.

"Find anything?" he asked, referring to the ringed monstrosity.

Teri nodded and gave a simple _mmm-hmm_ , before spelling out her plan,

"Yeah, it can't take too many hits and it's senses can be obscured if its eyes are covered-!" she jumped back as a portal opened up in front of them and a slew of mica arrows came racing towards them both.

Luckily, Gumball reacted quick enough and used the scythe's enhanced speed to get in between the incoming projectiles and Teri, spinning his scythe in a circle to destroy all of them,

"So we need another smoke screen from Rob and I guess you want him to unload another barrage too?" he inferred, swatting away the last arrow.

He was on point and Teri nodded in agreement, pointing to her bag as well to say something,

"I can also distract it if I make several paper airplanes, but that's going to take me a minute." she explained.

Gumball shot her his cockiest grin and a fire was lit in his eyes, he knew he could make her plan work,

"Rob and I will give you all the time you need!" he exclaimed confidently and he wondered how can he appear so confident in front of the girl he loves, but turn to jelly the moment he tries to confess to her. The Nephilim should be the scariest thing he'd encountered all day and not the overbearing dread of possibly being rejected.

Actually both were pretty terrifying in their own right.

He didn't notice the boulder being hurled at him from the side, but was saved by his very competent paper partner when she hurled a paper shuriken she had formed before entering the battle and watched as the explosive rune reduced the flying rock into smouldering fragments of charred bits. Gumball was utterly impressed by her quick reaction time and he caught her flashing him a wily smile before taking off towards her sparrow again,

"Keep your eyes open, dork!" she called back to him, her voice almost flirty.

Gumball merely chuckled and rested his scythe on his shoulder, shooting her another silly look,

"As you wish, captain Pepakuma!" he responded and he saw her give a shake of her head while a hidden smile formed on her bear-like features.

Soon she took off into the air again and Gumball was back on the move, he called Rob and explained to him Teri's plan, which he was all in for,

"Alright, I'll keep the smoke screen up and use my drone to lay down some cover fire. Keep an eye out for any retaliations and when Teri makes her move, I say you should make a direct line for the Neph's core and take it out." he further explained.

Gumball found that plan to be satisfactory and spoke his agreement into the phone,

"Okay, we should be done with this in about three minutes and you'll be able to make it back just in time for lunch with that neighbor you've been flirting with." he said with a snicker, having been told by Teri about her encounter with Rachel at the mall and used that knowledge to tease Rob relentlessly through spamming texts.

Rob's angered screech could be heard from the other end and even across the park as he gave the running blue cat an earful,

"For crying out loud, Watterson! If you make one more comment towards Rachel and I, then I'm switching your name to Pooh the toilet scrubber in the city's official database!" he threatened before hanging up.

Gumball snickered some more and kept up with the Nephilim's barrage of energy bolts, using his superior speed and strength to dodge and deflect each attack. This went on for a bit and from the treelines, Rob fired round after round of smoke shade runes at the Nephilim, while a remote controlled EMP resistant quad-rotor drone sent from Rob's pack began to fire rune tipped explosive rounds at the Nephilim trapped within the cloud. The double ringed entity spun itself in a rapid fashion trying to catch every projectile it could and send it back to the source or towards the racing feline just outside the smoke screen.

Meanwhile, Teri tore paper after paper out of her spare notebook, forming each one into a well-crafted paper airplane and laying each one at her feet. She was a ways away from the battle and she could hear the various explosions being set off by the boys as well as the retaliatory blasts coming from the Nephilim, causing her to hurry. She could guide the planes a little bit with her own ability and once they were swarming the giant in a chaotic fashion, it should give either Gumball or Rob an ample opportunity to deal a devastating blow.

In her bag she also had an extra large sheet with three moon barriers drawn onto it, she really liked how it provided Gumball and her a dome of protective energy against Gorothim's strikes and wanted to make sure her allies and herself could be safe in case the monster tried anything new. She also kept in mind that there was possibly a family approaching and she may need to protect them as well. They were both smart to wear different clothes today, as it should keep some suspicions low, but they weren't one hundred percent covered, not like Rob at least.

"There, done!" Teri breathed as she looked upon her assembled army of thirty paper airplanes.

She gathered them all up and took to the skies, back to where the deadly conflict was starting to heat up.

The problem with obscuring an enemy from sight was that it was very hard to predict what they were going to do and the only thing keeping Gumball from being torn to shreds by the Nephilim's counterattacks was the training his mother gave him on Sunday. She didn't teach him much in the way of combat, they spent most of the evening doing exercises and some basic techniques, but the hard work helped trim Gumball's body and honed his senses a little bit more. Having practiced all the way up to now, Gumball was a step better at acting reflexively and was dodging each rapid fire attack the Nephilim dished out from the inky cloud.

Rob's drone was eventually taken down by a stray shot that clipped two of its rotors and the beast sent the device flying through the trees after swallowing it up in a portal. Following soon after, Gumball was caught off guard when several explosive shells that were captured from Rob's drone were deposited at high speed directly at him and the resulting explosions knocked Gumball off of his feet. His head hit the ground hard and a grunt followed by a pained groan escaped his lips, but at least nothing was broken. Well, there was a ringing in his ears that was persistently annoying him, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Flying high, Teri spotted the action happening below and began to send every plane she had to the blinded Nephilim,

"Alright let's see you keep track of all of these!" she said with a maniacal grin as she tossed another plane into the air.

The swarm of light, unmanned aircraft banked around in a single file line and entered the monster's smoke field, causing it to react in surprise as it sent plane after plane into the portal dimension and out in some other direction, keeping the flying crafts away from its core in fear of a sneak attack. Unfortunately, it had forgotten about the little blue figure that was getting back up onto his feet and was glaring at the Nephilim with a set of hungry, determined eyes.

"Team attack: paper cut!" he said to himself as she switched the blade to an outward facing position and charged in at the monster.

His vision was cut out the moment he entered the gaseous cover provided by the cyclops, but when he saw several flashes of light, he could see that the double wheel Nephilim was blasting the paper airplanes out of the air rather than just teleporting them away. It didn't even notice him traveling underneath its central body and Gumball knew that Teri's plan had it fooled.

Standing underneath the core now, Gumball readied his weapon and charged it with thirty percent of his energy, the highest he could go without exhausting himself in a matter of minutes. Next, he felt a buildup of power in his legs and with a single pounce he rocketed up to the spherical object set hundreds of feet above him. Soon, the flying kitten was leveled with the Nephilim's heart and he could see that the golden object was just as big as him. Through the darkness, he could see his full body reflection and his grinning face on the surface as he prepared the finishing move,

"Die and don't ever come back!" he shouted before he swung hard like a batter hitting a pitch.

The curved blade sunk into the core like a silver fang and a geyser of grey fire erupted through the gash, burning and cutting farther into the Nephilim's real body. The death of the creature was signaled when the core turned black and its golden sheen began to lose its luster. Gumball dropped to the ground, swinging his scythe in a circle around his wrist before bringing it to a rest on his shoulders.

However, the Nephilim wasn't finished and had one last move, a last ditch attack from beyond the grave. From the gash on its core, a ray of light pierced the darkness of Rob's smoke bomb and its two rings glowed with brilliant intensity. With the light of a sun burning into Gumball's eyes, the shocked kitten quickly threw his arm over his sensitive orbs and tried desperately to blot out the blinding spectacle.

" _Something's wrong! I thought I killed it?!"_ he thought in alarm.

Soon from the core, a portal opened and expanded to the length of the outer ring, which had a diameter of one hundred feet. From the other side, outer space could be seen and within an instant the vacuum began to pull everything within the portal's range into space. Everything including the smoke, blades of grass, dirt, rocks and even poor Gumball was pulled upwards towards the large opening.

Gumball screamed like he never had in his life and quickly sank his scythe into the ground, hoping to keep himself anchored. His blade seemed to catch a root and secured the flying cat boy in place as he was lifted by the force of the vacuum towards the portal. The wind screamed around him, causing his ears to pop, his eyes to water and he even found the air being drawn from his lungs, making it very hard to breathe.

To make matters worse, despite all the agony he was feeling, nothing compared to the fright he felt when he felt the weapon's sharp edge start to cut through the root and gave way to the extraordinary force that was pulling him skyward.

Having landed not too long after throwing all of her paper airplanes, she tucked her origami away in her bag and got ready to help Gumball if need be, but stopped when she noticed something odd. Teri saw the glowing light from Rob's smoke bomb cloud and seconds later the vaporous blanket was sucked away as though a giant suction device had pulled it from the air itself. She thought that it was another trick brought on by the Nephilim and she was right, only to find something far more dire. Her eyes shot open with horror as her pupils shrunk to pea-sized dots when she spotted Gumball holding for his life as a portal, bigger than any of the ones she had seen the Nephilim use, threatened to pull him into space!

She didn't know how it was doing this, but that hardly mattered as Gumball's life was in danger,

"GUMBALL, NO!" she shrieked and she took off towards him.

She pumped her legs as hard as she could, seeing that every second that passed, Gumball's scythe's hold on the Earth weakened ever so slightly and threatened to send the young child tumbling to his death. While she ran, she reached into her bag and pulled out an extra large sheet of paper, the one with the three barrier runes on it, and started willing the paper to reform itself. She knew she that once she reached him, she wouldn't be able to pull him out because she too would be pulled in with him and it already weighed in on her mind that this was a one-way trip for both of them.

It didn't matter though, she loved him and that was all it took to force herself to move faster. If they were both pulled out into space, then she could save them and come back to Earth. The bubble should keep them safe and provide a necessary environment against the hostile territory they were about to enter.

With a final tug from the escaping air, Gumball's scythe tore through the single root he had caught himself on and like an invisible hand, he was yanked upwards towards an icy oblivion, devoid of any air or life. Gumball let out a final scream as he flailed about and closed his eyes for the inevitable. Seconds later, however, Teri reached the portal and was pulled in as well, feeling her paper body slam into his own as they were both pulled upwards.

Her origami, a paper device shaped like a four-pointed star wrapped around them both and closed up in a pyramid, like a flower when the sun has set. Moving quickly, Teri willed the rune to operate and around the paper craft she assembled, a transparent bubble materialized, encasing the two children and the paper craft within an airtight space. Not too long after, the bubble was pulled in through the opening, which closed behind them in a single flash of light, and just like that, the Nephilim, some Earth, and the two kids were gone.

From where the trees were, Rob stood still, unable to wrap his mind around what just happened, heck, he wasn't even sure what he saw was real and wondered if this was all a dream. He just saw his two Nephilim fighting allies, the ones who have been defending Elmore since the very first ones showed up, and the ones who had been kind enough to let him into their group with no real expectations disappear into a portal that, from the looks of it, lead to the stars. That couldn't be right, if they were pulled into outer space then that would mean that they were…

"No…" Rob muttered to himself, shaking his head and grasping both sides of it, his rail cannon falling to the ground,

"No, no, no, no, no, this can't be… this can't…" his pupil shrank in terror and guilt started to form in his mind when he realized that he could have saved them.

He could have fired a barrier rune above them, he had plenty of those, some were even larger than the opening itself and he could've gotten it to them in less than a fraction of a second. He could have ordered Gumball to get back and take the Nephilim out himself with a powerful destruction spell. The teleportation rune he had with him wasn't even known to the two, he could have assured their safe return. He could have done _literally anything else_ to save them from an untimely death and he just sat there like a useless lump because…

He thought Gumball could do it, that was the only reason why, he sat back and let Gumball take the shot because that's what he was used to.

Seconds passed by and turned into minutes while he just stood there, not even noticing how much time was passing. He didn't even care if anyone spotted him, he could care less if even the police showed up and took him away for his crimes. The scene replayed itself over and over in his mind and the polygonal grey cyclops knew that it could have been prevented somehow.

His bottom soon found the grass covered ground and he wondered what he was going to do now. The mad inventor had a lot going on right now and he wasn't even sure if he could defend the city against the Nephilim on his own. He could try to enlist the help of Hector, but Fjel said that he needed more time to train and he had also gotten the message from Gumball that Mrs. Jotenheim didn't want her son getting involved with the giants anyway.

If that didn't make things bad enough as it was, what was he going to tell their parents? Surely they would notice that their children have gone missing and while he didn't know much about the Pepakumas, he did know for a fact that the Watterson's were not ones to take such news lightly, especially his mother. Surely, they would blame him for their deaths and to the cyclops trying to explain to both families that their children were caught up in a secret war against evil, invisible giants was a mountain in of itself to climb.

There had to be some way to fix this and he pondered his options as he sat by himself on the grassy hill. When his thoughts turned to magic, something hit him and his head shot up from its hunched position. There were two, maybe three, people he could turn to for help, depending on the situation. He saw Teri encapsulate them both in a barrier rune before they were whisked away into the cosmos, if they were still alive then it was all just a matter of finding them.

If not and it was too late to save them, then there was one person who could help him reverse things…

"I know what I must do!" he proclaimed boldly, clenching his fists as he stood tall.

He reached down and retrieved his long ranged weapon from the ground before pulling a familiar turquoise disk from his pocket. The disk had a spiral rune carved into one side and would allow Rob instantaneous travel to any location he desired, so long as he could picture it clearly in his head. He clutched the device tightly in his hand and concentrated as he poured his spiritual energy into the symbol, soon a portal opened up into his bedroom at the duplex,

"They may have about an hour of air left so I have to hurry. There's also the danger that they could run out of energy too and the barrier's structure will-!" he cut himself off before he could finish that sentence. He had a mission to complete.

With his goals set, he stepped through the portal and the opening closed behind him. Unbeknownst to the cyclops, he left just as a group of kids began to enter the park and began to investigate the area. Among them, a ghostly girl watched the hill nervously as she tagged along with her group and hoped that the figure she saw wasn't anyone she knew.

 _-outer space, 5:12 PM-_

In the far reaches of space, a single window opening to a little blue planet ejected an unusual craft contained within a magical bubble of spiritual energy and the window closed not too long after, leaving the little object to drift as it carried itself with its own motion. The spacecraft's two occupants felt the Earth's gravity immediately diminish, causing both the boy and girl to float about the enclosed space. There wasn't much room in this miniscule capsule of paper, barely enough for both kids to stretch their legs, but regardless of the uncomfortable circumstances they found themselves in, Gumball and Teri were glad to be alive, for now at least.

Gumball gasped as soon as he opened his eyes and he frantically searched about the cramped room he found himself in. He thought that he was carried out into space, but as soon as he laid eyes on the trembling paper puppet that was hugging him ever so tightly with one arm, as well as the paper walls that enclosed them, he realized what had happened and the only thing that came was a sense of relief for the lucky kitty.

He looked at Teri again and saw that she was no longer trembling, instead now looking about the ship's tiny cabin,

"Wha- what happened?" Gumball stammered, still somewhat frightened considering they were weightless, a clear indicator that they were trapped in space.

It took a moment for the paper bear to collect her thoughts, she looked at Gumball and saw that he was in good shape, filling her with a sense of bliss,

"I… I saw you being pulled into a portal and I came to save you." there was a pause before a look of regret wrote itself on her features as she sighed,

"I knew I wasn't going to be able to pull you out and there was no time to think of anything, so I just ran while creating this-" she gestured at the pyramid shaped craft they were in,

"-to keep us both safe. I didn't know what else to do." she explained regretfully.

She felt a pair of arms wrap themselves around her torso and a furry cheek brushed hers, a sniffle could be heard from the cat causing Teri to realize that he was on the verge of crying,

"Thank you." he sobbed,

"When that portal opened up above me, I thought for sure I was going to die this time, but you… you…" he broke down now. He wasn't crying tears of sadness, but rather tears of joy, the joy of being rescued by someone he loved.

Without gravity to pull them down, his tears collected themselves into large globules that clung to his eyes, forcing the cat to wipe them away with his hand. All the while he cried, Teri held him close and felt herself too start to cry. She was happy as well, happy that she was alive and so was he, she had saved him, so what reason was there to be sad?

For awhile they just let it all out and continued to cling to one another as they slowly bounced from one wall to the next. It was kind of an awkward feeling to be floating about like this, but Gumball was certain he felt this feeling before, like he had been in a microgravity environment and he just couldn't quite place it. Eventually they dried their tears and Teri looked to the rear of the paper craft where the base of the pyramid widened into a pillow-sized square that had the barrier runes drawn on its surface,

"I'm not sure how long that's gonna last with my energy pouring into it, but it's the only thing keeping air inside this place." she said with a worried sigh.

The moment Gumball saw what she was talking about, it made sense to him how they were still able to breathe and he looked down at the scythe he was still clutching in his hand,

"Oh, I can take over, if you'd like?" he offered, closing his weapon up in order to prevent any accidental punctures within the capsule's hull.

Teri looked at him with a vexed expression and a silent _huh?_ formed on her lips,

"Wait, you'd actually do that?" she questioned as though he were asking to hold an umbrella for her on a rainy day.

Gumball nodded and smiled reassuringly,

"Of course, I'm really good at controlling my spiritual energy right now! I can keep the shield going at just five percent and it will be hours until I run out!" he explained while pointing at the collapsed stock of his scythe to further illustrate his point.

Teri had to keep herself from smacking her own head for forgetting that Gumball had been working hard on honing his scythe's powers because the thing itself drew out on Gumball's energy while amplifying it as well,

"Oh, okay, yeah that makes sense! Why don't you do that while I draw up some windows so we can see what's on the outside." she suggested.

Gumball gave her a salute and put his scythe in his bag before placing his hand on the barrier runes,

"Absolutely, captain Pepakuma of the _U.S.S. Papercat_!" he grinned in a silly manner as Teri rolled her eyes and blushed.

"You're ridiculous and I'm surprised that you didn't name the Nephilim we fought today." she remarked.

While she worked her way to the front, Gumball concentrated and released his energy, much like he would his grey fire rune, into the three symbols, overriding Teri's control. Outside the barrier expanded in size and held steady under Gumball's influence. Pulling out a marker, Teri began to draw on some windows that covered the entire front half of the craft so that they could both have a greater field of view and listened as Gumball answered her earlier statement,

"Actually, I already have a name for the Nephilim: Throne." he announced.

While Teri drew on the second window on the second face, she spoke back to him, curious in his choice of names,

"Why Throne?" she asked, carefully making a straight line that ran from one edge to the other.

Gumball flipped back to a recent memory and explained,

"Well, mainly because it looked like one of those angelic servants of Jade depicted in some of his scriptures. They're called his celestial beasts and there is a cast of them called "Thrones" which look almost exactly like the Nephilim we encountered today only that they're supposed to be on fire." he took his hand off the barrier rune, now having full control of the spell and needing only to keep diverting his energy to it,

"It was either that, or I could have just named it Beyonce, since it had two rings meaning she must've really liked it." he said with a short laugh.

Teri laughed too and shook her head for the umpteenth time, this boy and his jokes. Soon the task was completed and Teri willed the windows to become transparent. She did the same thing once with a paper craft replica of an SR-71 Blackbird after they had defeated Concretin on the bridge so many weeks ago and Teri wasn't sure if this ability was an offshoot of her mother's or if her father had an ability that he hasn't shared yet. Regardless, the entire front half of the ship faded into a transparent point and the kids were struck with the most incredible view ever placed before them.

Spreading before them like an infinite blanket was a sea of stars! Trillions upon trillions of bright specs of light, twinkling and dotting the black canvas like a mad artist spraying pure light on his work. It was chaotic, seemingly formless and from another point, they could both see a red Nebula exploding in a brilliant red plume of cosmic gas, the remains of stars long since dead. It was the same view all around, no matter where they looked and if the ship wasn't here, Gumball and Teri could've sworn that they would fall if they stepped out into this breathtaking abyss.

There was absolutely no words either could use to describe the universe's majesty and to them, the craft felt even smaller than before.

As beautiful and glorious as it all was, there was one problem to be found in this infinite horizon or rather couldn't be and that was their precious Earth. No matter where the two looked, there was nothing in sight that resembled their little blue globe or any celestial body for that matter that could have belonged in their solar system. While Gumball never studied the constellations during his geography, history and mythology classes, Teri, being an astute learner, knew of several constellations, yet there were none to be found here.

A bead of sweat made its way down her back and the paper bear kept looking for anything that would give some indication as to where they were, but still came up empty-handed,

"Um, where are we?" she asked, although she suspected that her partner had no answers for her, seeing as even she couldn't make heads or tails of their location.

Unfortunately, Gumball did know where they were and a feeling of utter despair so great, so soul crushing was brought down on him from the dark recesses of his mind. After carefully inspecting the crimson nebula that was to the craft's right for a few seconds, his scrutiny was awarded with a memory not so distant and he realized without a doubt, he had seen this place before. He turned to Teri and gulped as his brow trickled with perspiration,

"Teri, I know where we are…" he trailed off, still feeling the darkness that was dread clouding his mind.

Surprised and somewhat relieved, Teri's head spun so fast that a gust of wind was generated from the motion, her eyes wide and curious,

"What? How do you know?" she asked, her mind boggled.

Gumball swallowed again, he wasn't even sure if he had the stomach to tell her, but he knew that if he didn't then nothing would really change their doomed situation, and so like a band-aid being ripped off, he went through with it,

"A while back when I was hanging out with Carrie and Darwin, I once took a look through Colin's glasses and believe it or not, this place is the exact place I saw back then." he explained, his tone low and his eyes devoid of light.

Teri cocked an eyebrow and arched her head to the side a little, she knew of the egghead Gumball was referring to and was surprised that his eyewear was beyond that of normal prescription glasses, but then again their world was a strange one, so she chose to focus on the present issue,

"So where are we then?" she repeated a second time, now directing her question at Gumball.

Here it comes. The little blue furball was already dreading the moment as it was, but at this point, he had already succumbed to the horrific realization that wasn't bound to change any time soon.

He sighed and directed her attention towards the nebula with his pointer finger, speaking with a grim tone,

"That, right there, is the edge of the universe, Teri. We're billions of lightyears away from home." he replied.

 _-Elmore Park, 5:22 PM-_

Anais inspected the ground carefully, noting the large patch of freshly dug up Earth, no, it wasn't dug up, it was _torn_ like some powerful force ripped the very spot from existence and from the surrounding area, none of it was in sight. It was just gone, like that, swallowed up into nothingness. There were other notable abnormalities in the given area as well, rocks that have been flung at high speeds into the dirt, smouldering craters of charred dirt and burnt grass that was still warm, and a few other things.

There was definitely a fight here and it happened recently too, Anais was sure of it,

"You're definitely right, Chimera, it was here." she called out to her partner and first real friend.

Chimera, a towering figure comprised of different toy parts cobbled together to form a body fitting of the name he was given, nodded in agreement and looked about with his dark, purple eyes,

"Uh, yeah, it was big too. It's outer ring was a hundred feet in diameter and the inner one was eighty feet, at least, I think, and it had eyes all over it too." he explained in a brass voice that sounded almost like a croaking frog.

He was very odd indeed, with a head of a shark topped with long, glossy black hair dyed red at the edges, a brick shaped body built up of multiple interlocking blocks that once displayed varying colors, but was now painted over with a jet black coat with some red stripes added in for extra flashiness, his right arm being that of an action figure's with a studded bracelet and his left being more skeletal with a circular buzzsaw attached at the end rather than a manipulator of sorts. He stood on mismatching legs, one of an orange, scaly dinosaur and the other being that of a doll's, both which connected at a waist piece that also had a green dragon's tail protruding from his rear.

He was happy with the new look that Macey and Anais so graciously gifted him, mainly as a means to help disguise him and because the two girls had fun playing with his hair whenever they visited him in Macey's shed, but he was still nervous being out in the open where everyone could see him,

"Are you sure no one is going to recognize me by the way?" he asked, glancing over at the pink bunny in the fedora and trench coat, smoking a pipe that blew bubbles.

Checking back up on her worrisome friend, Anais gave him a wide-eyed stare and perked her floppy ears up a little,

"Of course no one will recognize you, bud, you're way too cool looking to be recognized!" she said, adding a compliment to further boost his confidence.

He smiled a big toothy grin and Macey added in a compliment of her own to further assist,

"Yeah, these highlights look awesome and black is definitely your color, that mailman and cop were completely blown away by your appearance." she said from her perch on his back, referring to Harry Gedges and Doughnut Sheriff, whom they'd passed by on their way to the park.

Macey Barnes, Anais' first and only high school friend, was about her height and wore a dress similar to hers only sunshine yellow. She had Calico skin, meaning she was mostly white with patches of black and orange covering bits of her body. Her hair was frizzy and red and connected with her pointy beard she had growing on her chin, she also had to tufts of hair on her head that stuck out like horns, earning her the nickname "goat head" which neither Anais nor Chimera ever used.

She was manning a net gun that had been placed on the top of Chimera's back in order to assist with any captures. Her parents were monster hunters, who were in charge of capturing all the monsters from the forest of doom and making sure they don't pose a threat to the lives of those in Elmore. Their extreme lifestyle, added with the fact that they live out in the woods, is what resulted in Macey being a bit of a tomboy, but all her life she had been socially awkward and hadn't made any real friends to call her own until she recently met a certain pink bunny and a forest-dwelling monster that now resided in her parent's trap shack.

Also digging the living toy's style, Carrie gave him an approving nod as well as a thumbs up,

"Yeah, it totally completes the hot rod style you've got going on there." she said before looking around the field once more.

She was floating right next to Darwin, who was kneeling down and rubbing some burnt grass in between his fins, inspecting thoroughly even though he had no clue what he was looking at. Also out here in the park were some of her classmates including, Bobert, Ocho, Tina, Jamie, and Darwin, who have all been invited along to investigate after Chimera had a dream about the Nephilim's arrival in this very place. They were all spread out and looking for possible clues, to which Carrie was a little annoyed by because the Nephilim was already gone and she wanted to go home.

She had to keep her promise to Gumball and she couldn't risk them staying around any longer, 'less they actually find something,

"Guys, I don't think we're going to find anything here." she said in a huff while folding her arms in a disgruntled manner,

"I can't sense the thing anymore and whatever happened has already long since passed, so let's try investigating when the next one shows up." she sighed as she turned to her boyfriend, hoping to have his support.

Darwin however, was determined to find out what all of this was about and to see if his older sibling was up to something sinister, so there was no leaving until he had something within his flippers,

"What? We can't give up now!" his voice cracked as he shouted in surprise,

"The marks are still fresh and there's a good chance there are still traces of the fighters left behind, also I tried contacting Gumball and Teri after Macey called about Chimera's dream, they still haven't answered their phones." he grumbled as he got back on his knees and continued his search.

From a distance, Tina also yelled back to Carrie after listening to her suggest that they throw in the towel,

"And I'm not leaving either, not until I get some answers on the creature that attacked my father!" she roared.

"Yeah, and Mr. Corneille has been subbing in place of Ms. Simian, so now I have more of an excuse to stay out late and crack some invisible heads while I'm at it!" Jamie seconded and the two continued their hunt.

Macey, who was eyeing everything carefully from atop Chimera, was also disgusted by Carrie's lack of motivation and called back down to her,

"My uncle Rupert was also killed by those things, I'm sure of it!" she claimed, referring to her father's brother, who was also a hunter, but preferred small game like wild deer, who was killed on September 8th after going for a late night stroll in Elmore. The doctors claimed it was a heart failure, which was odd, given his age and the fact that he was completely healthy, plus there were signs that one of those things were nearby at the time.

Carrie sighed in defeat and continued to drift about in a fake attempt to find clues, although if she were to find a single hair or shred of paper, she would use her dark magic to burn it up. She had mastered a few spells in her spare time, but they were all pretty simple and straight-forward dark castings and she was happy with it, nonetheless. Up in the air, Bobert hovered and scanned the area with his sensors while Ocho continued to aggravate the machine,

"Make sure you don't miss anything, you pile of scrap! Wouldn't want to embarrass your manufacturers like you did during the field trip!" he spat, referring to when the droid was shut down during the first stages of the terror, due to some kind of electromagnetic interference.

The robot stopped scanning momentarily before pivoting his large head towards the annoying gamer spider,

"Negative. Such an error will not be repeated as I have installed EMP resistant software last Monday as a precaution and you were equally useless, both then and now." he replied, his electronic vocabulator sounding very much like irritation.

This caused the black assortment of cube-like bits to redden in anger and his constant back and forth movements became faster, more irritant,

"Oh yeah! And what exactly do your calculations tell you about me! You were switched off during the whole thing and for the record, I can do a much better job at finding things seeing as I have two eyes compared to your one!" the irate spider retorted.

A buzz much like a sigh was emitted from Bobert's speaker and he turned to Ocho again, this time with his display showing an angered expression,

"According to eyewitness testimonies provided by our fellow classmates, you evacuated the moment your being was in danger of being terminated and this came from three different people, two of which had been your assigned partners." he listed off the evidence gathered while a shocked Ocho grew redder by the minute,

"As for your concluding statement, it does not matter how many eyes you possess, your sense of observation is critically low, giving you less than 13 percent of a chance of finding target objects, and also, you have been sitting there the whole time making irritating quips about my appearance." he finished before going back to his scans.

Now Ocho was boiling with rage, he had been pushed beyond his limit by the robot's hurtful, yet truthful, comments and took what he said as a personal challenge. This has always been a problem for the rage-induced spider sprite, he had a fuse shorter than that of Julian Oppenheimer Jr's and anytime he felt insulted by someone who he deemed as untrustworthy, he would raise hell to get back at them in some shape or form, usually through aggression. He sped away from the wired student in a huff and went about the park to find something important,

"I'll show you, you smartphone knock off! I'll find something so important that it'll blow this case right out of the water and then I'll melt you down into a-!" he shouted over his metaphorical shoulder when Bobert unexpectedly chimed.

"Foreign object detected!" he announced with a warning display fully featured.

Everyone looked up in surprise, most were gleeful while Carrie was horrified and Anais asked,

"Where, Bobert?"

Bobert's head tilted in the direction of said object and broadcasted its exact location,

"Optical sensors indicate the unknown object is 142 feet away and elevated exactly 29 feet in the air." he said in a droning voice.

Everyone just looked up at him with utter bafflement as they tried to figure out what he meant and Bobert facepalmed with a metallic _clunk!_ before sighing and pointing at the forest line deep within the park itself,

"It's in that tree over there." he replied, simpler this time.

"I saw it first!" Ocho screamed in a panic.

Everyone looked in the direction Bobert was indicating and in one of the trees, they spotted what appeared to be a drone of sorts entangled in one of the upper branches. It was a simple black quad-rotor drone that one could find in the electronics store and from what some could see, there was some kind of weapon attached to it. Either way, this spelled good news for the bunny girl and the walking fish as they both leapt joyfully in the air,

"Yay!" they cheered and Anais scurried over to the forest line with a hand waving her friends over.

"Come on you guys! If that thing has a camera on it, then we can look at the footage and see who the suspects really are!" she exclaimed as she hurried on over with Darwin, Chimera, Macey, and Carrie in tow, the latter of which was looking about ready to start pulling her hair out.

She quickly zipped in front of them and stopped the charging kids in their tracks, who all gave her confused looks,

"Wait you guys!" she gasped, holding her hands out in front of her,

"That could just be any kid's toy, I've seen them play with these before and they always get them stuck up there. We can't just take it and go, what if they come back for it?" she asked, rubbing her hands together nervously as her eyes flicked back and forth between their faces.

They quietly glanced amongst one another in confusion and Anais gave Carrie a puzzled look as she stepped forward to confront her,

"But Carrie, if that drone has captured footage of the battle that happened here, we'll finally be able to solve this mystery once and for all." she explained, still looking very bewildered.

Carrie stood her ground, in a manner of speaking, and crossed her arms,

"But if it's not then we could get in serious tr-!" she was cut off by Darwin, who was siding with his little sister.

"It's alright, Carrie, we'll just look at the footage and if it turns out it belongs to someone who wasn't a part of this, then we can just return it to them in an anonymous package. Everyone wins that way." he explained, which was odd considering he liked to respect everyone's privacy, but it seems that he was willing to overwrite his own rules when it came to protecting the ones he cared about.

Macey also spoke up, adding a better point to their argument against the ghost,

"We need to find out what's causing all these anomalies, Carrie! People all over town are starting to worry and after what happened last Friday, things are starting to get worse! There are more police patrols than normal and people are demanding that the mayor do something about these unknown threats. If we help the town solve this mystery things may calm down or better yet, we can take better measures to defend ourselves." she explained, being the daughter of professional monster hunters definitely gave her more insight into matters as large as this one.

Carrie was on the verge of freaking out now. She knew she had to keep this a secret, not because Gumball told her to, but because she knew the danger herself, she witnessed it firsthand, twice! She was amazed that Hector was keeping quiet about it, probably because his mother doesn't want him placing more attention on the two of them and that was fair, in her mind.

She needed to distract them and destroy the drone or at least damage the hard-drive within before they could get their hands on it, and she knew it had to belong to one of the defenders because she could sense a faint amount of Nephilim energy shrouding the device. Luckily, something came to mind and she had a plan to distract them with,

"Actually, now that I've given it some thought, a better idea would be to wait until the drone's owner comes back and we catch them in the-!"

"Don't worry guys, I got it!" came Jamie's gruff voice as she rode Tina, who was stomping towards the tree and lifted her head for Jamie to reach.

Carrie realized that she had forgotten about the others and was about to intercept them, when Ocho also made a dive for the drone,

"No, I got it since I saw it first!" he bellowed as he raced towards the treetops like a speeding missile.

Their efforts were in vain however when a claw attached to an extended arm shot out and plucked the UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) from the branch and Bobert brought it back to himself as he held it up in front of his face,

"Once I collect the hard drive, I will insert into my interface and project the footage from today." Bobert explained as he reached for the slot that held the memory chip.

Carrie was about to fly up and stop him, when she noticed a portal opening up in the air above, not too far from where they were. Out of it came a lanky humanoid, who's features were hidden by a silver motorcycle helmet and had limbs that were staticy. His body was polygonal and in his one of his mismatching hands, he held a gun-like device that seemed to be electronic in nature.

He scanned the area with his visored eye and spotted the flying robot holding his drone, the one he had come back for after he realized it was missing once he had finished packing for his trip. He pointed his gun up at Bobert and angrily shouted,

"Hey! That doesn't belong to you, metalhead!"

Bobert ceased his attempts to liberate the H-drive from its port and swiveled his head unit until his optics were zeroed in on Rob. Unfortunately, he was too late to react as the covered cyclops fired a round from his rail cannon and after an electric hum, followed by a _Brakka!_ a copper pellet sprang from the fiery muzzle, reaching the airborne android within a split second. The magical rune engraved on the copper ball glowed and the projectile was transformed into a net woven of electric bolts that wrapped themselves around the robot boy.

Bobert's systems went haywire as bolts of electricity were shot directly into him, causing his screen to display erratic forms of communication before his rocket-jets gave out from his feet and sent the student careening to the Earth where he landed with a loud crash.

Making a dash for it, Rob quickly cleared the distance between himself and the sparking heap of metal that twitched its limbs every now and then before prying the propeller driven device from his clamps. He looked up to see a shocked group of kids looking back at him in horror and awe, as he retrieved his lost possession from its last holder and he backed away slowly, before turning about to make a run for it.

Seeing the figure making a break with their only piece of evidence, Anais snapped out of her daze and pointed at him,

"STOP HIM!" she shrieked and everyone else snapped to it.

It was on now and the first ones to start closing in the fleeing Rob, were Tina and Jamie, both of which were very fast due to their athleticism. Rob felt the ground beneath his feet begin to shake as the thundering T-rex closed in on him and he turned his head, only to see a gaping maw surrounded by two rows of sharp teeth. He screamed as he dived out of the way, away from that mouth, as Tina clamped down on nothing but air and shot by without stopping, her immense weight plus momentum preventing her from doing so.

Jamie leapt from the back of her lizard friend and sailed towards the scrambling helmeted figure,

"Bombs away!" she roared, baring her fangs as she continued on a straight path towards him.

Hearing her battlecry, Rob spun around with one hand still gripping the drone and the other clutching his gun, he tried to drive the gun's handle into her skull, but he failed to do so, as he was caught half way and tackled to the ground by the husky middle schooler. Sitting on top of him now, Jamie wasted no time and started to pummel his helmeted head. Every time her fists struck, a dent would form in the helmet's surface and his wind visor would crack, all the while, she was roaring like an enraged lion as she drove every punch in harder than the last one.

Not being able to take it anymore, Rob shouted,

"RRRGGGHHH! GET OFF ME, YOU LITTLE TWERP!"

His voice was heard over Jamie's ear-piercing shrieks and for a moment she paused, giving Rob the opportunity to point his gun until it was pressed against her chest. Seeing the weapon, Jamie gasped and Rob smiled underneath the broken visor as he pulled the trigger. At point blank range, Jamie was sent flying backwards as an electric dragon's claw wrapped itself around her torso and placed the school bully into a frenzied, vibrating mess as her mouth foamed up and her eyes rolled to the back of her head. She eventually passed out.

Getting back up to his feet, Rob tore off the now useless helmet and heard a cry of anguish from behind. He turned to see that Darwin had somehow pulled ahead of the others and was racing towards him with tears in his eyes, a look of pure agony burning in his eyes,

"You monster! How could you hurt a girl and not apologize, you cold-blooded jerk!" he shouted in dismay.

Rob glanced over at the body that lay limp against the ground with stacks of smoke drifting from her and his eye widened in surprise,

" _Wait a minute, that thing is a_ _ **girl**_ _?!"_ he wondered to himself in amazement and he immediately felt bad for committing such a heinous act. He may have been a villain at some point, but he still considered himself a gentleman and now he had attacked a girl, provided she was on top of him, attempting to beat him senseless, and he didn't know thanks to her voice being deep, still, not cool! Also, he recognized her from the time he approached Gumball about the Nephilim and he was met with a further sense of dread when he remembered what he did.

Turning to the charging goldfish, Rob pitched the broken helmet right at him and struck the kid square in the face, knocking him backwards,

"Tell her I said sorry when she wakes up! Also, leave me alone you freaks!" he shouted to the now dazed Darwin, who was mumbling to himself in some form of gibberish as he watched several flying ducks circle his head and his eyes faded into spirals.

Rob was in the process of fishing out his portal rune when Tina's tail came flying right at him, catching him in the gut, and he was sent flying several dozen feet across the empty field where most children like to play baseball. He collided with the ground, feeling his head snap forward and his teeth click, as he came to a screeching halt in the grass. His electronic weapon had tumbled away somewhere and his eye was rolling in his polygonal head. Why was it that whenever he planned to do something, no matter how complex or simple, he would always get sent flying or end up with a face full of dirt.

Once his world stopped moving without him, he looked around and saw that he had two immediate problems. Approaching from above was a now gigantified Ocho, his levitating body positioning itself over the helpless figure in order to rain down a hellstorm of pixelated bolts and from the front, Tina lowered her head and scraped the ground with her taloned feet. She was getting ready to charge!

Ignoring the pain in his head, the polygonal former villain shot to his feet and assessed the current situation. His rail cannon was gone, but at least he two items in his bag that may help with this conundrum. Switching his drone out for two objects, a copper pellet that was one of his bullets and a frisbee that was painted with a rune.

The copperhead had a rune shaped like three arrows with circles at the tips, the three shields of Alexander, and the frisbee had a rune resembling a tree with roots that branched out and met the branches in a complete circle, slumbering oak. Clutching the three shields of Alexander rune tightly in his one hand, he delivered his energy into the object and around him, three Hoplite shields made of transparent Lilac energy formed and began to rotate clockwise around his very person.

He kept the frisbee at the ready and reached out with his now free hand to grab a shield, just as Tina roared, signalling a charge!

"Come an get it, you ugly fossil!" he snarled , baring a grin that was all teeth and gum.

At that, Tina put one foot forward and pushed herself into a leaping start, her powerful leg muscles working to deliver a crushing ten thousand pound payload to the mysterious enemy in the form of a bite. Meanwhile, Ocho began his first wave of attacks, from his bottom, in the space between his legs, white pixelated zig zags of energy began to launch and headed Earthwards. Rob kept his eye on the airborne attacker and shifted his feet, practically dancing around the energy bolts as they struck the ground around him, converting the grass and soil into matching colored blocks that faded in seconds.

And then, when his last bolt streamed from his body, Rob stood still and angled his shield until it was pointed just a little ways to Tina's side. The bolt struck and bounced off, causing the shield to disappear while the projectile sailed into the ground at Tina's feet, causing her to swerve and lose speed.

"Hey, watch it, you dolt!" she shouted after nearly getting her foot blown off.

"Quit shouting at me, lizard breath!" Ocho retaliated and pressed on with the attack after Tina did the same.

Rob repeated the same strategy and managed to deflect another pixel projectile straight at Tina, again, causing her to swerve, deccelerate, and get angry at Ocho. With one shield remaining and Tina being at a closer range, Rob grabbed the final shield and readied the frisbee in his other hand. He arched his arm back and shouted,

"Catch this, ugly!" he said before giving the white rubber disc a toss.

The enchanted toy sailed through the air, spinning like a top as it went, and without even thinking, Tina caught the frisbee in her mouth like a dog. Soon the tree on top began to glow green and from it, a tree began to emerge, a mighty oak that dug itself into the ground with its thick roots and imprisoning the mighty T-rex within its black trunk. Buried up to her head in the encroaching magic plant, Tina thrashed her head about and roared in defiance as she tried to free herself to no avail from this herculean prison.

Next, the trees branches spread themselves out in a wide canopy before multiple leaves the color of liquid mercury sprouted out and giving way to wondrous blossoms that bloomed in alluring purples and white with black stripes. From these flowers a fine mist was released, like some kind of pollen, as it gently flowed and settled itself into the flaring nostrils of the agitated Tyrannosaur. Soon she felt her eyelids begin to grow heavy, a deep slumber began to take over and no matter how hard she fought, a pleasant sleep had caressed her into the land of dreams.

With their heaviest hitter now incapacitated, Rob was easily able to finish off Ocho with a well placed deflection of his final shield and the spider sprite was taken down with another classic video game death cry belonging to a certain pudgy plumber everyone knows and loves.

Rob breathed in a gulp of fresh air and let it out before placing his hands on his knees while he hunched over,

"Okay, those were definitely the strongest of the bunch, now I just have to grab my Rail cannon and-ACK!" he screamed as a net fired from Chimera's net gun ensnared him within a web of ropes.

Hopelessly entangled, Rob squirmed and struggled as much as he could, but the netting held fast and when he tried to reach into his bag for a knife, he found his hands to be bound. He growled and snarled like a captured animal while Anais, Chimera, Macey, Carrie, and a recently resuscitated Darwin approached him. Proud of Macey's hunting skills, the pink bunny turned back to her and gave her a compliment,

"Nicely done Macey, you sure have wrangled that fiend!" she tilted her hat as Macey leapt down from her perch and joined her friend's side.

"Great! Let's tie him up and bring him back to our place." Macey suggested with an evil grin as she rubbed her hands together.

Darwin, who was sporting a nasty purple bruise upon his swollen forehead, shook his head and objected to the Calico girl's proposal,

"No because that would be kidnapping, let's just question him here while he's tied up and if he doesn't feel like cooperating, we'll call the police." he countered and Macey nodded in agreement while pouting a little.

Behind them Chimera lumbered on over to where Tina was captured and activated his buzzsaw as he worked on freeing the snoozing Rex child. Meanwhile, Carrie was all the more frantic at this point, she couldn't risk him getting captured, that was Rob she was looking at, Gumball and Teri's ally! She had to stop them now and she did the only thing she could do to prevent further catastrophe.

She raised her hands and screamed,

"NO!"

A powerful force unseen by the Wattersons and Barnes child pulled them back, away from the struggling cyclops and Carrie whispered a spell beneath her breath,

" _Ferrum ora umbra! (Razor edge shadow!)"_ she chanted.

Materializing in the air above Rob's rope cocoon, a black, shadowy blade curved like a moon set atop a short handle cut its way through the ropes and Rob was set free. The three kids screamed in despair when they saw him get back up and snatch up his gun before taking off running again, without even looking back. Chimera, who had heard the commotion, stopped his attempts to free Tina and barreled his way towards the running lanky pre-teen.

Sadly his attempts at capture were in vain as his bulky body was too slow and Rob fished out his portal rune, activating it and disappearing with the drone in his backpack.

Dropping the kids, Carrie felt a sigh of relief leave her non-existent lungs and the floating specter allowed herself to descend a little further to the ground. Meanwhile, Anais was screaming in frustration, Macey was uttering curses, and Chimera was looking deeply sorry for not being able to catch him. Then there was Darwin, who had turned and was giving her a look that she had never seen him give before, a look of confusion masked with betrayal as he wondered why she did what she just did.

He knew it was her, there was no other person who could have pulled them up like that and use dark magic either, but why did she, his girlfriend, the person he loves and trusts the most, help a suspect escape, after he harmed all their friends,

"Why… why did you let him go?" he asked, taking one step towards her.

Carrie shrank back and said nothing. She didn't like seeing him like that, betrayed, hurt, frustrated, angry, it tore at her being and she wanted to use some kind of excuse to justify her actions. But there was nothing she could say and her mouth remained silent.

Darwin continued to stare at her in disbelief and his expression worsened when he realized she was hiding something, he could see it clearly in her uncovered eye and the way she was holding herself now,

"That was Doctor Wrecker, I recognized him, and he was here earlier, wasn't he? He was here with someone else, doing something and you knew the whole time, didn't you?" his voice was quiet, but it was trembling and Carrie knew he was getting close to snapping.

Jade, why did she do that? There was nothing she could have done, he was captured and they were going to find out regardless.

Why did she lie to Darwin? She was trying to protect him, but lying to someone, especially someone close, even if it was for their own sake never brought relief to those being lied to. She knew this herself.

Was there any way out of this? She already knew the answer to that…

Through all the stress and all the pain that was rushing through her, she finally caved in and broke down into a sobbing mess. She couldn't do this anymore and through the hands that covered her face, she spoke,

"I'm sorry…" was all she said.

Seeing the broken down state she was in broke Darwin free of his anger, his twisted features now replaced with sympathy and even though he was still angry and confused, his instincts forced him to move in and comfort her. He brought her in for a tight embrace and he felt her head nuzzle its way into his shoulder where she cried some more, her tears washing onto his shoulder and Darwin gently patted her back as he rocked back and forth slowly. In the distance, Chimera had managed to calm the girls from their frustrated rants and prompted them to join the hugging pair.

The two girls, plus the living toy, closed in on the couple and a tilt came to Anais' head as she scratched her scalp with a single finger,

"Um, what did we miss?" she asked.

"And not to be rude, but could you explain why you just helped that crazy villain escape?" Macey added, still fuming about that incident, especially since it cost her folks a net.

Keeping his flippers around her, Darwin eased back a little and peered into his ghostly girlfriend's half covered eyes, which were still wet with tears,

"It's okay." he said, his voice soft along with his eyes and he gently stroked the side of her face,

"I'm not mad at you, not even in the slightest, but I need you to tell us what's going on." he asked, his tone slightly demanding, but the sincerity in his statement showed that he did in fact care for her.

She was quiet for a bit, except for a sniffle and she rubbed at her tearstained cheeks. Darwin continued to look at her and gave one more plea, gentler this time,

"Please."

She looked at him and then over his shoulder, where everyone was gazing back at her, expectantly awaiting her response. They weren't even angry anymore, not from what she saw, just a bunch of worried people who were scared and wanted answers. Who was she to deny them the truth? Whatever happened today, whatever she told them, they would have to deal with together and when she saw Gumball and Teri again, she'll deal with them too.

Her head moved up and down in very slow nod and she gently moved away from Darwin, presenting herself in full view of everyone present. Bobert, Ocho, Tina, and Jamie were still knocked out, but she'll tell them everything later once they came to, she kind of had to since they were all attacked by someone she considered an ally. Preparing herself mentally and emotionally, she took a deep breath, clearing all the negativity and cluttered up feelings from her headspace and opened her eyes once she was ready to tell them,

"Okay, but first, you guys may want to take a seat for this one." she commanded.

And they so they sat, in a semicircle were the four children as they gathered around the ghost to hear her tale of a war that was beyond their wildest dreams…

 _-Rob's duplex, 5:35 PM, just after the escape-_

Jumping into the bedroom he called his own, Rob's body was like a tossed ragdoll as he flopped onto his mattress and behind him the portal closed, ceasing the screaming of several children as well as the roar of the toy abomination. Turning over on the bed that was covered in a mess of bed sheets, pillows, wads of paper, pieces of junk, and food wrappers, the one-eyed void wanderer sucked in the deepest breath he could muster after realizing he had been holding it in ever since he leapt through the portal. He continued to breathe and battled his body to relax while the adrenaline was still pumping.

He placed a forearm on the space above his orb and wiped away at the perspiration that had collected itself there, groaning as he did so,

"For the love of all things magical…" he trailed off after replaying the horrific scenes of the times he was almost brutally mutilated during what was supposed to be a simple retrieval mission,

"...there goes another ten years off of my life and now they know about me." he muttered irritantly.

To make matters worse, Carrie, the spirit that was helping them by being a double agent, has now blown her cover by… helping him out in the first place.

He sat straight up in his bed and got up to march towards his desk where his void trekking gear sat, right next to the nearly completed _Leviathan book_ he had been working on all week, and began stuffing the suit into the brown bag on his back,

"That doesn't matter right now, I can deal with that later." he grumbled as he grabbed his tin covered space helmet along with his weapon, some enchanted items, and began to head out the door,

"First things first, I gotta save Gumball and Teri." he declared as he twisted the doorknob and pushed the door outwards.

Only to meet Rachel, frozen in mid-knock, on the other side.

Both were left in shock, with Rachel feeling surprised as to how Rob got back into the house without her knowing and Rob now realizing that he failed to see the hall light on from underneath the door space. The two stood in relative silence for a moment, both waiting to see who will come out with it first and talk. Finally, the first to speak up was Rachel as she regarded the one-eyed boy with a question,

"Um, hi? How did you get back into your room without me knowing? I could have sworn that you left several minutes ago and why are you all sweaty?" she asked, finally taking note of her roommate's drenched body.

Rob had to think for a moment and waited for his brain to rattle up an excuse to quickly give,

"Uh, yeah, I was, um, in a hurry to get back home and I must've slipped back in while you we're in the bathroom or something." he said with a shrug.

Rachel wasn't convinced however, as for one, she hasn't been to the restroom or any other room in the house except the living room for the past hour now, seeing as her shift wasn't until at least another hour and secondly, she heard him talking about something,

"Okaaay and what's all this about Teri and Gumball needing to be saved? I heard you talking about it through the door and-!" she stopped herself when she noticed the gun in Rob's hand as well as the helmet tucked in the crook of his arm, her hands flew up to her face and she looked back up with fright,

"Have you been committing crimes again?!" she gasped.

At first Rob was left speechless as he tried to figure out why she would think that and when he looked at the items in his hands, he realized with regret how she came to that conclusion. His head snapped back up and he immediately tried to explain himself,

"No, Rachel, it's not what you think, I was just-!"

She turned her back to him and took off down the hallway, her fluffy hair bouncing as she sped away. She still had a hand up to her face and Rob couldn't tell whether or not she was crying. He had no time to ponder that however, as he raced after her, dropping his helmet and rail cannon as he gave chase. He caught the rainbow lass by the elbow just as she was about to exit through the main doorway and with a tug, he managed to pull her back, all the while he was pleading with her,

"Rachel, don't go, I can explain! I haven't hurt anybody and I didn't do anything wrong either!" he explained, his voice already raising to a level he wasn't used to.

She wrenched her arm out of his grasp and she whipped around to face him, her eyes were brimming with tears,

"I thought you were done with this! The reason I got a job in the first place was just so you wouldn't have to go about stealing money and robbing places just to cover for both of us! I thought what I was doing was enough and now you're doing it again while dragging other people into your messes!" she shouted as tears began to spill out from her eyelids and she turned around once more,

"Just leave me alone." she said a final time as she reached for the doorknob.

Rob, being unable to take it anymore, hit his breaking point and said what he had been trying to say the whole time,

"I'M TRYING TO SAVE EVERYONE!" he shouted, grabbing both sides of his head as though he were in pain.

And then Rachel stopped, her three fingered hand was on the bulbous knob and already twisting when she heard him. A rather odd thing to say, she had already figured that he was doing this with good intentions and she wanted to just brush it off as some lame excuse to dig himself out of the pit he was in, but what did he mean by _everyone_? She took her hand off the doorknob and after a long period of deafening silence, she slowly turned around and looked him in the eye,

"What?" was all she asked, her black eyes peering into his one and Rob could see so many emotions mixing within those eyes.

Calming down now, Rob hesitated and thought it over. He knew what he said and there were so many places this conversation could go. He could fabricate a lie, but where would that lead him? There were so many uncertainties here and one wrong move could cost him his closest and only friend, the only one who knew him and understood him or at least that's what she thought. He knew what she was afraid of, it wasn't the fact that he was committing crimes that scared her, she was afraid of losing _him_ and it already seems he's at that point.

There was no other way here, he needed to tell her the truth.

Placing his hands on his forehead, a gust wind left his lips as he slid them across his face and down to his chin before placing them together and opening his eye again,

"Rachel, you're right, there is something going on here and it does involve Gumball and Teri." he started off.

Rachel's eyes seemed to open wider than ever and her fears and anxieties all came rushing back to her, forcing her to want to turn and run, but Rob wasn't finished,

"The strange power outages, the random acts of destruction, the attacks on San Francisco, there's an explanation to all of it and all three of us have been trying to deal with… something." he said, finding it difficult to condense the entire scope of the Nephilim invasion into just a single sentence.

Having heard enough, Rachel reached back for the door and shook her head in disbelief,

"That's it, I'm done, I don't want to be involved in whatever new master plan you have in store. I'm going to find out who their parents are and tell them that you've done something-!" she was cut off when Rob started up again.

"It's not crime we are involved in, there's an invisible war going throughout this city and if that weren't enough, I've been trying to find a way to cure both of us!" he explained, throwing his hands up in the air as though he were trying to capture the sheer scale of the events happening around them.

The multicolored girl was already opening the door, but stopped when she heard him mention the last part and returned with skepticism,

"Cure us? What are you talking about? Do you mean like reversing the effects of the…" she trailed off like she normally did when she was about to bring up _the other place_ and was more lost than she was before.

Having finally caught her attention, Rob's desperation began to fade and hope returned once again, now the polygonal cyclops needed to measure his next words very carefully,

"Yes, Rachel, what if I were to tell you that all those times I spent away from the house, I was searching for answers to two major problems and one of them I had found an answer to." he waited for a moment and Rachel eventually closed the door, still scared and confused, but curiosity was overriding any common sense she had for the sake of getting an answer.

She nodded and Rob continued on, still aware that she was one step away from leaving him alone again,

"I know how to get our memories back, everything we lost to the void, we can take back and we can go back to our old lives again!" he explained, excitement flowing with every word he spoke.

Intrigued, the high schooler and former void resident, could not deny that the longing for her old life and her identity was one feeling that always accompanied her thoughts, but there was one worry she always had. She sighed and allowed her head to sway side to side, her lips were pursed before she told him how she felt,

"Rob, it's okay, I'm fine with moving on and starting a new life, we don't need to cling to a past that doesn't exist anymore, we've got each other and our whole lives ahead of us." she said, her heart feeling lighter when she confirmed this to both him and herself.

Rob retaliated with his own head shake and threw his arms up again as he thought of something else,

"There is more than just our pasts to gain Rachel, our families are still here and believe it or not, when I went down there, into the void again, I caught a glimpse of my old life where I had a father and a home to live in. We know where your folks are and we can bring you back home too!" he said.

"Rob, this is our home and you're my family." she said in a gentle voice, the smile she was giving was welcoming and her eyes shone with a warmth that, to Rob, only a loving sister figure could give.

In truth, he loved this life and he loved being with her, the past few months spent with this wonderful woman were the happiest few he ever had the pleasure to experience, but there was one more thing he needed to say,

"None of that has to change, even if we get our old lives back, I will still be your friend because I can't imagine a life without you." he promised.

At that, Rachel was still for just a moment, until she wasn't, and she rushed forward, wrapping herself around him in an enormous hug that was full of her warmth and happiness. Rob was perplexed and feeling very awkward at first, but let go of those feelings and just returned the hug, feeling the rainbow lass in his arms as his face brushed up against her ticklish hair. After they pulled away, Rachel was feeling better, but something was still bothering her and she looked up at him with concern,

"If what you were saying is true, then what about Teri and Gumball? What has been really going on with you guys?" she asked.

And then reality came crashing back into Rob like a speeding semi and he quickly rushed back to his room where he gathered his discarded weapon and helmet as well as the first helmet he made for void travel before rushing back to the main door where a puzzled Rachel awaited. He was thinking about visiting Fjel first, but he wanted to see if there was another place he could try before making the journey to the void. Pulling out his teleportation disc, Rob activated the rune and a window appeared before them, showing an empty parking garage minus a single red van that was parked there.

It was the Elmore shopping mall parking garage and by the looks of it he was correct, the Awesome Store was there where it should be. Turning to a baffled Rachel, who was shocked by the magic trick Rob just demonstrated in front of her, he took her by the hand and pulled her towards the opening,

"Right now, Gumball and Teri are somewhere else and they are in trouble, there's someone in there that can possibly help us find them, and save them if all goes accordingly." he said, although he wasn't exactly brimming with confidence.

Rachel peered into garage towards the mysterious red vehicle with a twinge of fright and anxiety before turning her head in Rob's direction,

"Promise me that you'll explain everything once we're done?" she demanded and Rob nodded in return.

"I promise, no more lies." he agreed, acknowledging her request.

The boy stepped into the magical window and with Rachel in tow, she soon fell in with him causing the portal behind them.

 _-Edge of the universe, 5:45 PM-_

Within this vast universe, everything was always moving and heading somewhere thanks to the cosmic forces that forever pushes against the universe's outer edges, causing rapid expansion in our bubble of reality. All things, including galaxy clusters that could only be rivaled by their kin and even the most insignificant of materials, the atom, was all on the move through this silent vacuum. This did not exclude a very small spacecraft enclosed within a bubble of protective energy, with its crew of two equally silent passengers.

It had been nearly an hour since the two of them had been forced from the safe confines of their planet and neither of them had spoken since they came to terms with their now very finite existence. For them there was nothing to talk about, simply put, there was no way home for either of them and when their air finally ran out, no one was even going to find their remains as they drifted forever in the sea of stars. Laying down next to his paper companion, watching the stars as they dangled like a million diamonds just out of their reach and contemplated the events that brought them here.

Ever since he revealed their current location, he'd been feeling guilty and he knew why that was too,

"I'm sorry." he whispered, the first sound to ever be made throughout this craft other than just the normal ones like their breathing, their heartbeats, and the slight noises that accompanied their movements and it was just his apology.

Turning over until her body was facing him now, the two had been back to back the entire time, Teri checked to see what was wrong and saw that he looked very sad, which wasn't unusual given the circumstances,

"What? Why are you sorry?" she asked.

Pulling his body up into a sitting position, he only stared at the transparent front of the craft where he could see the faint film of the shield glistening on the outside, containing the precious atmosphere that they were breathing in. he sighed and placed a paw underneath his chin as his elbow rested against his crossed legs, his eyes avoiding hers,

"It's my fault that we're out here. If I had just gotten away in time, I wouldn't have been pulled in like so and you wouldn't have had to waste your life trying to save me." he said in a low voice, as though he were about to start crying again.

Taken aback by this self-loathing statement, Teri's head shot back a little as her mouth twitched and her eyebrows knitted themselves together. However, her angered expression was quickly replaced with a sympathetic one and she understood why he thought this way. Placing a flimsy hand on his shoulder, Teri reached out to console him and spoke in that airy voice of hers,

"Don't say that! You didn't know what Throne was going to do when it died, we barely understand anything about the Nephilim in the first place and my life was not wasted because I chose to save someone I care about." she corrected, feeling bad for the kitten.

It was true, she wouldn't have just sat by and let him get pulled into the portal because it lead to outer space. If there was any chance that she could have saved him and got them both back home, then it was well worth the risk. However, knowing this just made him even guiltier because now they had nowhere to go, they were trapped out here, they were both going to die in a matter of hours and it was _still_ all his fault.

He growled and covered his face with both paws while his ears flattened themselves against his head and his tail swished back and forth in anger. Anger that was directed at no one, but himself,

"You don't get it! I was supposed to keep you safe! Your parents finally started trusting me with your safety and look where that got us! We're never going to get home, your parents are going to lose their only child, Elmore is in even more danger and it's ALL MY FAULT!" he shouted those last three words as he collapsed into another fit of sobs.

Completely heartbroken by his saddened state, Teri could only watch as her own tears began to blur her vision and she began to fall into the same sorry position he was in. She still didn't blame him for what happened, there was no way she would do that and she would have done it again and again if she had to, but he was right about a few things. They were never going to get home again, their parents were going to wonder where they went and with two defenders down, Elmore was left open to more attacks by the Nephilim, unless Rob somehow steps up the defenses to pick up the slack.

Either way, the situation was hopeless and they both knew that dying was always a high probability, but to go out like this, alone and in the middle of nowhere where no child of Earth could ever hope in a billion years to find them, was just absolutely soul crushing in its own right.

The silence started up once again, except that there was crying to fill the void now and while there was so much the two wanted to say, anything to help brighten them up a little bit more, there was no changing this sadness. Looking up from his tearstained arms, Gumball peered out into the starry space again and his mind began to wander. He was soon reminded of something else and without even realizing it, he started to say something,

"You know, after she left, I was sure nothing would get better and that it was going to be something like this for eternity." he started off.

Surprised, Teri was dragged out of her self-induced funk and checked on the cat's face again, she could see that he was gazing out into the starscape with a distant, sorrowful look, as though something was coming back to him. Something that he thought was behind him and had been fighting to suppress ever since she came to him that one night. With one glance, she was able to tell what was on his mind, or rather _who_ was mind.

Penny Fitzgerald, the one who left.

Folding her hands onto her lap, Teri brought herself closer to the cat and continued to look at him until his gaze met hers,

"Do you want to talk about her?" she asked, afraid of him closing her out, but still feeling brave enough to try anyway.

His pointed ears shot up and his tail stopped swishing. He knew that his breakup with Penny had been bothering him for sometime, even when he thought that his time spent with Teri would help him forget, it still popped up from time to time. Seeing as they were nearing the end of the road anyway, there was no point in keeping it all bottled up, plus where was he going to get another chance anyway?

Deciding it was time to confront his demons, Gumball allowed his shoulders to heave upwards as he inhaled and then slump down as he exhaled,

"After… after she left with her family to go live in Japan, I felt as though somehow it was all my fault, like I had made their decision to move away much easier and it got me thinking about all my past mistakes." he wasn't looking at Teri anymore, his attention now fixated on his resting paws, but he continued to relay his painful thoughts and experiences to the craft's only other listener,

"I knew I was a screw up from the beginning, but none of that seemed to matter until she left, then it made me realize all my mistakes and that there was nothing I could do to make anything better. I thought that everyone else had hated me for all my foolish mannerisms that got so many of them in trouble or hurt, that there was no way to make amends for what happened. I even got Penny hurt too whenever she was wrapped up in my antics and I thought her parents taking her away to Japan was proof they didn't want her around me anymore." he then turned to Teri with a wobbly smile gracing his features and the former was perplexed,

"And then you came in and brought a monster with you. Against unbelievable odds, we defeated it and for a while, I believed I could do something right again! I thought if we could save this town and keep everyone safe, that I could somehow atone for all that has happened before and start doing good by everyone else. Every time we did something together, every time we succeeded and gave Elmore another day to live, I felt like I was rising. All the time I spent with you, it felt like things were finally starting to look up again and that it was going to be better." he was radiating a sense of hope and joy the more he spoke, until his face was riddled with another grimace as his head fell back into his arms,

"But now that's gone too." he mumbled in disdain.

Now it was all very clear to her, for a while the paper puppet was curious as to why the normally mischievous classmate of theirs was lacking in any activity and why he hadn't reached out to anyone, especially Penny for that matter. They could have made it work, they could have kept a long distance relationship, but Gumball saw himself as nothing but trouble for the shape-shifting fairy. He was forced to see the error of his ways after someone so important to him left and the weight of the guilt had crushed him.

It was honestly very tragic, but it made too much sense now and Teri couldn't but feel even more sorry for the little guy.

"If someone came to me one day before this whole thing started and told me that I was going to be facing off against an army of invisible giants and my only companions were going to be a blue troublemaking slob along with his one eyed freak of a frienemy…" she paused when she saw him looking up at her with an eyebrow raised in suspicion,

"...I would have told them to get lost or prescribe some medication for hallucinations." she said with a chuckle so light, it could have registered as a slight gasp.

Gumball raised his head and wondered to himself,

" _Blue troublemaking slob? She's talking about me isn't she? Wow, harsh!"_ he thought before he mentally asked,

" _I wonder if she's going anywhere with this?"_

To his surprise, she was and when she looked back up from her folded arms, she was smiling at him affectionately,

"If I was the one to travel back to that girl, one day before this all began, I would have told her to keep your eyes on Gumball and to hold on to your breath because he's going to take it away." her smile grew even brighter as Gumball's eyes seemed to bulge from his head as his hands dropped to his side.

"What! But what about-!" he interjected, but was stopped when Teri let out another chuckle.

"You're right about a lot of things, you're definitely prone to making mistakes, but you're also right about everything being better afterwards. No matter how crazy everything became you and I were always able to come out on top and during those times I watched you mature from a self-centered child to a person I knew I could rely on, someone who would put others first." she moved to the side a bit more, very slowly, until she was pressed up against him and she placed her hand on top of his.

She gently started rubbing his thumb knuckle with her own thumb and most of Gumball's negativity was switched out with contentment and warmth,

"But how could you like me after everything I did back then, to you and your family?" he replied, still unsure of himself,

"I teased you so many times, I folded your parents into origami, I toyed with your feelings, I shredded your uncle into paper bits, and all of this I did without ever apologizing." there was so much more that he could've added and there was also the terrible things that happened to her friends that he never made up for, things that he wished he could go back and fix himself.

She still kept her hand on his and in fact, fully enclosed it within her fingers as she kept looking through the window, to the stars,

"I had given those things some thought and there was a time that I was indeed furious with both you and your brother, my parents were most displeased with being folded up like that, and my uncle Bryan was put under intensive care for a month as they tried to glue his pieces back together. He's still missing some to this day." she explained and Gumball felt his head along with his heart sink, but kept listening when she picked up again,

"But it's been a year, my parents have never forgotten about that, but they forgive you and they even appreciate you more for being the caring person that you are. I'm not so sure what my uncle thinks about you, but he's in good health now and is living a happy life with his family."

She took a deep breath and turned her head, Gumball could see that her eyes were not filled with hate or spite, but rather compassion and forgiveness,

"As for what I think of those events, some things won't go away so easily and I'll always remember them with a twinge of anger, but it's all insignificant because I forgive you." she said warmly.

Gumball smiled back at her, it was a weak one, but held his appreciation and he knew for a fact that she meant everything she said. Now it all made sense to him, he had plenty of time to make things right, he didn't need to save the world in order to do so, he could have just started by trying to be a better friend to those around him and even if no one forgave him entirely, that was fine, he'd just have to keep going with what he had. He placed his large head down on his arms again and peered out the transparent surface, a chuckle escaping his lips,

"If only I could have known. If I were to go back the day after Penny left, I would have told him keep his chin up and to reach out to others. Probably would have made some major differences and I probably would have been your friend too." he said.

Teri disagreed with this however and shook her head, catching the boy's attention,

"Don't focus on what could have happened, you dealt with it in your own way and came out of it as a better person." she said, grabbing his hand with her other and pulling herself a little closer until his face was a few inches from hers,

"Another thing I have to say regarding your past self is that even though you were a bit of a handful at times, there were still parts of you that I somewhat liked and I could sometimes see why Penny loved you. You were so outgoing, determined, and you were brave enough to speak your mind. You were never a…" she trailed off when a sudden thought crept into her mind and her heart sank in her chest,

"...you were never a coward." _like me_ she mentally added and she lost her grip on Gumball's hand.

Noticing the sudden shift in her tone, Gumball watched as the paper bear who had been so happily praising him just a moment ago, suddenly went dark, like a sudden storm cloud appearing on a sunny day and he was confused as to why this was. He knew it had something to with the last part of what she had said and the only thing he could compare her tone with was disgust. Not towards him, but towards herself.

He quietly made his way towards her, his hand reaching and finding hers, as he gazed upon her face with soft, worried eyes,

"Teri… is something wrong?" he inquired.

The paper girl was silent and he asked again,

"Are you saying that you're a coward?" he was more than confused now and Teri seemed to shrink back even further.

Then like air escaping a tire, a sigh was heard and she slowly nodded,

"I don't _think_ I'm a coward, I _am_ a coward!" she exclaimed with self-hating venom.

Gumball was mentally blown away by this statement coming from the paper bear he so often stood side-by-side with in their fights against the Nephilim, causing him to shake his head in response,

"No, that can't be right! Why would you say such a thing about yourself? You're probably one of the bravest people I've ever met!" he remarked, still clutching her hand tightly and trying to bring her back to her senses.

However, his words didn't seem to reach her and she only stared at her feet with a remorseful look,

"I am though!" she shot back, her facial features twisting into a grimace as she started to remember so many past incidences that she began to relay to the troubled kitten,

"Throughout most of my life, I've been scared of just about everything! Germs were one thing, but another thing that frightened me were other people's opinions of me! I knew that everyone was annoyed by my overly protective habits, so whenever I joined other groups, I never really spoke up much because I was afraid of angering them further, so I just did what they did and hoped I didn't get on anyone's nerves. No one ever really wanted to hang out with me, but I was desperate for attention and I did just about anything to be with someone." she felt another wave of sadness kick in as another terrible memory found its way into her head and she pulled her knees up to her chest as a result,

"And then the first time I ever get a friend to come over to my place and have a sleepover, I messed that up too because I couldn't keep my germaphobic tendencies in check. Next thing I knew, Masami had left after half an hour and the next day, I still didn't do anything for myself because I was so scared that she would tell everyone how horrible I am, I even started grovelling at her feet when something important came up just to make sure she never got angry." she was trembling now and when she saw that Gumball was still holding her hand, she followed it all the way up to its owner with tearstained eyes that he couldn't see, but knew were still there,

"And if that weren't enough, I remembered all the times you were in trouble, your fight with Tina, the time you and your brother wore those karate gi's, and the one time it looked like you two were about to fight. I wanted to stand up for you all those different times, but I never did because I was afraid of what other people would have thought of me and I just joined the crowd because that's all I could do!" she sniffled and turned her head away from him as a result of her own guilt and shame.

She hated herself for doing all those things and to be fair, she still did them to this day. She hated being alone and while most of her friends were kind to her, they still regarded her as some extra to bring along much like they did with Molly. She couldn't help, but feel this way towards herself and whenever Gumball was with her, she would feel a mixture of joy and sadness. Honestly, she sometimes wondered to herself if she deserved his friendship?

But Gumball, who had been listening and forming his own response within his quiet space, had something to say about that,

"But that's not who you are now, isn't it?" he said in a gentle tone.

She turned to him once again, wondering why he didn't hate her for being such a coward, but given the light look in his eyes, he didn't seem to regard her in any negative way. Nonetheless, he continued to speak as he brought himself closer to her,

"You know, the more I think about these things now, the more I realize how little these past events actually affect us as people. Did you ever think that you would be standing by my side along with my nemesis, facing off giants, helping Tina and Tobias find a compromise, saving me from my death on multiple instances and actually starting to overcome your fear of germs? I certainly wouldn't have imagined it, but here we are now, an unlikely duo who has done all these things and would probably do them again if we ever had another chance." he explained, giving her a confident smile that made Teri smile on her own.

"I'm still on the fence with the germ thing and there are still other problems that I haven't fixed yet either." she responded, still thinking about her relationship with Masami.

Gumball gave a light shrug and another look into what he thought about that,

"Hey, I've still got some major issues that I need to work out as well, but my point being, none of what has happened before has had any real influence on your current behavior. When Silver Twelve first showed up, yes, you ran away and found yourself cowering in my room, but you still helped me when I figured out how we were going to kill it and you even pulled me away from my death at the last moment. Throughout our numerous encounters, you've always been with me to help me out, you even forgave me after I went off on my own and got you hurt in the process and I don't see any coward doing any of that." he said, causing the paper girl to light up in satisfaction.

Finding herself being alleviated, Teri was made well aware that Gumball actually had a point and that most of her issues with others stemmed from past experiences that she could have corrected herself had she just done something positive about them. This past month proved that she did have the strength to do something and that she wasn't as weak as she thought she was. Of all the people to be giving her this advice, she'd never thought she would ever hear it coming from this bumbling dork and the thought of it made her laugh for the first time since they came to terms with their doomed existence out here in the middle of nothingness.

Gumball laughed too and he pulled her into a hug once he discovered that she was feeling better,

"I actually wish that we could go back to Earth now because all I want to do is keep living life to the fullest while putting all of this behind us." he whispered, his tone both happy and sad.

Teri rubbed his back with her thumb and she continued to nuzzle her face against his neck, feeling the warmth of his ticklish fur,

"I do too, but if we're being honest here, I'm kind of happy we get to spend our last moments out here. I've treasured all the time I spent with you and I'm happy that you've been my friend all this time." she said, feeling very comfortable.

Gumball felt the passion her words brought and his only response was giving her body a gentle squeeze as he brought their hearts closer together. Now all his regrets began slowly fading and all he could think of was how happy he was to have her here with him. He was glad that she came out here to save him, even if it meant that this was it for them and then something else was brought to his attention. He'd been wanting to tell her something for a while now, but wasn't sure if this was the correct time to do so.

Still he needed to say something right now, even though he was bound to say it sooner or later, so he made a compromise and decided to close his eyes tand mouth it instead, so that he would ready himself for later,

 _I love you._

"I love you too."

Gumball's eyes snapped open, bringing the interior of the ship back into view and he realized that Teri had just responded to his silent declaration! No, it wasn't silent at all, when he thought he was only forming the words with his lips, he had actually whispered the words themselves and given the absolute silence that outer space brought, there was no way for Teri to miss them. Of course, did any of that matter now?

Obviously not, as Gumball replied with an overjoyed gasp and was followed by laughter as he hugged her tighter,

"Oh my jade!" he exclaimed as tears nearly sprang from his eyes. It was all he could say and there were no better words to express both the surprise and the relief he felt when he heard her respond with those four words.

Teri too was laughing with joy, having been surprised by Gumball's quiet confession. She couldn't believe that he said it! _I love you_ , those three little words he said that she herself was too scared to say mainly because she had been so afraid of what he would have thought. She knew they were close, but she was so scared of risking their friendship by taking it to the next level, but now that fear was finally abolished from her being as she held the person who without a doubt now, loved her the same.

She pulled back to get a good look at his face and she saw the look of someone who was so amazed and relieved all at once, smiling back at her,

"Do you really mean it?!" he asked, his eyes searching hers.

She was smiling and she couldn't help but feel her heart soar as she said,

"Yes! Yes, I love you!" she pulled him into another hug and the cat was internally screaming in triumph.

"I love you too, Teri!" he replied, echoing her first response while adding her name at the end.

There was practically no space between them at this point as their bodies joined in a loving embrace and suddenly, the small spacecraft seemed much larger now. There were no other words to describe their feelings in this very moment, as a raging hurricane of thoughts and emotions ravaged their minds in a happy cataclysm that remained silent to the outside world. They were with each other now and in this lonely expanse of the universe that surrounded them with its deafening glory and silence, there was nothing that could've been better than this,

"I was trying to tell you all week, but I was so scared that I was going to mess it up and now… now I'm just so glad that I had nothing to fear." he confessed, feeling rather silly for doubting himself.

Teri heard him and understood how he felt, she too felt the same way,

"I was scared too, I wanted to tell you for so long, but I wasn't sure what you thought of me." she gently pushed herself back until she was face to face with him again, but kept a hold of his shoulders,

"I'm so happy because now I know I can do this." she proclaimed.

And without further hesitation, she leaned forward, still gripping Gumball's shoulders, and planted her lips on his cheek. She kissed him softly, holding her face there for a moment as she felt the warmth of his face against her lips before she finally pulled away. Gumball was left with a dazzled expression, his mouth hanging open in awe and his eyes alight with fireworks as his heart hammered in his chest, causing his cheeks to warm themselves as a result.

" _Her lips are so soft!"_ he thought as he brought a hand up to the spot where he had felt them press up against and his gaze switched from her eyes to the very lips she used to kiss him with.

Without further ado, his body began to move without him realizing it and he began to lean in to deliver the same thing she had given him just seconds prior. He could already see her face starting to burn red when she saw what he was doing and simply closed her eyes as she awaited the tender moment that was about to happen, relaxing her body as a result. Gumball took note of this, grabbing her shoulders as soon as he felt her hands lax themselves, and aimed for her lips,

" _Wait a second, she kissed me on the cheek?"_ he realized, before coming to a conclusion as to why that was,

" _Maybe she's not ready for a kiss on the lips just yet. If that's the case, then I won't do it yet. Luckily, I know just the place…"_

He changed his direction and kissed her on the forehead.

This took Teri completely by surprise as her eyes snapped open for a moment and saw that she was indeed staring at Gumball's neck as he kissed the space above her eyes. She didn't say or do anything however, and closed her eyes again shortly after, feeling the sparks fly as she felt Gumball's soft muzzle gently smooch her forehead. He eventually stopped the kiss and allowed his face to slide down until their foreheads her touching, his eyes were also closed.

They stayed within this close, affectionate proximity while the universe continued to spread itself around them, but the stars and nebulas went by unnoticed as the boy and girl were lost in their own little worlds. A wandering asteroid even began to pass them by, travelling at speeds that would have left most conventional aircraft feeling as though they were standing still and when it saw the tiny pyramid set in a bubble, it looked at the peculiar object never seen before by the lonely piece of debris with confusion and curiosity. It decided to stop and question the bizarre object,

"Um, excuse me, but you seem kind of new here. Are you lost by any chance?" the asteroid questioned.

The white pyramid did not respond to his curious conjecture and neither of its two inhabitants actually saw it, nor heard it thanks to the soundless vacuum. Not having the time nor the patience to wait around for an answer, the asteroid harumphed as it sped away from the strange space object and muttered to itself,

"How rude, just like that one flying saucer I came across twelve years ago. Didn't even warn me before I crashed into it, freakin introverted buggers!" he grumbled, as it soon left the craft behind in an instant.

Little did the two kids know, they would soon come in contact with something else, but this something was going to be a lot less friendly than a wandering asteroid.

 _-The Awesome Store, Elmore shopping mall parking garage, 6:08 PM-_

For something as unassuming and ordinary as a red van parked in an empty garage, Rachel was completely knocked off her rocker when she got a look at the interior of the vehicle. The place was completely different from what she could see on the outside, with interior being far larger than the exterior, being lit only by the various bizarre and magical items casting eerie shadows across the other mysteries that lay within the deeper confines. Most of the items that were easily visible to the curious teenage girl resembled ordinary items that could be found in a cheap streetside market, but they all had funny labels and descriptions.

For example, there was a _Nokian_ cellphone that was fitted with a description that read:

 _Interdimensional transceiver, allows for communication across multiple dimensions and can double as a bludgeoning weapon against threats from the unknown. Very durable, excellent cell signal across multiple planes of existence, but has poor service in both the Lovecraftian universe and Tartarus, also, be wary of who you contact, for the Awesome Store does take any responsibility for the accidental summoning of extra-dimensional horrors and possession of evil entities._

 _Price: $50.00, plus $25.00 for the monthly service plan._

Very odd indeed and there were others just like this set on tables and shelves throughout the place. None of that however, compared to the owner of this mysterious storefront and Rachel was sure this figure was something else altogether. To say he had a "figure" was debatable as he was just a shadow with a pair of glowing eyes and a quiet male voice that sounded disembodied. He never left his shop and would often dip in and out of sight whenever he was explaining something to the pair of kids, but he seemed rather friendly, if not a little unsettling to the rainbow haired girl.

Of course, the only person doing the talking was Rob, who seemed very familiar with this person and Rachel could already tell that these two had a history, though probably very brief given that both sounded like nothing more than simple accomplices. They had been here for a few minutes already and with a discussion held over coffee generously provided by the Awesome Store owner, Rachel was introduced to the living shadow and was given a brief explanation as to what he did and how Rob knew him. Now they were in the middle of discussing what had happened to Teri and Gumball, which Rob had to build up to with an explanation detailing the events that had occurred the month prior,

"...and they were both pulled into a portal to space, you said?" the Awesome Store owner asked, wrapping up his overview of the given situation.

Rob nodded with a grim expression, his four fingered hands wrapping around the still warm cup of Joe that was also decaf as he held the drink close to his face while he sat on a stool provided by the mysterious owner of the van,

"That's correct, and I don't know where in space they are. I was hoping that-?"

"-that I would have a way of finding them for you." he interrupted, finishing the cyclops' sentence.

He sounded very displeased and his glowing eyes were narrowed at the one eyed one sitting not too far from him. Going back a few chapters, Rob remembered his last meeting with magic hoarder and what happened after he obtained the universal remote. He trashed his store after taking the device for himself to destroy Gumball with and when he returned after learning the error of his ways, he smashed the remote right in front of him, a priceless item that probably was worth a lot to the owner. Despite the few dealings they had in the past, Rob was certain that the Awesome Store owner had never forgiven him for his mistreatment and now he feared that it was all coming back to bite him in the butt.

However, the moving shadow let out a snort from unseen nostrils and turned about to head for a doorway that lead him to the upper levels of his pocket dimension,

"Honestly, I'd rather not help you for what you've cost me in the past, but seeing as the one you mentioned, Gumball, has a father that is one of my most valued and frequent customers, I will only help you for the sake of keeping my customers loyal." he said in a snarl that held no sympathy for the young lad, who's head hung low in shame.

With that he disappeared up the stairs and left the two alone in his shop's first floor.

With the quiet they have been gifted, Rachel took a moment to process everything she had heard and moved her seat until it was right beside Rob's,

"So, you, Teri, and Gumball have been battling invisible giants called "Nephilim" for a month now?" she asked, pretty much summing up everything she heard coming from him.

A silent nod from Rob as he brought the cup to his lips and sipped at its warm, creamy contents. Rachel held her head low for a moment as she stared into her own cup and saw her faint reflection within the black surface. Straightening herself out, she sat up and rolled her shoulders a bit, ridding her joints of the kinks that have built up from all the stress that the tension brought them,

"And they're the ones responsible for all the strange phenomenon in Elmore, as well as the three mysterious deaths, the attacks on San Francisco, and they all take orders from a guy named "Nimrod" who is their president, correct?" she further questioned.

Another nod and Rob said,

"Yes, everything I said was true." he looked her in the eye to show that he was being sincere.

It all came crashing down on the young teenager, who couldn't believe that this was all happening and that it had all come to their weird little city. This was all too disturbing, she read sci-fi books and seen some films with Rob or her friends depicting alien invasions, but all that was supposed to be imaginary nonsense made to scare and entertain audiences. The only wars that should be going on right now, should be the ones out in the middle east, but having something this big and horrifying be brought into her own place was unimaginable.

It was causing her to panic as worries and anxieties for the future as well everyone else's safety began to fill her mindspace,

"But why are they invading us?" she demanded, desperately needing answers to these uncertain questions of hers,

"If they can travel between dimensions, why don't they just try talking to us? Are we seriously that big of a problem to them that they would just try to exterminate us like common pests? What did we ever do to deserve this?!" she placed her drink on the floor before gripping the sides of her head as she pulled her legs up to her chest, assuming a troubled fetal position.

A voice rang out from the stairwell and the two kids could see that the shop owner had returned, this time holding a glass orb in his hand,

"Because they are the fallen children of the Jade Emperor." he explained, answering Rachel's question towards Rob,

"They were once his pride and joy as they did his works on the Earth, but their selfish ambitions forced their father to lock them away. Now they want the Earth back as they believe it to be their inheritance and they see the new children as false inheritors, or so it may seem." he glided across the room as he held the glass sphere in front of him in a hand that was also comprised of shadow.

Rachel was stunned by this sudden revelation and remembered a few things mentioned during her history classes about ancient religious scholars predicting the end of the world and the return of ancient beasts as heralds of the apocalypse's arrival. It was already hard enough for her to believe that there was a being above who could be responsible for creating everything, including the void she was so carelessly tossed into, but now there were beings that once dominated the Earth that are returning for revenge and reclamation. This all sounded like a bad apocalypse story that belonged in some kind of B movie or summer blockbuster, not something that should be happening in real life.

While she spiralled into a mental frenzy as she tried to grasp the concept of what was actually happening, Rob went ahead and asked the Awesome Store owner about the orb he carried,

"So is that thing going to show us where my accomplices are?" he asked, taking a nervous glance back at Rachel, who was rocking back and forth in her seat.

There was no movement to be seen from the shadow, but his eyes seemed to hold the answer as he stared at the orb in his hand,

"Yes, and so much more. This all-seeing crystal can track down the current whereabouts of anyone and anything as well as where they are going to be." he stated in a chipper tone as another hand manifested from his cloak of darkness and hovered over the glass object, which began to glow purple with swirling mist on the inside.

Rob could feel his hopes rising as his words reached his awaiting ears and a smile carved itself into his features. All he needed to see was where they were and he could just open up a portal right in front of them, thus bringing them home. However, there was something else and the mysterious magic seller cleared his throat, gaining Rob's completely undivided attention,

"There is a catch though, in order to figure out where they are, I require a piece of them. Just a strand of hair would do, or something else that has their DNA and the all-seeing orb can not see too far into the future, as only the oracles of Jade can accomplish such a feat." he explained as he held up a finger.

Rob found his eye rolling and the irked cyclops grunted in frustration as the orb's owner listed the conditions needed to operate it. Typical magical items, there was always a catch and while this wasn't too big of an issue for him, it was still annoying. While he didn't know where Teri lived, he knew where Gumball dwelled and only needed to acquire some of his DNA in order to find them both.

Getting up to his feet, he thanked the Awesome Store owner and turned to help Rachel to her feet, the latter of which was still somewhat freaking out about the whole "Nephilim invasion" thing,

"We'll be back in a few, but before we go, you wouldn't happen to also have something that can revive the dead or reverse time, would you?" he feared that much time may have passed and the possibility of Gumball and Teri running out of air was at an all time high right now.

There was a single shake of his head and the pair of eyes that pierced the darkness were grim,

"I'm afraid that I have nothing of the sort and the last device I had that was capable of such abilities was destroyed by none other than yourself, I do believe." he responded, sending him an icy cold glare.

Feeling somewhat downtrodden by that answer as well as his past mistakes again, Rob quietly nodded in understanding and left through the back of his van with Rachel in tow. They hopped out the back of the vehicle and Rachel was already starting to get over her initial shock, now looking towards her only roommate as he fished out the portal rune. She was curious as to where they were going and how they were going to get the other two back, having taken that as a top priority over her own worries.

Rob conjured up another gateway through space, this one looking straight into Gumball's empty room and Rob was glad that no one appeared to be home, he didn't like breaking and entering, but this was definitely an emergency, plus he wasn't taking anything valuable,

"Okay, all we need to do is grab a strand of Gumball's hair from his room, then we can locate them and get them back, hopefully. After that, we'll have a talk back at our place, sound good?" he asked, checking up on his friend to see how she was doing.

She seemed to be doing fine and she glanced at him then back at the portal, her cheeks puffing out as she let out a breath, shrugging too,

"Yeah, let's just go and get them back." she quickly replied as she brushed right past him towards the magical opening.

Rob was about to take off after her, but was stopped when his phone started buzzing and he retrieved it from his pockets,

" _Who could possibly be calling at this time?"_ he questioned internally and a small part of him dared to hope it was somehow Gumball or Teri calling to let him know that they were back on Earth and safe.

It wasn't though and the number he was seeing wasn't any number he recognized. He pressed the "answer" button with his thumb and held the phone up against his ear spot, answering the unknown caller,

"Hello?" he greeted in a questioning tone.

" _Hello, I'm Carrie Krueger, one of Gumball and Teri's friends, is this you, Rob?"_ a feminine voice asked in monotone.

At first, Rob didn't want to engage in a conversation with the ghost girl, seeing as he was busy and all, but decided to humor her for a bit. She was, without a doubt, calling him to discuss the matters that occurred in the park and he was hoping that things had been smoothed over or at least well handled. He was also mad because he knew that he didn't give her his number and the only other person, aside from Rachel, who had it was Gumball and Teri. He was going to have a serious talk with that feline when he brought him back.

He brushed a hand through his blocky, brown hair and began pacing about the parking lot,

"Yeah, this is Rob, something going on?" he further inquired, feeling slightly impatient seeing as he was on the clock and some people's lives were on the line.

There was a quiet huff that came from the ghost on the other end and she responded in the same seemingly apathetic tone she always spoke in,

" _Okay, I know that you guys didn't want the others to know about… well, everything, but they do now."_ she started, waiting for the response which she already knew was going to be negative.

"WHAT?!" an enraged Rob yelled into the speaker, as his eye's slit narrowed in anger, further catching the attention of Rachel who was waiting for him in Gumball's room.

" _Called it."_ Carrie thought to herself, feeling completely unphased by the cyclops' angry response as she tried to explain the situation even further,

" _Yeah, thanks to your little "slip up" back in the park, they found out I was helping you guys and I told them everything. So now they're all caught up and they want to know where Gumball and Teri are. I tried contacting them on their phones and they're not responding, I can't sense them anywhere either, so please, for the love of Jade, tell me that they're not dead!"_ she spoke with a mixture of fury and concern.

There was a pause, as Rob was uncertain as to how to answer that question. He didn't know where they were and he certainly didn't know what their current condition is. He was working on figuring that out and that was all he could give her for now.

He growled and pinched the bridge where his nose should be and shut his eye for a moment before answering her,

"I don't know, there was an accident when we were fighting the Nephilim and I'm trying to figure out where they are now as well as getting them back." he was very calm.

Carrie wasn't however, and in the next instant, her voice exploded on the other end of the phone as her concern spilled out of control now,

" _WHAT?! What do you mean "there was an accident"? What happened to them? Are they alright? I need a better answer than that, Rob!"_ she shouted.

Rob hung up on her, placing the device back into his pocket and ignoring her attempts to call him back. There was nothing else for him to say to her and she was going to have to wait until he had actual results. He was just as worried as she was and he needed to hurry if he was to save them.

He hopped through the portal and joined Rachel in the cat boy's bedroom, he could already tell what she was going to ask him just by the look in her eyes,

"Who was that just now?" she whispered, uncertain as to whether or not someone else could be home right now.

Rob quietly made his way over to Gumball's bed and inspected his pillow and blanket, searching for some loose hairs,

"Another friend of his. She was worried about what happened to him along with the others." he muttered as he found what he was looking for and plucked a single strand of blue hair from Gumball's bed covers.

"Wait, there are others?" Rachel exclaimed in disbelief.

Unfortunately, her cry had created quite a disturbance and from downstairs, voices could be heard along with footsteps,

"Did you hear that, Richard?" the sound of Gumball's mom made itself present as she called back down to her husband.

"Hear what, Nicole? Are the poltergeists back again?" came the unmistakable response of Gumball's father.

"Honey, I don't think it was poltergeists, but I did hear someone upstairs and I'm just going up to check." she responded, sounding somewhat unamused by her husband's childish assumptions.

Meanwhile, Rob had already ushered Rachel through the portal before hopping through himself and closing it just as the door opened up to reveal Nicole in her casual work attire. She inspected the room carefully, the light was off, but she could see just fine in the dim evening light. She sighed in disappointment when she found that there was no one there, she had hoped that Gumball had gotten home and was making a ruckus in his room.

She had been trying to get in touch with him all day and she hadn't been very successful, she closed the door behind her,

"Maybe I oughta contact Mrs. Pepakuma in a little bit to see if he's with Teri." she suggested to herself before proceeding back downstairs.

 _-Edge of the Universe, 6:22 PM-_

As awesome as sci-fi and documentaries made space out to be, it was actually kind of quiet and boring out here. Gumball and Teri discovered this very quickly, as they weren't really making much progress in their travels and the background was just the same mess of stars they had been looking at for a little over an hour now. Unless a planet came into view or an alien spaceship came by and beamed them onboard, the two kids could only dream of something exciting happening out here in this empty expanse that they were in.

After their heartfelt confessions with one another, the paper girl and cat boy had retired themselves into a floating bundle made of Gumball's zippable hoodie that he wore as a disguise during the fight in the park, for the air has gotten a bit chillier in the amount of time that has passed. Gumball's hold on the shield was as steady as ever, but the air was slowly running out and it won't be long until their bodies started to shut down from oxygen starvation. To keep their minds off such concerning matters, Gumball had pulled out his cellphone and pulled up a game he downloaded a few days ago called _Raging Red the Bandicoot_ and the two had been taking turns playing through the levels.

Of course, being way out here meant that there was no internet and originally Gumball wanted to watch last night's episode of _Under the stethoscope_ with Teri, but had no such luck. He was on a winning streak as he made the little red bandicoot jump over the obstacles and hurl his enemies off the screen. Teri was watching over his shoulder and was cheering him on as he progressed to the final run,

"Come on, come on, watch out for that falling lava rock, oh, there's that firebrathing Triceratops again! Oh, shoo- hurry, jump, JUMP!" Teri was practically squeezing into Gumball's side as the cat boy struggled to get his character through the onslaught of incoming obstacles and opponents that dominated the volcano level.

"YES!" they both cheered as he made it through the gates and onto the next stage.

"Alright, alright, total amount of mangos collected: 49! Yes! That's twelve more than your run!" he pumped a fist in the air as he grinned victoriously.

Teri was not convinced and she rolled her eyes before shooting him a sassy look,

"You so cheated!" she accused.

Gumball turned to look at her with a vexed expression and his brow had risen a few inches,

"What? How could I have cheated?" he demanded to know.

Teri plucked the phone from his hand and began to select a level,

"You played this level before, therefore you have more experience." she stated in a matter of fact.

Of course, Gumball did not buy into this and raised his hands in defense as he was about to offer his rebuttal, but was cut off by the paper bear,

"We're doing the water level again, if I win, I get to do the next stage." she said with a knowing smirk.

Gumball hated that level, it was very difficult because the water controls sucked and all the enemies in that stage were very fast when in the water. Given that Red the bandicoot had only hit point, this made it exceedingly troublesome and to make things worse, there was a time limit. They both tied in that level, but with Teri's amazing analytical skills, there was no doubt that she will be able to get a higher score than last time.

Still, Gumball was not one to back down from a challenge and with a sneaky grin, an idea formed in his head,

"Okay, you're on! Also, the winner has to kiss the loser." he added in.

Teri gave him yet another knowing smile and she snickered,

"Dork! You are so going to get a nice one once I've won." she declared, poking him on the nose.

Gumball snickered too and watched as she picked the level, after a bit of loading, the game finally started. Teri began to drag the character across the screen and Gumball took a moment to look outside once again. It seemed as though the stars were stationary thanks to their position and Gumball wondered how far away they were from such beautiful celestial bodies. Were there any planets out here too? It also occurred to the young cat that they were the first people from their planet to ever travel this far, too bad they weren't going to live to tell the tale.

He was about to shift his focus to the game again, when something caught his attention right away and his head snapped upwards. It was small at first, and if it wasn't directly in front of the glowing nebula, there was no way Gumball would've noticed the unusual shape against the blackness of space. It was a tear-like hole that appeared apparently from nothing and was growing wider by the moment.

Gumball's eyes widened in terror and after a moment of recollection, the mysterious object became all too familiar to him and he quickly alerted Teri to the disturbance,

"Teri, look over there!" he hissed and pointed.

Hearing the urgency sounding in his voice, Teri shut off the phone and looked to where Gumball was pointing, gasping when she recognized the large portal forming next to their ship,

"What the- how can they be here?" she exclaimed in a startled tone.

Gumball didn't have a clue and what's worse, he wasn't sure how they were going to defend themselves. If a Nephilim came through that portal and started attacking their shield, the barrier will collapse and they will die. He didn't know which was worse: dying by slow asphyxiation or death by space giant?

Neither of them had much time to think of anything because soon after, a cluster of smoky black tendrils with skeletal hands attached to each one shot out and wrapped themselves around the bubble that surrounded the ship. Neither of them screamed, rather they jumped into action with Gumball grabbing his scythe and Teri quickly pulling some rune papers from her bag, forming them into shurikens. Then, the craft and its crew were pulled in through the portal, shrouding them in darkness as they disappeared from the universe.

For a few minutes, all they could see was darkness, the stars had disappeared completely and now there was nothing. They were surrounded by nothingness, a world of enveloped in eternal night, a world of death. The two sat huddled closely together, neither of them knew what lies beyond the portals the Nephilim dropped out of and both were scared to imagine what it was like. The comfort of fighting the Nephilim on Earth rested in the knowledge that they knew the terrain better than their enemies did and as powerful as they were, none of them came in numbers larger than six.

Now they were entering a world they themselves were unfamiliar with and surrounded by the most terrifying enemies the world has ever known. Scared was just an understatement to illustrate just how frightened and helpless the two really felt. Regardless, whatever was waiting for them on the other side, they will face it together and without either of them realizing it, their free hands were interlocking together.

Seconds dragged on like frightful hours of dead silence and then the world was suddenly cast into light once more, momentarily blinding the two.

"Auughhh! What the what?" Gumball growled in irritation as he shut his eyes against the bright lights that assaulted his eyes.

Teri too groaned in agitation as her eyes screwed themselves shut and she said,

"This is really irritating!" she fought hard to rid the darkness of her vision from the bright spots that had appeared.

Eventually they were able to adjust their vision and the two were quite shocked to see that there weren't any horrendous monsters around to greet the newcomers. Instead, they appeared to be on a large, lonely square platform made of brown/red stone covered in a geometric circle that glowed red and the only other source of light that came from their new landscape was a single glowing tree that stood off a little to the side of the platform, whose bark glowed white and its leaves switched colors from bright reds, to warm orange, and cool colors like green and indigo.

Other than that, the rest of the world appeared dark and there were no other living beings in sight.

"Where are the Nephilim?" Teri asked out loud.

Gumball wasn't sure, but he certainly was glad they weren't here at the moment,

"Doesn't matter, we need to go. I'm dropping the shield." he said and did so after releasing his energy from the rune.

The bubble popped instantaneously and the paper craft fell to the hard stone floor, jostling the two kids inside. There was a sudden flood of fresh air and the couple were grateful for the replenished oxygen. All around them, the paper pyramid turned black and disintegrated into blackened ashes, this is what happened to all of Teri's papers whenever a rune was used on them, they amplified the energy of her soul, or sometimes Gumball's, before diminishing into nothing.

Completely exposed and free from the vessel's confines, Teri and Gumball stood up to get a better look at their surroundings,

"Huh, aside from the tree and this symbol, it sure is dark around here." Gumball noted as he looked around, seeing mostly darkened walls that surrounded them minus one that had a gate that oddly resembled a Japanese Torii gate. Through the opening was a paved pathway made of a stone material that was different from the one they were standing on, being bright silver in color and comprised of many square tiles.

Teri looked up and saw something that both shocked and amazed her, causing her to tap Gumball, who was putting on his hoodie, on the shoulder to gain the feline's attention,

"Gumball, look!" she gaped.

Gumball turned and looked up to where she was pointing at,

"What's- Oh my stars! Is that… Earth?" he cried out.

Indeed it was, in a starless night sky, hanging right above their heads was their familiar blue marble! Covered in its vast blue oceans, the continents cloaked in swathes of green forests and golden brown deserts, all while partially being obscured by thick layers of white clouds. There was no doubt that the place Teri and Gumball were viewing was their home.

Now Gumball had a question that surfaced in his mind and he wondered,

"Wait, does that mean that we're on the moon?" he turned to Teri, who was still somewhat mesmerized by the familiar sight of home.

She snapped out of her daze and thought back a bit to memories of the moon landing missions taken by the Apollo missions she'd seen in videos and books,

"Given its distance, I'd say that we are on the moon, but perhaps in another dimension?" she thought before adding,

"First the edge of the universe and now the moon. I gotta say, this was quite the road trip!" she exclaimed as she sent a smile in Gumball's direction.

Gumball sent a smile back and something else for extra effect,

"This whole day has been pretty _far out_ and to be honest, once we get back home, I could definitely use some _space_ from all these magical adventures." he joked as he wiggled his eyebrows like he always did when he was being witty.

Teri responded with the usual roll of her eyes, a slight shake of her head, a smile that displayed her fake unimpressed attitude, and placed her hands on her hips,

"Your puns are out of this world." she countered, causing the blue goof to giggle.

"I should've known better than to use my punny comebacks because you're definitely more of a "down to Earth" kind of person." he remarked and Teri walked up to him to grab him by the hand and pull him towards the gate.

"How about we focus on getting back to Earth where your puns can really blast off!" she countered while also keeping focus on their real objective.

Gumball quietly nodded in agreement and continued to follow behind his paper partner while keeping his scythe at the ready. Teri had about one half a notebook's worth of paper left in her bag, plus seven large sheets for origami building and with this in mind, she knew that she had to be very careful with her limited supply. As for Gumball, his scythe provided him with excellent strength and speed, plus a mid-ranged attack that was all in all, pretty devastating on its own. However, most of his strikes still relied heavily on close-range combat and his most devastating attacks deplete his spiritual stamina pretty quickly.

In this place, there was no room for error and the only objective for the two was to avoid confrontation while focusing entirely on escaping this place.

"We should probably figure out how this portal works, seeing as it's our only ticket home." she whispered back to him and Gumball was definitely aligned with that plan.

"Agreed, but we should also probably try to locate another gate in case they come to this one. They pulled us in here and I'm sure they're on their way now, probably bringing the welcome wagon too." he cautioned and his female companion understood that "welcome wagon" was a cleverly ironic term used to describe an attack party with the sole purpose of destroying or detaining them.

No sooner than when the couple reached the gate, they began to hear voices and footsteps approaching. It was coming from the pathway and they stopped to listen in on what they were saying, while quickly ducking behind one of the gate's black support pillars. They could hear three people talking from the sounds of it and given their gruff voices, they sounded male, though they could be wrong,

"...and have you confirmed that this was the object that Chalon transported to the set coordinates?" one voice demanded to one of the others.

"Yes, president Nimrod, we have confirmed reports of Chalon's death in Elmore and that he has indeed acted upon your final orders, the surrounding defenders should have been vented out into the far reaches of space." the other stated, his voice brash and strong, giving him a sense of power and authority, unlike the aforementioned president.

"Mister, president, sir, if I may interject! If this operation turns out to be another failure, then the senate may withdraw support for the Elmore campaign entirely. We've already wasted valuable soldiers and military assets trying to claim that stretch of land and for what, to chase some supposed fable?" the third voice, more soft spoken than the other two, spoke out in disdain and concern.

There was an irritated snort that came from the president and he regarded the other's statement about the Senate in discontent,

"Thank you for your concerns, Michael, but I get enough rejoinder from those old crones and I don't think your statement properly sums what goes on in those chambers." he was definitely a man of little patience for the insolence of others and mostly craved results,

"Once I show them some corpses, that'll be enough to sway their opinion and I will have all the backing I need to capture that giant ingrate that dwells within that rat's nest." he spoke in a calm manner, but his voice held a sinister condescending tone when he regarded the home of the two quietly listening in on the conversation.

Both students were frozen with fright when they quickly found that the person who was among the few heading their way to see if Chalon, apparently the name of the Nephilim that was sent to them for today, had succeeded in disposing of them was none other than the president and leader of the invading monsters threatening their home. Neither of them felt prepared for this and a thousand thoughts raced through their heads in a frenzied mess as they wondered what they should do. They needed to flee right now before they were discovered, but there was also the possibility that they could talk to him and hopefully end the war without any further bloodshed.

Actually, that was a terrible idea seeing as he clearly intended to see them all dead and they were also on their homeland, meaning what they had to say had no sway here. As of right now, they were enemy combatants in the heart of their adversary's homeland and they had to assume every Nephilim here was ordered to kill all Earth children on sight. They needed to go now.

There was something the Nephilim leader said that was brought to their attention right away though and the two stopped once more to listen,

"Gabriel, what's the status on general Gorothim's assault force?" President Nimrod asked, now directing his attention at the other Nephilim that was accompanying him.

The other one, Gabriel, replied in that powerful voice of his and relayed his report,

"General Gorothim has his army assembled and is ready for the invasion of the Earth city, Los Angeles." he proudly claimed and there was a satisfied grunt from the president.

"Excellent, everything is well underway and going according to schedule, I presume?" he asked.

While Gabriel continued to deliver his status report on the invading army, Gumball and Teri finally had the courage to carefully peek out from the pillar to see their enemies for the first time. Much to their shock, where they were expecting to see the monstrous behemoths that so relentlessly attacked them time after time, they instead found three nearly identical humanoid creatures standing at about ten feet tall. Their features seemed harmless, they were very thin in their structure, although the one that was probably Gabriel was more on the lean side, with pale, grey skin that matched the clouds on a stormy day making them look almost sickly and frail.

Most curious was the fact that they had many human-like features, such as two arms, hands, legs, feet and a face set with a pair of eyes, sharp noses and thin lips with pointy ears that sat beneath a pair of antlers, which was more of a Bizarro trait, to be frank. They also had different hairstyles and colors to set them apart, with Gabriel's being long and blonde, done up in a few braids that travelled down his back, Michael's being white, almost glowing in fact and was cut short while hanging just a little past his neck with no decorations done to it and then there was Nimrod, who had a wild mane of black, jagged hair that reached down to his waist and almost covered his eyes with spiky bangs.

It was definitely a little unprofessional-looking for someone who appeared to be the official leader of a nation filled with sophisticated yet, genocidal beings, but it did give him a wild and intimidating appearance, like a powerful predator that could dominate any field he found himself in. His attire even matched this menacing appearance, his body was partially covered in a toga suited for a Roman emperor, a white piece of cloth adorned with a Jade stone necklace and golden bands on his biceps, an insignia was embroidered on the skirt in a striking royal purple, probably the emblem of the Babyloth Republic. The chest and arms that were were exposed possessed tribal markings that the two kids had seen on some Nephilim before and on his back was a flowing black cape, further displaying his power and authority.

He was engaged in a deep discussion with the other two flanking his sides, who wore a similar uniform, but with less accessories and no capes to flaunt, and Gumball along with Teri could see that they were no longer heading in their direction, instead were caught up in their conversation,

"They must think that we're dead! Let's take this chance to escape while they're distracted!" Gumball whispered to Teri, who was already on it.

She was rummaging through her bag and pulled out a large sheet of paper to place on the ground,

"Okay, I'll create an origami panther and we'll cling to its underside while we slip away into the darkness!" she formulated her plan as she folded the black sheet of paper very carefully, wanting its design to well crafted for higher performance.

Gumball nodded and took one last peek around the pillar to see if the three giants were still talking and was glad to see that they were. He also noted that the sides of the silver path were lined with darker stones and would provide for an excellent backdrop to the panther's black coat, but he was sure that Teri had already thought of that. When she was finished crafting, Gumball walked over and placed a sticky note he always kept on his person with a barrier rune on the underside towards the rear.

Teri shot him an odd look and he gave her a reassuring glance,

"Just in case we get caught and they try blasting us with something." he explained, giving her a thumbs up.

She nodded and they both climbed underneath the dog-sized, paper jungle cat, with Teri climbing in first and Gumball getting behind her, enclosing the paper puppet within his body's frame as there wasn't enough room for them to hang in single file, plus Teri wasn't uncomfortable with Gumball's close proximity. The panther's broader upper body did a good job of concealing them both, the center fold within the cat's body also gave them a place to latch their legs onto without exposing them, and the head was raised just enough for Teri to see the path itself. With a single command, the black origami began to quietly shuffle along with its two hidden passengers.

They made it to the darkened path that flanked both sides of the main road and from what it may have seemed, the Nephilim hadn't noticed them. Which was good, considering that they could both pay attention to what lies ahead and could both see that the open portal chamber they had arrived in was actually one of many nearly identical ones lining both sides of the main path.

"Okay, we just need to move out of sight and figure out how to use one of these." Gumball whispered, feeling his body bounce with every step the trotting paper animal made as it quietly made its way away from the triumvirate of Nephilim.

Teri kept her focus on navigating the road and quietly answered the cat,

"We can actually do that by finding some more Nephilim and spying on them from a distance. I can create an insect to help us out with-!"

BZAAAT!

A red beam of light shot out from behind them and before Teri could finish her thought, something powerful struck the barrier set off by Gumball's security detail, causing them to stop. Neither of them were harmed, that much was obvious, but they were both startled and once it occurred to them that they were caught, Gumball dropped onto his back and rolled from underneath the origami and Teri followed suit. He got to his feet and his scythe was already springing out in his hand while his pale companion readied herself with shurikens.

Standing at attention now, were the three Nephilim and they were now looking down at them, with Gabriel lowering an extended arm as his finger trailed smoke. He was the one who fired the blast! The blonde haired Nephilim seemed to be pleased and a hand stroked his chiseled chin as he spoke to Nimrod,

"I figured they must have been alive somehow, our scanners took an hour to locate them because there was some kind of barrier that was reflecting the cosmic radiation that their bodies otherwise would have absorbed." he claimed in triumph, as though he had just figured out a difficult puzzle.

Gumball's heart was beating a mile per minute in his thoracic cavity, the jig was up and they had been caught! He wasn't sure what their abilities were, but he would be a fool if he were to underestimate these people, they came in a group of three either because they presumed they were already dead or because they were confident enough to take them both on. They were outnumbered and there was a slim chance they could run from them.

Thinking of something, Gumball lowered his scythe and took a step forward, surprising Teri, who was about to question his strange actions, but was stopped with a single wave from his hand. He cleared his throat and tried to present himself as humbly as he could before the president and his comrades,

"G-good after-evening Mr. president, um, sir president?" he stammered out a greeting and felt his face glowing red in embarrassment,

" _What the heck was that, you scatterbrained oaf?!"_ his internal voice screamed in chastisement and he could practically hear Teri shaking her head while scowling in disappointment.

However, none of the Nephilim attacked and the black haired leader, after a long pause, stepped forward, placing his two men behind him, who both looked ready to take action in case things went sour,

"What exactly am I looking at here? And is that what you would call a formal greeting? Pretty shoddy for a mud-crawling rodent." his voice was smooth like glass, but his disgust was ever so present in his tone and his black hole eyes, both of which seemed to pull Gumball into an abyss.

Gumball wondered if he should apologize for his poor excuse of a greeting, but thought against it as he introduced himself,

"I'm Gumball Watterson and this is my, um, girlfriend, Teri Pepakuma!" he shot a curious glance back at her, to which she met with an approving nod and he turned while mentally screaming with pride.

And just like that, Teri joined her boyfriend's side and presented herself with a curt little bow to show her respect. They weren't killing them so far and as long as they were willing to talk, then perhaps there was a good chance this could all work out. Although, their minds were already screaming that this was never going to work and that they should try to escape rather than use diplomacy.

President Nimrod, did not return their polite introductions, standing as still as a statue, which given his grey complexion, he may as well be one, and continued to bore into them with his apathetic eyes. There was another round of uncomfortable silence and the couple simultaneously dropped a sweat mark as they fancied themselves with two decisions: try again or run!

Finally, like a cold wind from a chimney stack, the president's voice came and he asked,

"Of Elmore, I presume?" he folded his arms like a parent expecting a direct answer from his kids.

There was a cold chill that ran down their backs in spite of the world's warm climate and the boy and girl looked at one another in search of an answer. Why was he asking them if he already sent a Nephilim that was responsible for bringing them here in the first place? More importantly, why was it that this guy was so hostile towards _them_? Shouldn't his hatred be directed at the more important figures on Earth, like maybe the president of the United States or perhaps the NEA?

While they were skeptical towards how they should answer, the towering antlered creature reached in and pulled something out from his cape, apparently. In his hand was a small object shaped like a diamond and looked to be made of a blue glass. It was the size of a volleyball and he tossed it out in front of him, where it clattered to the floor and landed on its flatside with the point directed towards the sky.

From it sprang a holographic, 3-D image of a Nephilim similar in appearance to Nimrod himself, he had short, black, wild hair just like him and the same fearsome dark eyes, although he was smiling in this image. His robes also matched Nimrod's and he wore a necklace that seemed all too familiar to Gumball and Teri as they looked at it. The Nephilim appeared to be very young, perhaps in his late teens, his antlers were shorter than the three present and not as sharp-looking.

"Do you recognize him?" Nimrod asked, his thin eyebrow raising an inch in suspicion.

None of the Earthlings could match this person's face with any of the Nephilim they've encountered before, mainly because none of them ever looked like this when they visited Earth and they simultaneously shook their heads.

The black haired Nephilim leader then waved his hands through the hologram and the image itself warped and changed. Now the figure was silver in color, sporting a robe and sandals of matching shades, his head was obscured by a knight's helmet and from his back sprung twelve enormous wings, whose feathers changed in a colorful display of light. Gumball and Teri froze when they saw the being in the image, for they knew who it was:

Silver Twelve. The first Nephilim to ever attack Elmore.

Nimrod was able to spot the recognition on their faces and he seemed to come to some kind of conclusion that made him fold his arms and step back,

"He was my only son and his name was Isaac. He was sent to Elmore under my orders and I suspect you already know what has become of him." his eyes did not betray what emotion that he was conveying in those words. Anger, rage, guilt, sorrow, and loss all wrapped within a burning coil of hatred that was directed at the two who he knew killed his son.

And then like a window being opened after a storm, everything was clear to both Teri and Gumball. They understood now, why after the first one showed up more and more kept appearing afterwards whereas the rest of the world only experienced the occasional strike. They were both quiet to the giant, who started up again, talking down on them as he retrieved the hologram before slipping it back into his cape,

"You two… have brought a lot of suffering upon me and to all the families and friends to the soldiers you have slain." he was still emanating a composed form, but it was all a facade, inside he was ready to lash out, to crush the vermin that have been like a plague to him and his efforts,

"Once you two are extinguished, I will unleash the full wrath of the armies of Babyloth upon your small nest and the rest of the world will soon-!"

"Would you just can it already, you stag-headed beef brain!" Teri screamed, forcing the whole roadway to go silent and all eyes to turn upon her.

She had just about had it with these guys, she didn't care how big or how terrifying they were, they were always spewing some kind of bullcrap, crap that didn't seem to add up because they weren't in the wrong,

"I'm so sick and tired of hearing one giant after the other tell us how we are worthless or how we are the cause of all the bad things to come! You wanna talk about suffering, why don't you take a visit to all the grieving people whose loved ones _you_ killed! Not only are they hurting, but most don't even know why they are because they don't even know what or more accurately, _who_ killed them. Screw your dead kid! He killed three people after he arrived, terrorized me as he chased me through Elmore _and_ he nearly killed Gumball!" she stopped and was breathing heavily.

It was very rare for Gumball to see Teri get so angry like that, but when it's not being directed at himself, he absolutely thought she rocked when she went crazy.

" _Oh, wow!"_ he thought as stars lit up in his eyes and what made this even better was the fact that she also defended him, while telling off an interdimensional tyrant!

However, Nimrod remained unshook by Teri's tyrade and was quiet before the robed politician turned to his trusted bodyguard, simply saying,

"The thing that just talked, rip her arms and legs off and bring her to me. Split the hairy one in two, I haven't the slightest care for that wretched thing." he took a step back as Gabriel loyally nodded, placing a hand on his heart while bowing.

"Yes, Mr. President, it will be done." and with that, the loyal soldier stood tall and proceeded straight for Teri, who realized what she had gotten herself into the moment she snapped at the president.

She backed away in terror as Gabriel steadily made his towards them, his form changing as he walked and soon the antlered giant was enveloped in a bright light. While it was hard to see, Gumball could just barely make out a glowing humanoid figure begin to morph and reform itself in the same fashion as clay before its form took a solid shape once again. Soon the light died down and Gabriel stood before them in his new form,

"Behold, the face of the Babyloth Army and the hero of Jade, Gabriel!" the loud Nephilim boomed as he announced the end of his transformation.

Standing before them in all his glory, was a golden being very regal in appearance, yet as mighty as a celestial warrior of the seven heavens. He was the same height as he originally was, but his form was an intimidating sight for one to befall their eyes upon. Sitting atop of broad shoulders were four heads, one of a human's, one of a stag's, one of an eagle's, and finally, one of a wolf's, all of which pointed in each of the cardinal directions. Connected at each shoulder was a pair of arms, numbering four in total, though these arms were placed in front of each other rather than above and below. The ones in the back were broader and longer than those of the front. His garments were an elaborate tunic worn by warriors of old along with a set of golden armor inscribed with various markings and his bare legs were covered in a fine layer of thick, gold fur that ended in lion's feet.

What was most stunning though, was the halo of swords that hovered behind him in a spinning pinwheel of blades numbering twenty in total, each six feet in length.

He held a hand up and a blade was summoned from his halo, finding its way into the warrior's mighty armored claw as the human face, which was facing forward on the body, scowled at them, a perfect angel despising the sight of the wretched,

"begone, both of you!" he commanded, his voice as thunderous as a booming chorus of drums as he lifted his sword to smite the paper puppet.

Leaping in between both of them, Gumball was already poised for an attack and swiped hard at the double edged weapon, knocking it away in a cascade of sparks. With Gabriel left wide open now, Gumball shot forward, his feet lifting off the ground as he flew and oriented himself to where both his feet would strike first. He planted both into his chest and pushed off, swiping at the slender armored arm that was going for his throat, as Gabriel was sent skidding back a few feet.

Gumball landed somewhat gracefully on one knee and right in front of Teri as he turned his head back,

"Can you make an origami that can hold off Mr. four-heads?" he asked, looking back to see that Gabriel wasn't even phased by that attack, guess that armor really absorbed it.

Teri wasn't sure where he was getting at,

"Wait, are you saying you want to attack them?" she shot back, completely baffled as to how the blue cat went from wanting to retreat to wanting to go on the offensive.

He nodded and stood up, twirling his scythe around his wrist before slamming the stock end into the ground creating a loud crashing noise as the road underneath cracked,

"Well, considering that he just changed and looks more like the Nephilim we're familiar with, I say we have a chance. Besides, we need to kill Nimrod, it may not stop the Nephilim threat, but it may slow them down!" he pushed off with one foot, heading straight towards the sword wielding Nephilim in front of him,

"I'll buy you some time!" he declared as he ran.

Soon their blades crossed and the fight was on, Teri thought that this was crazy and that they should go, but he had a point. There were only three of them here and Gumball was holding his own pretty well against Gabriel, if they could kill Nimrod now, then it may put a dampener on their overall war effort. There was still Michael to get past and they didn't know what any of the Nephilim were capable of doing, but if they acted quickly maybe they could pull it off.

She knelt down by her panther and started to undo it, quickly grabbing three more large paper sheets as she began creating something large.

Meanwhile, Gumball was managing to keep up with Gabriel, the ten foot entity was easy to dodge as his armor made him slightly cumbersome, but it was difficult for Gumball to get a good shot in as his many heads would track his every move and his armored claws made for good weapons too. He was fighting only at fifteen percent, this usually being his starting position whenever he entered a battle, and he was surprised that none of his other swords were being used, seeing as they would provide the warrior with a superior advantage, him having four arms and all, nor were Nimrod and Michael stepping in to assist their comrade.

It was strange, and he dodged another quick thrust as the deadly point barely nicked the whiskers on his cheek before he slammed the upper shaft of the scythe into the blade's flat end, pushing it away once again,

"Why don't you use your full power?" a voice came from above and Gumball realized that Gabriel was speaking to him.

" _Wait, is he trying to goad me into using my powers against him? What trickery is this?"_ he mused as he stepped to the side and the golden blade slammed down in front of him, driving the pointed tip in through the stony tiles and Gumball took this chance to strike a couple times at the wrist, where the armor was weakest, and he heard several hollow screams as his whirling blade crashed several times against the metallic surface.

He landed with a grunt and spotted the area he struck, only to see that his attack had no real effect,

"What are you blathering on about?" he snapped back as he swatted a swiping claw from his face.

He didn't see the other arm coming and he was decked in the face by a gold-plated fist, sending him crashing to the ground. Ignoring the pain, Gumball was already rolling when Gabriel's simple arms sword bounced off the pavement with a striking sound and he proceeded to try and crush Gumball beneath his feet,

"You know you can easily defeat me if you just use all of your might and cut me down. Then, you and your lady friend may have a shot at those two!" he said, still goading him on while he brought his lion's foot down where Gumball's head once was.

Increasing his power to about twenty five, Gumball found himself in a position to kick the Nephilim in the knee, doing so and sending the limb skidding to the side, providing him room to escape. He rolled away and got back up, keeping his front to the Nephilim and his eyes on his limbs. He twirled the scythe around until it was pointed at him with the blade facing downwards,

"Quit telling me how to use my power, numbskull!" he bellowed, beginning to draw up some more fire from within and was channeling it into his weapon,

"You want me to hit you with everything I have, FINE! Here we go, one hundred percent-" he raised his scythe upwards, a torrent of silver flames wrapping itself around the blade and roaring with the wielder's fury,

"-MOONFIRE SLASH!" he shouted as he brought the scythe down.

The downwards cut sent forth a crescent of grey fire as big as the Nephilim himself and the path was burned as the magic strike tore it asunder. Gabriel, of course, was not afraid, for this is exactly what he wanted! He raised his sword to the oncoming grey crescent, the tip catching the attack, which was absorbed into the blade itself through a single point and then the golden blade itself was glowing with silver flames.

Gabriel held it up for a surprised Gumball to see and he laughed in triumph,

"You shouldn't let your foes egg you on, Watterson, for now I have your strongest attack!" his other front hand was raised and another sword shot out from the pinwheel in the back, resting itself within his grip,

"Now that I know you can dish it, the real question is, can you take it yourself?" he asked in a taunting voice as he raised the new sword to the side and pointed the grey fire blade directly at Gumball.

Gumball, eyes wide with terror, raised his scythe and tensed his body for the upcoming attack,

"Die, fool!" Gabriel cried out in his thundering voice.

The stream of flaming silver leapt from the blade's edge and hungrily tore its way back to its original master. At the sight of his own attack being used against him, there was nothing Gumball could do, except prepare a counter strike, for it was coming in too fast! His raised crescent glowed with fiery energy, his eyes narrowed as he felt the heat began to increase as the approaching fire drew closer and closer,

"Forty percent." he said and he spun with the reaping weapon pointed outwards.

The glowing blade made a silver circle as he tore up the magic stream that crashed into it and within moments the inferno died out, leaving Gumball completely unscathed. Gabriel was left in a complete state of shock! That was his full power that he used against him, if he had tried to fight against it, he would've just tired himself out or at the very least the two attacking forces would have cancelled each other out.

Wiping his forehead with the back of his arm, Gumball stood tall and brought the scythe to rest on his shoulder, giving the Nephilim a cocky grin,

"Man, it sure was a good thing I sent a charge that was only thirty percent of what I could actually muster." he tilted his head as the Nephilim clenched his teeth,

"You didn't actually think I was going to let you swindle me into hitting you with everything I have, did you? Now I guess the real question is, have you been paying attention to your surroundings?" he asked.

Gabriel was about to demand he clarify that statement when a thin coil of tightly twisted paper wrapped itself around his human neck and pulled upwards, silencing him as his windpipe was cut off. Up in the air was Teri who was perched atop an origami demon that was as tall as the Nephilim itself. It's body was made from two separate sheets of paper that made up both torsos, resembling a red humanoid with short, angular horns and clawed feet with hands. It's tail was another sheet of paper rolled up into a tight strand and it's bat-like wings was actually the repurposed panther origami.

She gave Gumball a wave and he returned it with a wave of his own,

"You got this, Teri?" he shouted in concern.

Teri nodded and pulled two lightning rune shurikens from her bag,

"This will be a piece of cake, now go kill Nimrod!" she replied, urging him to complete the task.

She tossed the shurikens straight onto Gabriel's two massive back arms and a bolt of lightning struck each one, causing the Nephilim to roar in agony as electricity coursed through him, bands of lightning even connecting his swords. Gumball nodded and dashed off, heading straight for Nimrod and Michael, who have also begun their own transformations. Once Gumball had set off to kill the Babyloth president, Teri brought the demon down in front of Gabriel as the four headed Nephilim quickly recovered from her lightning strikes.

He glared at her with bitterness and hatred, a spark of lightning would occasionally flare up in his armor and his swords,

"I was ordered to bring you to bring your limbless body to my president, but If you put up more of a fight, I will be forced to bring your head instead!" he warned, his handsome featured marred by his scowl.

Teri placed a hydro-trident rune in the demon's hand and pulled out a spare barrier rune and explosive shuriken to use herself,

"I think I will take that over being his living trophy, at least if I bring all of yours home, I will have quite the collection mount on the wall." she commented with snark and activated the origami demon's water trident, spinning it in a circle as she came to a fighting stance.

Arming his back hands with two more swords, the golden knight of Babyloth used the electricity he gathered in his two other swords and fired two bolts of lightning in succession. Teri spun around and dodged the first one, blocking the second with the circular glass of the moon barrier before stretching her demon mount's black wings and soaring upwards with a mighty push. She then dived downwards with her trident poised straight for Gabriel's head, but as soon as she got close, two of Gabriel's swords crossed themselves in front, locking the triple prongs in a deadly snare.

Teri quickly pushed back off, allowing the water weapon to disappear and tossed the shuriken straight in between the spaces the swords left. The paper weapon found its way in front of his face and before the four armed monstrosity could slice it, the bomb detonated. The explosion engulfed the Nephilim in flames and the resulting shockwave sent him tumbling backwards. Teri used the rising heat from the fireball to catch some air and rode the lift higher up.

She couldn't see the body yet, but if he was dead, then she could go assist her boyfriend. She honestly could not believe how well all of that went and was quite impressed with her reaction time. She began to dig out some more runes that she drew onto her notebook, requiring more weapons in order to further increase her overall readiness and hoped that Gumball was doing okay against his two opponents.

SHLKT!

A sword flew from the plume of smoke and had Teri not reacted in time, it would have gone straight through the paper demon's head and hers too. Unfortunately, she did not pull away fast enough and as a result, her ride lost its right arm. Behind her, the sword emitted a blast much like the bomb she used and the resulting shockwave forced the flying Pepakuma down somewhat.

Down below, the smoke cleared and though Teri was a bit rattled from the explosion, she could see that Gabriel was still standing. To her horror though, not only had he managed to survive that with only a few scratches, but on his back was another set of armored arms as big as the second set behind the first two and each one wielded a sword.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Teri cried in dismay, having received some Gorothim flashbacks.

Catching the sword he had thrown, Gabriel grinned as he stared up at her and raised all of his swords in a challenging display,

"And I've got fourteen more where that came from, so I hope you brought enough spells." he called out, laughing triumphantly.

Teri placed another water trident in the origami demon's remaining claw as well as a sticky note holding a petrification rune on the tip of its tail and thought of another strategy,

" _I should probably stick to the skies where he can't reach me, but nothing I have will be effective if his swords keep absorbing all my magic."_ she cursed herself and thought of something else,

" _I could try using that spiral rune Rob also gave me, but he told me not to use that one because it was very dangerous. I'll probably be fine up here, but what if it affects Gumball? I'll have to think of something else."_ she pondered as she activated the trident to use for a second time.

Meanwhile, Gumball was well on his way to killing both Nimrod and his remaining bodyguard. After the lights had faded, both Nephilim were now standing anew in their powerful forms and Gumball was struck with an interesting sight. They were both still ten feet in height and humanoid in appearance.

Michael hadn't changed as much, which was surprising to say, his head was still visible with his short white hair and antlers still in full display for him to see, except that he wore a bronze halo above his head with a single jade gem set in the front, like a jewel in a crown. His attire was a knight's, full platings of white armor that completely covered his body, except for a black military kilt that wrapped around his waist and split in the front. He held no weapon, only a kite shield that covered his full body with a color scheme that matched his armor and black markings that formed an eye at the top where the pupil was a sapphire gem.

As for Nimrod, his transformation matched his son's in appearance, but only slightly. He was silver too, and wore light clothing in the form of a grey tunic with the only armor being curved pauldrons that covered his shoulders as well as his upper arms and a helm whose appearance was reminiscent of a Roman Centurion's. His helmet plume and the six large wings on his back were bathed in flames of pure white. There was no face to be seen, only a shadow with a pair of glowing eyes that changed colors along with the circular bands on his neck and wrists.

The leader and the bodyguard were knights of this land and Gumball felt as though this image suited them both. He still pressed on, undaunted by their fearsome appearances and Michael stepped in front of Nimrod with his shield raised, ready to take the first hits for the president. He turned back and shouted to his commander in chief,

"Mr. President, I advise you to flee this place! Gabriel and I will hold them off until reinforcements are summoned." he suggested as he felt the little cat slam into his shield with his raised shoulder after leaping straight into it. Good thing the shield he carried was enchanted to absorb both physical and magical attacks, making it so Gumball's herculean efforts were barely felt by the defensive Nephilim.

Nimrod remained where he was, unperturbed by the feline's flurry of attacks that bounced off of Michael's shield, as the soldier moved accordingly and prevented him from passing,

"I refuse. I will not cower in the face of my son's killer, besides he's no threat as is his paper wench." he sighed, as though unimpressed.

Gumball, having had enough of getting nowhere with this shield blocking his way, tried a different approach and jumped straight up instead. He cleared the top of the kayak sized shield easily, grabbing the round upper edge with his unoccupied hand as he swung himself over, planting both feet into a surprised Michael's face and sending him crashing backwards with a high powered kick. With Michael temporarily down now, Gumball leapt upwards again, aiming to attack Nimrod from above and put himself into a spin as he began to fall,

"NIMROD!" he shouted as his blade crashed into the raised wing of the Nephilim president.

It didn't cut through the appendage and instead clung onto the flaming surface as though he were striking a solid wall. Suddenly, all the power within Gumball went out like a candle and the cat was left in a sense of dreaded shock as he felt his seemingly unstoppable strength fade to nothing. Next thing he knew, a silver fist was sailing towards his face and he was sent flying into a gate pillar, which cracked on impact.

Tumbling to the ground, Gumball coughed as drops of blood spilled out from his lips and he could feel his nose dripping with the stuff too. His back and his face were firing constant waves of agony that clouded the edges of his vision with black. He didn't know what just happened, when he touched him, his power was gone and he was helpless.

He heard heavy footsteps pressing against the stone floor and the frightened eldest child of the Wattersons tried his best to shrug off the pain while wiping the blood from his nose,

"This suffering has long been awaited, you wretch." came the voice of the monster that was steadily making his way towards him.

Wobbling as he stood, Gumball tried to shake his vision clear of the spots that were appearing in it as he coughed out a rebuttal,

"Suffering? If you want yours to end, then why don't you call off the attacks and end the war, you oversized tyrant." he spat out some more blood as he glared at him,

"You're the one causing all of this pain and you can end it, now stand down!" he ordered, even though he was already getting ready to attack. Whatever Nimrod did, it's effects weren't permanent and his powers had returned, but he was feeling more drained than usual.

Insulted, Nimrod curled his fists until a cracking sound could be heard, in the background, the sound of Teri's struggle could be heard and Gumball could already see that Michael was back on his feet, although he was holding something in his hand. He was speaking into it and before Gumball could listen in on his conversation, Nimrod let out a snort as he spoke back to the little cat,

"I don't think you're in a position to be making demands, child of Earth!" he scoffed as he lunged forward.

His fist only smashed the gate's pillar as Gumball moved aside and tried to avoid touching him. He kept his distance as Nimrod continued to throw punch after punch with the intention of splattering the child's brains all over the tile stones,

"Our suffering will never end until we have claimed the Earth for our own! For 6,000 years my people have toiled in this prison, fighting wars for scarce resources as our numbers grew out of control. We watched as you, the one's _he_ chose over us, took over our position as protectors of the Earth and what did you do with his gifts? You stepped on them and continued to tear the world down as a result!" with every spiteful, angry word he uttered his attacks became faster and more fierce, causing Gumball to up the amount of power he was using just in order to simply dodge,

"And now, after eons of watching, waiting, and praying, we have been gifted with the opportunity to return! We'll reclaim our rightful position over the world as its defenders and complete our first task: the eradication of the world's true threat, Humanity and the Bizarros! It's why I was chosen as the first president of the newly united tribes that formed the Republic of Babyloth, only I have the power to carry us to victory. I will avenge the Earth, my fallen brothers, and most importantly, ISAAC!" he shouted as he put as much as he could into the final punch.

Gumball managed to safely move himself out of the direct path of bullet-like punch, but the force the savage strike brought sent him flying backwards again. Landing hard on his back, Gumball was angry and in pain. Not from the landing, no, that barely registered, but from this guy's fraking monologue. He didn't care for a single word that hurled itself from this monster's lips because there was something he was still forgetting, something important that he failed to bring up.

And with this knowledge, Gumball was going to rip the president a new one,

"And what of it?" he demanded, getting back up.

Nimrod was placed at a loss for words as his hidden expression twisted into one of confusion and indignation. Did this little creature just ask him _"and what of it?"_ such arrogance! Of course, why was this such a surprise for the president, none of these weaklings could possibly comprehend the sheer wretchedness of their own wrongs and the sufferings of his own people.

Using his scythe as a supporting stick, Gumball leaned against it, his eyes still locked onto Nimrod's, not even caring in the slightest how much hatred was behind them because he was just too darned ticked to care,

"You talk of saving the world and yet, your ancestors nearly destroyed it the first time. The only reason you're even here is because _they_ put themselves in this position! And yes, I'm well aware of the terrible things that are happening on my planet and honestly, I don't have an answer to the world's problems, none of us do! If Jade is allowing you to return, then I think you should try helping us, if you claim to know better!" he barked, still enraged at all the blame that was being directed at people who don't even deserve it.

There was a pause, but ultimately Nimrod failed to heed to the cat's words,

"And why would I care about the opinions of some rat!" he spat with venom.

A dangerous flash of silver erupted within the cat's eyes and his bared fangs clenched together along with his fists,

"That's it, I've had it with you!" Gumball declared as he placed his energy into his scythe, climbing all the way to his full power.

From his scythe, a jet of flames roared as the power of soul fed the inferno and raged as it begged to be released. All he needed to do was swing once and he could set the whole of the path on fire. It was a risky move, throwing it all into one attack, but with Nimrod being in the direct line of fire, there was no way he could survive this and Gumball sent his farewells to the president,

"I will not stand by as you trample the people I love and care about into the ground! Now burn to a cinder, Nimrod!" his resolution absolute and shot the unmatched hell storm of dark flames rushing forward with a single concise movement of his arms.

For the first time since this confrontation began, Nimrod's confidence wavered and gave way to a twinge of fear. There was no way he could dodge this and given the devastating scale of the slashing wave of fire, he wasn't even sure if he could survive it. The wave was three times his size and twice as wide, having the ability to completely envelope him.

In a flash of white and black, Michael appeared as though from thin air in front of the president and stabbed the pointed end of his shield into pavement, a protective sphere of interlinking hexagons forming around them both just as the voracious flames crashed around them. The barrier was rocked around a bit from the awesome force and Michael gritted his teeth as he held his ground. The flames continued to batter and bite at the barrier, causing the two within to shrink back a little as the silver hellstorm continued to swirl around them, burning itself out the longer it stayed.

Soon the flames vanished and the noise died down, Gumball collapsed to his knees and breathed heavily through his mouth as sweat gathered on his face and his pits. He shook and twitched as fatigue ravaged his joints, but he was amazed to know that he still had a bit of energy left, probably enough for a five percent blast or something similar to that caliber. He checked as the smoke began to drift away and despite the heaviness of his eyes, they shot open along with his jaws as his heart seemed to stop in his chest.

They were still standing and completely unharmed too.

Pulling his shield from the ground, Michael dropped the barrier around them and turned his attention, first to his commander to see if he was okay, and then to the one responsible for the burning devastation that his magic scythe left behind,

"That was quite the attack, my little one, but I'm afraid it ends here. You barely have the strength to stand anymore. Drop your weapon and surrender now." Michael stated in a matter of fact, his voice still gentle and calming.

Gumball's jaw moved a couple times as he tried to form some kind of response, but just kept quiet, his failure to even hurt the president still weighing heavily on his person. They were really out of their league here and worst yet, he was almost out of energy too. That however, paled in comparison to the frightening scene that came next when he looked over to see how Teri was fairing in her duel against Gabriel.

Trying to gain an advantage against her multi-armed opponent, Teri would swoop down and try to skewer one of his heads after unleashing a barrage of explosives to cover her approach. She did this several times, but the Nephilim was just too fast and would often be on the ready for her assault. She tried again to pierce his eyes, but the Nephilim swept the water formed weapon away with a single spin of his blade and when she tried to tail swipe his arm with the petrification rune, he stopped it with one of his other swords.

With his given ability, the sword absorbed the magic her rune casted and when Teri tried to pull away again, he quickly jabbed the edged weapon into the demon's remaining arm. The effect was immediate and the red limb was converted into grey granite, the weight of which brought the folded demon down with Teri going too.

Unable to lift the paper construct with her own will, Teri abandoned the origami and tried to put some distance between herself and Gabriel. However, Gabriel swung once with one of his colossal arms and sent a gust of wind that carried Teri along with it. Forced off her feet, Teri screamed as she flew a ways and came back down rather quickly as her bag had some weight to it.

But now, she was on her back with Gabriel looming over her, sword pointing in her direction with an explosive charge ready to set her ablaze in case she tried to flee,

"I'll have your head now." the golden knight declared.

He raised his sword above and brought it to a position where he can slice her neck in one fell swoop. Teri screwed her eyes shut and brought her hands up to her face, realizing it was over for her. There was nowhere left to run.

Gumball saw this playing out before him, seeing it as a slow motion film as his adrenaline kicked in and his pupils shrank into specks,

"NO!" he screamed, Teri, his fighting companion, his girlfriend was about to die.

And it was going to be his fault again because he left her to take him on herself.

His legs snapped into action and his body was moving before he remembered ever telling it too. He put every ounce of magical energy into getting himself in between that blade and Teri, not caring if he could withstand it or not because why would he? He loved her and the fear of death wasn't going to stop him from trying to save her.

"Come on, come on, come on!" he muttered to himself, as if those words were fuel for his run.

Despite their best attempts to stop him, Gumball zipped in between Nimrod and Michael with very little effort and made it to Gabriel within a few leaping strides. He ran out of power once he circled around him, but he made it just as the blade began to swing and Gumball put himself in front of Teri's cowering form. He tried to meet the weapon with his own, but he was too slow now and the sharp edge of the sword struck the side of Gumball's large head, just at the eye level.

SHTUNG!

There was a heavy ringing sound as the metal itself vibrated and once the sound faded away, Teri opened her eyes to see her boyfriend standing in front of her. It quickly clicked that she had just been saved and her first thought was that he had managed to use his scythe to stop the sword from killing them both, until she saw the very weapon pressed up against his head. She would have screamed, but she was halted when something caught her attention, where the sword made contact, there were purple, glowing veins on the side of Gumball's head.

Her mouth was dry and her mind was scrambling just to make sense of what was happening, but she managed to utter,

"Gum… ball…?"

Meanwhile, Gabriel, who was just as, if not more stunned than his intended target, just stared with all sets of eyes wide open at the strange markings covering the side of his cranium in a violet webbing that prevented his sword from cutting through Gumball's head,

" _That's impossible, my blade should have cut clean through his skull! What kind of sorcery is…!"_ he looked down and realized, but realized too late he did.

On the blade of his opponent's weapon, the second rune was glowing purple, a circle within a circle with six arrows pushing outwards against the outer edge. This is what activated when Gumball stepped in to stop Gabriel from taking Teri's life. Getting over his shock, Gumball grabbed the blade that was pressing against his head's temporal region and shoved it to the side,

"Get this thing out of my face and you too!" he shouted, his fury returning as well as his power as he powered up for another all-out blast.

He wasn't quite sure how, but after Gabriel's sword struck, he thought he was dead, but found that the slicing edge was stopped by his face. It felt more like a smack to him and at first he wondered to his dismay if it was because his head really was as thick as everyone told him. That was until he felt an immediate resurgence within his soul and the fire returned, at full capacity too, like he had just taken an eight hour nap!

He felt great again and while he wasn't sure what transpired, he wasn't going to let that stop him now,

"No, wait-!" Gabriel shouted in a panic, but was clobbered when a thirty foot curving column of fire slammed into him, sending him flying backwards.

He was lucky that one of his blades had been close to his face as he was pushing back against the fiery force, trying to absorb it, but couldn't do it all at once. He sailed into both Nimrod and Michael, who were just stunned by that miracle Gumball pulled in front of their very eyes, and knocked them over. Unfortunately, the arc of grey fire had lost too much fuel and momentum before it could cause any permanent damage to them and burnt out of existence.

Gumball saw the heap of giants laying several dozens of feet in front of a smoking black trail that he made and pumped his fists in the air,

"Whoo! Three in one strike, who's the man!" he screamed, feeling completely rejuvenated before switching to a more menacing pose,

"Now it's time to finish the job." he smirked with his fangs bared as he looked at his helpless targets, one in particular being Nimrod, who was underneath both of them.

Teri, who was still completely blown away from Gumball's survival and devastating attack that left the Nephilim triumvirate in a helpless pile of bodies, just sat there as Gumball spun his scythe around several times and marched towards the president's head, that being what he intended to take off himself. Just like his son. However, there was danger on the horizon as Teri heard something coming and turned around to see hundreds of guards, all of being humanoids with antlers wearing dark uniforms as they raced towards them in a stampede of angry shouts and raised spears that glowed with exotic energy.

Alarmed, Teri shot to her feet and called after Gumball,

"Gumball, we have to go, now!" she shouted in desperation.

Gumball turned and saw hundreds of soldiers closing in on their position and from the other side of the road, another horde was approaching, screaming and brandishing energy weapons as they came ever closer. He wanted to kill the president and possibly end all of this, but he knew that it was going to be seconds until they got here and killed them both. Closing his scythe up, Gumball turned to Teri and rushed towards her,

"Okay, let's go then!" he agreed.

She lead him back to her downed origami and tugged at the black bat wings on the demon's back, pulling out an origami bat that she created as a quick means of escape in case her demon was damaged. Hopping on, Gumball followed after and seated himself behind the paper girl as he wrapped his arms around her waist. They took off quickly and the soldiers raised their weapons, firing beams of energy at them as they weaved through the air and out of sight.

Once out of range of their pursuer's weapons, the two calmed down and Teri set a steady course, both of them looking down to see rows upon rows of streets lined with gateways to Earth. Some were completely empty and several had groups of Nephilim patrolling or heading towards them. They decided to pick one where a pair of Nephilim were preparing to enter and swooped down to see one of them place his hand on a certain spiral shaped symbol before a portal opened up on the stone platform, showing what appeared to be a city street of sorts.

Gumball and Teri made quick work of the unsuspecting guards, with Gumball dropping on top of one and decapitating him with the inside of his blade's crescent and Teri driving a water trident through the back of the other's skull. They both went down silently and unlike the Nephilim on Earth, these ones were not hollow nor did they burn up in flames. There was blood that flowed from their wounds and it glowed white,

"Disgusting!" Teri huffed in a repulsive tone.

Gumball also grimaced at the bloody stump he created and kicked the antlered head away in disgust,

"Ugh, I second that." he concurred, feeling slightly squeamish.

They left the bodies as they were and Teri flew up to the symbol they pressed, placing her hand on it. After a moment of thinking of Elmore, the image of the town showed up in the portal and in their heads they rejoiced! Home, they found their home!

Flying back down to where Gumball stood, she offered a hand to her furry blue partner and smiled at him,

"Ready to go home?" she asked rhetorically.

Gumball grabbed it and pulled himself onboard the bat, leaning in to give her a kiss on the forehead,

"More than ever!" he smiled with glee.

She kissed him back on the cheek and he made his way to his seat. Soon the bat was flapping its wings and the two were taking off. Through the portal they went and from the heavens they descended, their amazing journey through the cosmos now over.

 _-Awesome Store, 6:39 PM, five minutes earlier-_

"Please tell me for the hundredth time, are you sure they are not dead?" Rob pleaded, having done so for the past few minutes now.

The Awesome Store owner wasn't sure how he could explain it to the nervous wreck of a wrecker in simpler terms, so he just stuck with what he has been telling him ever since they looked into the all-seeing orb,

"Look, all I can tell you is this: if they were dead, they would be showing up as either frozen corpses in space or they would be seen in the land of the dead through this medium. However, because it's showing up as nothing, that means they are simply somewhere that is separated from our world, like another dimension or something." he repeated for the umpteenth time, his voice was starting to show hints that he was reaching his limit.

In his hands the orb remained black and pictureless, despite having acquired Gumball's DNA, the magical item could not place where the blue feline and his paper classmate was at currently. Rob was starting to really freak out now, he didn't know what it was exactly he was going to tell the others, there was still Fjel to consider, but this was bad news either way. In another dimension, what could that mean?

Also, he should probably switch back to decaf because after having seven cups of coffee, Rob could swear that the Earth was shaking.

Rachel, who had been quietly listening to the men squawk at one another up til now, got up and walked herself over to the owner of the red van they were in,

"Isn't the underworld a dimension though? Why are we able to see into that one then?" she asked, slightly curious as to how that worked.

The moving shadow shrugged his shoulders up and down before giving her his best answer,

"That's mainly due to the fact that there is a lot of travel that goes on between both dimensions, since folks are always _dying_ to get to the other side." he said with a light chuckle and Rachel rolled her eyes.

She tapped the crystal ball with her finger and examined it carefully,

"Is the signal here bad?" she wondered aloud.

The glowing eyes looked back at her in bemusement and then he said,

"Wha-? It's not a computer, Rachel, it's a magical item that channels psychic energy from the realm of- Oh wait, it's showing us something now?" he exclaimed in surprise as the orb began to glow.

Rob, who had been working his way through his ninth cup of coffee, did a spit take and practically teleported to the enigmatic store owner's side as the crystal ball began to form an image within,

"What's it showing?" he asked, jumping up and down like a hyperactive child.

"Settle down and wait, coffee breath!" he said as he peered back at the object.

The misty image became clearer and from the three could see, there was only the evening sky. Then a tear appeared, ripping open like a cosmic cloth and out came Teri and Gumball, riding on what appeared to be a paper bat from the looks of it. They were okay and were flying over the park where they were last seen.

Rachel gasped and threw her hands up her mouth, tears starting to show themselves as she saw the two kids safe and sound, while Rob wondered why and how were they both emerging from a Nephilim portal? Where exactly did they go to?

Barely able to contain her joy and relief at the news that both kids were alive, Rachel cried out and threw herself at Rob, who caught her in surprise as she squeezed him into a bear hug,

"They're alive! They're okay! This is so great!" she shouted as she buried her face into Rob's chest and lifted the poor boy up, much to the latter's chagrin.

After nearly popping his back out of place from her surprisingly strong arm hold, Rachel put him down, turned to thank the shopkeeper, who just said that it was not a big deal, and the rainbow lass grabbed Rob by the hand, pulling the cyclops off his feet as she dashed out the back door. Once in the parking lot, Rob pulled out the teleportation rune and set his mind on Elmore park for his third visit today. The window opened and the two leapt out, arriving instantaneously in the breezy outdoors.

There they found four other children waiting and while Rob recognized them right away (his fear senses kicking right back in.), Rachel was surprised to see a middle schooler, Anais Watterson and Macey Barnes from class, and a big guy that looked like a toy with a wicked paint job,

"Anais? Macey?" she gasped in amazement, one hand clutching the side of her head.

The two other high schoolers leaned back in shock as they recognized the blue girl right away,

"Rachel?!" both girls exclaimed in unison.

"Oh, another friend?" Chimera asked, seeing as both of his best friends recognized her right away.

Anais checked back with Chimera and tried to explain to him,

"Uh, no she isn't a friend, she's a-!" she stopped after being cut off by an aggravated Darwin, who shot up to his feet and screamed,

"DOCTOR WRECKER!"

The mad inventor cringed and raised his leg along with his hands as he cowered away, also screaming for good measure,

"Darwin no! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hit your face, I was trying to save your brother and his friend!" he quickly sputtered out, he was actually more afraid that Jamie and Tina were nearby along with that droid and spider sprite.

"Huh, she's a doctor and her name's wrecker, that doesn't sound very comforting to me." Chimera muttered, completely tuned out from the confrontation that was happening.

Macey facepalmed and put it simply for Chimera,

"No, the one eyed guy who attacked us earlier is Doctor Wrecker, you know, the one Carrie went off to go look for! That girl with him is a classmate of ours named Rachel." she explained before turning and asking,

"Oh and what are you doing here by the way? Also, what does he mean by saving Gumball and his friend? Lastly, how do you know this guy?"

Rachel wasn't sure how she was going to answer those questions all at once and she paused to think, but was interrupted when Rob exploded in frustration,

"There's no time for that! Gumball and Teri are on their way here and we need Carrie back here now! Also, where are the other four that I… took care of while I was here?" he looked around and noticed that none of them were anywhere to be seen in the park.

Darwin, putting his anger for Rob aside, huffed in annoyance and pointed a flipper at a tree, where all four kids were laying down, still knocked out,

"Carrie levitated them over there so they could rest and as for the other matter." he stopped and cleared his throat,

"Carrie. Carrie. Carrie. Carrie. Carrie." he called out repeatedly, using the ghost summoning ritual Carrie taught him and his brother.

Following straight after, Carrie appeared before them in a flash of light and the ghost slammed into Darwin, as she had been drifting at high speeds before she was summoned, sending them both to the ground with an _oof_! Lifting her head up, she saw Darwin's chubby face smiling back at her and she calmly said, "hey" before flying off of him and giving him a hand as she lifted him from the dirt. She looked around at the kids gathered there and spotted Rob and some other girl she didn't recognize,

"There you are!" she burst out, her eyes on Rob as she floated towards him in an angry rush,

"I was looking all over for you after you hung up! You didn't tell me where they were and I was worried sick the entire time! Do you have any idea how much ground I covered in the past half hour?" she ranted, getting up in Rob's face as the lanky boy backed up nervously.

She then turned to Rachel and nodded in a friendly manner,

"I'm Carrie, by the way." she greeted with an introduction.

"Rachel." she replied, calming down once she saw that she was no longer interested in giving her roommate lip.

"Hi, Rachel, I really like your hair! Also, do I know you from somewhere?" she asked, having an odd case of deja vu.

Rachel bobbed her hair with her hands and drew a half circle with her feet, smiling happily,

"Thanks, I love yours too!" she replied with a giggle before straightening out her expression,

"Sorry, but I'm not sure if I recall meeting you." she responded honestly.

Carrie nodded and drifted away from Rob, trying to wrack her mind for the faintest of recollections of this mystery woman. She looks to be Macey's age, so it's possible that she may have been in middle school last year, but her mind was blanking out on it. Regardless, there were far more important matters at stake here and her head snapped back in Rob's direction.

"Rob, where is Teri and Gumball?" she asked, her volume raising as desperation continued to linger and all eyes and ears were on him again.

Rob held up a finger and opened his mouth to speak,

"Uh, you see, they're-!" he looked up when he noticed something in the sky, a black tear that opened and out came their missing duo of classmates/partners/siblings,

"-right there." he finished and watched as the two flew off to another spot in the park.

"Gumball!" Anais, Darwin, and Carrie cried out in unison.

"Teri!" Rachel shouted, recognizing the white bear in front.

"Friend!" Chimera shouted.

"I wonder if mom and dad said I was doing the dishes tonight?" Macey mumbled to herself, scratching her frizzy red beard.

"This way!" Darwin ordered, tearing a blazing trail in the direction the paper bat set off in.

No one had to be told twice and with that, the motley crew set their sights on the sprinting goldfish, eagerly trying to get back to his brother, before they too joined him in his pursuit.

On the other side of the park, the bat skidded to a landing on a sidewalk that cut between two hills and the two passengers hopped off. Rushing towards the familiar rolling mounds of grass and dirt, the paper girl and cat boy celebrated with cheers of delight as they jumped up and down. Never have they ever been so glad to be back home again, the feeling of safety and nostalgia was simply overwhelming,

"We're home! We're finally home!" Gumball shrieked, kicking into a dance to express his youthful optimism.

"Oh, I love this filthy, disease-ridden, muckball! I never ever want to leave it again!" she cried happily as she jumped and flipped through the air.

"Good old, nasty, polluted planet! Come here you!" he fell to the ground and gave the soil a big hug, feeling the green blades tickle his cheeks and the sharp scent infiltrating his nostrils. It was all so lovely!

Speaking of lovely, he pushed himself off the ground and raced towards a dancing Teri, tackling her into a hug as he rubbed his cheek against hers,

"We're okay and we're going to be safe!" he said, squeezing her tighter.

Teri laughed and nuzzled her nose against his, feeling a hot spring of love flowing through her,

"I've never been happier!" she exclaimed.

With that, still clutching onto her waist, Gumball lifted her high into the air and started spinning around with her feet swaying in the wind. She grabbed onto his arms and they both laughed wildly as they continued to spin. The greens of the hills and the darkness of the sky began to blur, and eventually, Gumball fell down from dizziness, rolling over until Teri was on top of him.

Their faces were close again, their chests were pressed against each other, hearts beating in sync and a blush was visible on their cheeks,

"I love you." Teri said, smiling a bright set of pearly whites.

"I love you too." he replied, sharing his own smile that brought a little light into her world.

And then they leaned in, pressing their foreheads together while closing their eyes. The quiet overtook them again, but at least their were insects and other natural sounds to keep them company this time. Neither of them noticed, however, the approaching kids and the many eyes that were watching them as they lay with one another, heads gently pressed and sharing a tender moment.

Carrie, Darwin, Anais, and Rachel were blushing with red hues so vibrant, that a Beet would be put to shame. Macey bashfully looked away, always feeling slightly awkward when it came to public displays of affection, and Chimera merely stared on without having much of an opinion on the matter. Rob however, was enjoying this and felt the need to step in to point something out.

He took a step forward and placed his hands on his hips, glaring down at the two with discontempt and his mouth contorted into a frown,

"Get a room you two, this is a public place!" he stated in a blunt, straightforward, no nonsense, kind of voice that only a robot could emulate.

At the sudden prospect that they were not alone, their eyes flew open and Teri was up in a heartbeat with Gumball joining soon after. Both were so red that a new shade had to be named to highlight their unsettled feelings once they recognized the collection of familiar faces staring at them blankly now, mainly thanks to Rob's very blunt approach. They both seemed to disappear and reappear in a standing position as both immediately tried to explain themselves, but got caught in a jumble of scrambled words, incoherent speech, and random pauses as many explanations were thought up, but executed poorly.

Ceasing this jibber-jabber in single action was Darwin and Anais who ran up to their big brother to lock him in a hug, both of whom had heard from Carrie that he was in trouble after getting the entire situation explained to them. They were both happy to see him safe and in good health, as the oldest Watterson recovered from his shock and returned their hugs of affection. Carrie and Rachel also rushed up and gave Teri a hug, mainly because they were both glad to see their friend in perfect shape and Teri was glad to be receiving this kind of attention.

Once the hugs were finished and the atmosphere was in a restful state, Gumball searched the gathered crowd of teens and pre-teens, curious as to how and why they were all here,

"Um, so, what brings you all here anyway? Was there a party or something?" he asked, trying to keep from spilling the beans.

Carrie, who was happy to see them both, was also sad when she remembered her promise to him and she spoke up with a quiet sigh,

"Gumball, it's okay, you don't have to lie anymore…" she looked him in the eye, sadness, shame, and relief, somehow all present as she uttered the next few words,

"...because I already told them everything."

 **A/N: YESSSSSSS! It's done! The chapter has been finished and now Terball is officially on a roll. Oh my god, guys, this has been quite the journey, all the way up to this point in the story, I have written every chapter with complete love, passion, and endless frustration all to lead up to this exciting conclusion to Teri and Gumball's friendship to the blossoming romance that will follow in the chapters that are yet to come. I hope you guys are as happy as I am because of as of this chapter going onwards, Teri and Gumball are officially dating!**

 **Okay, okay, enough gushing, let's dive into the other aspects of the story. The first Nephilim is in fact inspired by the class of angels called "thrones" which according to biblical scholars and Dante Alligheri, author of the Divine Comedy, they are the third sphere in the angelic hierarchy. I liked the portal idea because it sounded very cool and made it more of a challenge for all three heroes working together, which by the way, is always fun to include.**

 **With all the training and exercises Teri and Gumball have gone through, they're definitely a step up from where they started out and Rob is pretty good at finding his role in the team. Next chapter we will be seeing Rob and Teri getting an upgrade to their abilities, as it is only, seeing as Gumball has a new power of his own. Really looking forward to that and the next battle is going to be really fun.**

 **As for Gumball's new ability, his second rune gives him the ability to become momentarily immune to all physical strikes by filling his blood with magic energy. This causes his skin to harden, but only in areas where the blow connects and it does not last long after being activated. One additional benefit to this power is that since it's linked to the first rune and to the user, whatever physical blow is inflicted upon Gumball's body is converted back into magical energy, essentially recharging him after this spell has been activated.**

 **The biggest limitations it has is the number of times Gumball can use it, as it too has a limited amount of energy to give.**

 **As for Nimrod, this reveal has been planned since early on in the writing process, although it was originally going to happen in chapter fourteen. I intend on keeping his true powers a mystery, but as we all now for now his ability is to negate the magic of everyone who comes in physical contact with him. He is weak to large, devastating, mid to long ranged attacks as was demonstrated during his confrontation with Gumball. He is motivated to do what's best for his people, being the first elected president of the Babyloth Republic, even when his actions anger those around him, and his grief for the loss of his son drives him to take revenge on Elmore along with those who defend it.**

 **We'll learn more about him later on and before you ask, yes, he does have a wife, but that's a story for another time.**

 **Then there's Michael and Gabriel, named after the archangels, they were the perfect idea for the bodyguards of president Nimrod and their introduction in this chapter was a great opportunity for me to showcase their powers when they were at their weakest. Gabriel's form is inspired both by the cherubim** **class of angels depicted in the angelic hierarchy, second class under the seraphim, and Erza Scarlet's pinwheel of heaven armor. Since Gabriel's design was heavily built for offense, it came naturally to me that Michael would be more lenient towards defense and since he's more of a peacekeeper in Babyloth, his armor is white.**

 **The Nephilim themselves are humanoids that can take only one shape and when on their world of Babyloth, their average height is nine to eleven feet. They're significantly weaker when on this planet mainly due to it being a prison built for them and their history is riddled with conflict, topped with resentment towards the inhabitants of Earth. All in all, their society and culture is very complex, but they also share a belief in the Jade emperor.**

 **I was going to include a scene with Hector and Molly also being in the park, but I couldn't include it thanks to this chapter already stretching to 82 pages. I will include a scene with them in the next chapter and we'll see what they've been up to. Tensions between Gumball's team and the Nephilim investigators are at an all time high, Elmore is now left in a state of fear following the san Francisco attacks, and a new threat approaches in the next thrilling chapter of Teri x Gumball: In between worlds.**

 **Next up, the NEA arrives in Elmore and a showdown is iminent in chapter 13: Battle for Elmore: Azura squad arrives! Coming soon!**

 **Oh, two more major announcements! For one, the first arc is nearing its end, Defenders of Elmore will reach its conclusion in four chapters now and for the other, I wish to let you all know that I have a DeviantArt page! My username is Turquoisemoon13 and I have one picture posted so far, but that's bound to change in the future. Please check it out if you wish to and that is all I have in terms of announcements.**

 **Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, please comment and drop a fav, if you feel like it or if you support Terball! Have a fantastic day, everyone!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: Battle for Elmore: Azura squad arrives!**

Teri x Gumball

 **A/N: Once again, I am happy to bring forth another great chapter and after everything that went down in the chapter prior, I am just getting fired up! While chapter twelve had its amazing introductions to new characters, trust me, you guys haven't seen nothing yet! This is the chapter where Captain Amy Rajit from chapter ten arrives with her squad and will grapple with the defenders of Elmore. What will the conflict be about? Let's find out as we dive into this chapter!**

 **I also wish for you all to pardon the two month delay this chapter took to come out, it all started when I took a two week vacation from writing, but then more breaks came in and then the holidays came crashing into my writing schedule like a cement truck tossing bricks with a blind mime behind the wheel… in the passenger seat. I also had to do so many rewrites and word of warning for those who don't like long chapters, I TRIED to keep this condensed, but there was much ground I needed to cover that it still clocked out at 94 pages on Google Docs. That's enough of that now.**

 **Many OC's will be presented in this chapter.**

 **Enjoy the chapter and post a review as well as a fav in the section down below, DEW IT!**

 **Jormungandr = Midgard serpent**

 **(I do not own The Amazing World of Gumball. All rights belong to Ben Bocquelet, the staff, Cartoon Network, and other respective owners.)**

 **(I do not own Jamiko Miyamoto, all rights to that character go to Kainsword-Kaijin.)**

 **(Even though only his name is mentioned in this chapter, Iris is a new character being introduced to the story and is a nod to the Traveler series by Villicus.)**

 _-Elmore park, October 9th, 2013, 6:55 PM-_

"WHAT?!"

The shout came like a ripple through a pond, startling the combined group of Teri, Rob, Rachel, Carrie, Darwin, Anais, Macey, and Chimera when the stone that was Gumball ruptured the surface with his flabbergasted response. It was dark out now, but not completely and the twilight of the setting sun cast eerie shadows and glows across everyone's faces. The air was still and all eyes were on Gumball and Carrie, the latter of whom was shrinking back in terror, ashamed for what she had done.

Seemingly hiding her face behind her bangs, the floating emo tried not to meet his hurt, yet seething gaze as she forced an explanation out,

"Gumball, I'm sorry, I really am, but I couldn't hide it from them, not after what happened today and I wasn't trying to-!" she shut her trap when Gumball took a step forward with his paws running over his scalp.

"Carrie, do you realize what you've done?" he was angry, upset, and frustrated, but his voice came out only as a shadow of what that spilling rage could have been.

He was too tired, both emotionally and physically.

From the crowd, Anais stepped forward and gave her brother a hardened glare,

"What she did was the right thing, Gumball." she said, her voice only a decibel above a growl,

"Do **you** know what you've done? What all three of you have been doing? This whole city is in a state of panic right now because no one here knows what's happening, except _you_ _three_ and you didn't even tell us, your own family and friends, that there are literal invisible giants attacking the city!" she had long since surpassed her indoor voice and was directing her anger at her older brother, who stood in shock.

This was it. The one scenario he and his only other companions tried so desperately to avoid was unfolding right before their very eyes and it was because one mistake after another kept piling up all around them until it tipped too far. Now all that was left was a mess they had to clear up and somehow make sense of.

Up next was Teri, who wanted to try to calm everyone down by explaining their actions,

"I know this may all seem twisted and frightening to you, but we didn't want to incite a panic and cause more damage to Elmore than the Nephilim could ever could. You've got to believe us when we say we were trying to keep everyone safe and meant no harm by keeping this from you." she looked at everyone else in the eye and showed to everyone that she was being genuine.

Sadly for the paper puppet, good intentions and explanations were not enough for everyone present. Stepping out from the small throng was Macey Barnes, the Calico girl in the yellow dress with red frizzy hair and a beard, who stared at Teri with such an intensity that the paper girl would surely turn to stone if she stared long enough. She could already tell that her first words weren't going to be pleasant, but nothing could prepare Teri for what she was about to hear next.

Sucking in a deep breath, the goat head of Elmore High began her rebuttal,

"Three people are dead, one of them was my Uncle Rupert." there were tears brimming in her eyes now and her voice was trembling,

"My dad, his brother, was devastated when he heard the news and so was I. He was one of our closest family members and until now, we had no idea what killed him. So tell me this, how exactly are you keeping everyone safe?" she demanded.

Then came the tears, washing the face of the high schooler in painful streams as Teri looked on with guilt and regret when she remembered those three individuals who were caught up in the first attack. She didn't even warn them as she passed them by and one by one, they all fell prey to Silver Twelve's unseen assault. Looking back now, she remembered one of those few people happened to resemble the girl before her and was now feeling the weight of her uncle's death on her shoulders.

Understanding her now, Teri realized she never looked into those cases and left those who've lost their family and friends to pick up the pieces themselves, while they themselves knew the truth.

While Teri was struck with an immense guilt, Rob was angry and before Rachel could stop him, he lashed out at the red headed high schooler,

"You think that was their fault?! When this whole thing started none of us knew what was going on, but after that terrible night all of us eventually got together and have prevented such tragedies from happening since." he shouted back at the distraught Calico girl.

"That still doesn't make it right!" Darwin interjected, finally stepping in,

"Keeping a secret this big is what's causing everyone to turn on themselves and in case you haven't noticed, the Nephilim are still causing damage even when you guys deal with it. Do you even have a plan to stop these guys or were you going to wait for them to eventually destroy everything to finally realize that you're just a bunch of kids who are in way over your heads?" he pointed out, much to Gumball, Teri, and Rob's irritation.

That would've been the end of the argument right there had Gumball not already been thinking two steps ahead and stood beside Carrie to highlight his point,

"Of course we have a plan! The Nephilim are spirits in a way, so Carrie is going to contact a demon named Malabranche to help us solve this situation." he confidently declared, giving Carrie a quick glance out of curiosity.

The little ghost seemed reserved and was already looking somewhat doubtful after being thrust into the spotlight like that,

"Gumball, I can't say for sure it will work out like that. It's a plan for sure, but it could easily backfire and we could learn that he has nothing to give us on account of this being none of Mephisto's business." she stated, her voice and face grim.

There was a brief moment of silence amongst the party as Carrie's words hung in the air like an impending meteor and everyone's hopes were dashed right then and there. Amongst the grim faces everyone was putting on display, Rob remained self-assured and came up with something to dish out. Quickly bringing everyone's attention on him, he brought up the events of today and what fortune the news might bring,

"Guys, Teri and Gumball have been to their world and have also escaped too!" he exclaimed enthusiastically before placing his attention on the aforementioned boy and girl,

"You two must have seen something important, right? Tell us what happened up there and we can probably figure out a way to actually beat them for good!" he looked at them with an endearing hope that forced him to almost dance with enthusiasm.

Looking at each other, Teri and Gumball shared an unspoken conversation before deciding to say what they needed to say,

"We've been to Babyloth, but we didn't see much." Gumball answered honestly.

"There were some people up there that we've encountered too and we barely survived the initial engagement." Teri followed in a serious tone.

They both got to explaining their adventure in space and how they were abducted by the giants not too long after. They told them about the massive hub of portal rooms, the encounter with President Nimrod, his guardians: Michael and Gabriel, the death of the president's son, Isaac, and how the Babyloth was on the moon, but stuck in another dimension. All around were the faces of shocked and awe-inspired individuals that listened to their tale with great interest, but the terror was even more apparent once they learned of how powerful the forces on Babyloth were.

Once they were finished, Rob was less lively and staring at the two with a blank expression,

"Oh…" was all he said before turning his head away with a forlorn expression. Clearly this wasn't everything he was expecting to hear.

Then came Chimera's response, which was quite surprising seeing as he was completely silent this entire time,

"I feel bad for him, but why would any parent send their kid down here where they could get killed?" the living toy asked in that croaking voice of his. Sadly, that was anyone's guess and his question was left unanswered.

While Chimera only knew the lonely toymaker as his family, the closest person he had to a father really, he still found the aspect of parenting to be confusing and hearing how this "President Nimrod" person was the one responsible for sending Isaac, the first Nephilim he dreamed of and the first one Teri and Gumball encountered, to essentially die left him far more baffled than he could ever imagine.

Macey was the next one to voice her confusion,

"But everytime Chimera saw them in his dreams, they were actual giants and according to Carrie, powerful too! So why were they so small and weak in their world?" the young huntress-in-training asked.

Lucky for her, Rob seemed to have an answer and was able to recall what Fjel had told him,

"The Nephilim were imprisoned after their crimes against nature and the Jade Emperor. Babyloth must be their prison and has made them weaker as a result, so they probably gain more power by coming to Earth." he theorized.

After facing off against the head three of the Republic, Gumball and Teri didn't want to imagine what those monsters would be like if they ever decided to come down to Earth and pick a fight with them. While Rob thought of a possible counter strategy with the intel provided, Rachel heard something and turned around to see four figures laying by a tree starting to stir. The largest one, a T-rex yawned and got up while right next to her, an orange-haired husky female with curved horns and a lion's tail got up in a similar fashion.

Right next to them a white robot booted up and surveyed its surroundings like a curious child while a spider sprite with two big eyes slowly levitated into the air. A video game pop-up menu appeared above his head with text reading, _Continue from last save?_ with underlying text offering _yes_ and _no_. An arrow appeared and selected the "yes" tab and with a video game jingle playing seemingly from nowhere, he was conscious again.

"Where are we and why do I smell bacon?" Jamie asked in her gruff voice, still a little singed from Rob's electrocuting blast.

Tina looked about in a stupor before having registered it all at once,

"Well, seeing as it's way nicer-looking than the landfill, I'd say the park." she growled.

After regaining all his data from the previous few hours, Bobert scanned the area once again with his optics and spotted a group of students standing around a ways away,

"Organic members of search party detected along with the armed assailant and three new members." he stated.

Ocho's eyes lit up in rage as he remembered the events that led to him being knocked out and he started up in a furious rant,

"What?! Where is he? I'm going to knock his blocky head off and use his gun as a golf club to practice my swings with!" it hadn't been five minutes and he was already screaming loud enough to send all the birds in the tree up in a startled cloud of furious fluttering wings and angered caws.

He wasn't the only one boiling over though, and with only a mere mentioning of their attacker, Jamie was already on her feet with her horned head swinging about in a desperate search for that dastardly individual,

"Why, when I find that cowardly, gun-toting yahoo I'm going to put my fist through his- THERE HE IS!" she roared when her black eyes finally zeroed in on the lanky pre-teen standing amongst the motley crew with his fear growing larger every passing second.

Without wasting a single moment, a lion's roar was emitted from the husky tomboy's throat and despite the stubby nature of her legs, she was already racing towards the polygonal cyclops at speeds only an athlete runner could match. She'd never seen his face before, but she recognized him through body shape alone and that was enough set up for a trip to pound town. Seeing her friend in trouble, Rachel surprisingly placed herself in between Rob and the charging middle schooler, ready to face her down the moment she got close.

She didn't need to though because Gumball, having learned how to react quickly to danger, pulled his scythe out from his bag and activated it, BUT he kept it folded. He would never consider hurting any of his classmates and that's why he was glad that he only needed to be touching the weapon in order to use its power. Moving incredibly fast, the feline rushed past Rob and Rachel not long before intercepting Jamie and placing a hand up in front of him, causing her to stop.

He kept the handle at his side and tried to tell her what's going on,

"Jamie, calm down! There's a lot going on right now and we're going to explain everything." he blurted out quickly.

However, Jamie wasn't having it, her vision was red and she was past the settling point,

"Out of my way, Watterson!" she shouted, completely blinded by rage.

She didn't even give him a chance to move before she started up again and proceeded to run him over to reach her intended target. Not willing to let this happen, Gumball stepped to the side and grabbed her by the shoulder, using his super strength to stop her,

"Jamie, listen-!" he started.

"SHUT UP!" Jamie retaliated, rearing her hand back to deliver a punch.

In the space of an instant, Jamie jabbed at his face, but Gumball was quick and swung his forearm up to redirect the punch away, a move his mom taught him. He released his grip on her and jumped back, giving some distance so he could try again with reason,

"Jamie, knock it off! I don't want to fight you!" he cried, relaxing his stance to show that he wasn't trying to instigate more conflict.

Snorting in contempt, Jamie regarded him with only irritation, but was now facing him instead,

"Don't tell me what to do, you mangy feline! If you don't want to fight so bad, then go sit this one out!" she snapped.

"Rob's not the enemy!" he countered, ignoring her degrading comment.

She didn't answer him, rather she roared again and charged the blue cat at full speed. She was pretty much a blur and if Gumball hadn't possessed a magic that allowed him to increase his speed and strength, his head would've been pasta salad. Dodging her second strike, Gumball was introduced to a flurry of jabs, punches, hooks and crosses all of which he had to clear or block with half a second to spare.

Everyone else was about to step in to help out, but Bobert, Ocho, and Tina were on the move too, with their sights set on their former attacker. Seeing this, everyone scattered except for Carrie and Teri who faced down the oncoming murderous trio. Leaping into action, Carrie went to confront a charging Tina who was a far greater threat than the others present and floated in front of her.

Having more than enough power to take on Tina, Carrie concentrated and used her telekinesis to lift the tyrannosaur off the ground,

"Tina, I can explain what's going on, just stop trying to kill Rob and help me with Jamie!" she called out to the young dinosaur.

"Let me go, you emo freak!" she shouted in agitation as she kicked her powerful legs, which dangled helplessly above the ground.

That seemed to set the ghost off and she growled back,

"That's it, lizard breath!" she countered.

Still holding her up, the spirit shot towards her and entered through the dinosaur's mouth. Seconds later, her eyes switched from yellow to red and her anger melted away once Carrie was in control. Setting herself down, the possessed tyrannosaur searched for her next target and set off in another direction.

Meanwhile, Teri was about to go help out Gumball when she saw that he was put on the defensive, but then she noticed Ocho flying after a fleeing Rob and Rachel, prompting her to take action. Hopping on her origami bat that she arrived to Earth on with Gumball, she took to the sky and caught up to Ocho with very little difficulty. Banking around, she got in close and zipped on by, startling the flying spider and causing him to shift his focus on her instead,

"What was that for? Were you trying to hit me?" he shouted, watching her fly around and face him once again.

She shot him a hostile look and made a beeline straight for his face,

"Heads up!" was all she said to warn him.

He weaved through the open air and prevented a mid-air collision with the flying Pepakuma child, but was now far angrier than before,

"I don't know where you learned to fly, Teri, but I will knock you back down to Earth!" he seethed.

Smiling in a challenging fashion, Teri's eyes lit up in determination and she mocked him,

"Gotta hit me first, Ocho, but seeing as you can't even hit a flying washer, I doubt you can pull that off!" she taunted.

Without much regard towards his first target, Ocho switched gears and went after Teri instead while firing bolts that Teri was easily able to dodge.

While their aerial battle commenced, Bobert engaged his self-defense mode, becoming large and boxy with laser mini-guns replacing his clamps, rocket launchers sprouting from his shoulders and a directed energy weapon placed in the center of his chest, all of which were directed at the fleeing pair of former void residents. Seeing how the situation had quickly devolved into chaos, Darwin, Anais, Macey, and Chimera watched on in sheer horror as they ran. Then Darwin saw Bobert preparing to annihilate Rob and Rachel, forcing him to turn to Chimera for help.

Turning to the gentle giant, Darwin shouted to get his attention,

"Chimera, stop Bobert before he hurts Rob and Rachel!" he shrieked in desperation.

Turning his shark head, the living toy's purple eyes widened in shock and he snapped into action. Lowering his upper body forward and charging, Chimera's stride had a bit of limp thanks to his mismatching footwork, but he was fast enough to reach the robot in time. His speed combined with his weight was enough to knock Bobert to the side, causing him to misfire and one of his laser blasts struck a nearby tree, setting it ablaze.

Regaining his balance, Bobert's processor registered the new threat and the aggressive robot turned his weapons on Chimera, his eye glowing red,

"Aggressive actions detected, new target acquired: Chimera. Proceeding to eliminate hostile individual." he said, raising his gun arms with the barrels glowing an ominous red as they powered up.

Seeing as his life was now in danger, Chimera fought back, using his muscular arm to swat Bobert's arms away and deck him in the face right after. There was a sharp snap of plastic striking metal, but the force was enough to send Bobert's head spinning. He quickly recovered and stopped his head from twisting around endlessly before returning the punch with his club-like arm.

Chimera's head was knocked clean off his blocky body, but for the most part, he was okay, if not a little disoriented. Like his robot counterpart, he couldn't feel physical pain and his body wandered somewhat aimlessly as it searched for his head. Seeing his opponent incapacitated, Boberted returned his attention back to Rob and Rachel, who were farther away now and almost nearing the park entrance.

"Exterminate!" he screeched.

He raised his arms to open fire, but didn't get a chance when he felt someone tap his shoulder causing him to turn around and met a swinging shark-head aimed directly at his face. The strike from the improvised flail-like weapon wasn't enough to knock him down, but it did temporarily stun him after his main optics glitched out and Chimera took this opportunity to reattach his head before sinking his teeth into the robot's arm. With a mighty heave along with a shift in weight, Bobert was thrown onto his back with a heavy _thud_ and an impact crater was formed underneath him.

Confused and unsettled by his opponents uncanny strength, Bobert tried to restabilize himself, only to be prevented from doing so when Chimera clambered on top of him. The giant toy amalgamation roared before repeatedly slamming his fist into Bobert's round head, knocking it back with every strike and even taking the opportunity to use his circular saw to cut through the wires connecting to his rocket launchers. Notified of both weapon systems going offline, Bobert diverted energy to his primary chest cannon and from the circular device, a powerful beam of red energy shot out, striking Chimera dead center below the head.

As an act of self preservation, Chimera allowed his body to split into all of its separate components, allowing a few bricks to be melted rather than having a hole burned through his chest. His parts were rained all over the field and seconds later, his head met the ground, bouncing a few times before rolling to a complete stop. Once his scattered pieces found the ground, they began to move and shift all on their own (minus the two bricks that were destroyed), but Chimera knew it was going to be a few seconds until he was back together again. Chimera groaned as his eyes dizzily rolled about and his red dyed hair was plastered all over his face in a sprawling mess.

Seeing that his opponent was down, Bobert prepared to finish him off with his remaining missile launcher, but was stopped when Anais, Darwin, and Macey got in his line of fire. Seeing as they registered as non-combatants, Bobert placed his weapons on standby as they called out to him,

"Bobert, stop it! We're trying to stop you from killing Rob because he's not a bad guy!" Darwin screamed.

"He came back and explained himself to us, but there's more going on here!" Anais followed.

"We'll explain all of this, but you have to help us stop all of this fighting!" Macey ordered, pointing in the direction of the ongoing individual fights.

Despite the nonsensical violence and random assortment of sounds culminating the park, Bobert heard them loud and clear, deactivating his weapon's as a sign of compliance,

"Understood! Proceeding with non-lethal termination of all active engagements." he stated in his electronic voice.

Selecting his first target, he zoomed in on Ocho in hot pursuit of Teri as she continually snapped back and almost clipped him with her wings, and with a fiery roar, he ignited his thrusters to take off in an intercept course. Like a guided missile, the autonomous droid smacked head-first into Ocho, who grunted in pain as the wind was knocked out of him and the two went down in a tangled mess. After meeting the ground in a fast approach more appropriate for an artillery shell, Bobert absorbed most of the impact with his body and wrapped his coiling arms around the struggling spider sprite, tying him up rather nicely.

Seeing as she was no longer being pursued, Teri paused for a moment as she looked back to where the two crash landed and Bobert noticed her checking up on them,

"Do not be alarmed, I have the situation under control." he assured her in an unrealistically calm manner,

"Go help the bipedal cat defined as Gumball before the overly-aggressive hybrid defined as Jamie terminates him." he ordered as he lifted himself and a squirming/cursing Ocho out of the crater.

Nodding in consensus, the paper bear wasted no time in helping out her boyfriend and was already on her way across the park to where their fight carried out. Not shocking in the slightest, when an extremely strong and violent Jamie took on the empowered, yet restrained Gumball, the fight didn't stay in one spot and now the two were racing all over the open fields, clashing every now and then. Seeing how Gumball was actually going toe-to-toe with her, Jamie was no longer holding back and with every meeting, she would hit him with everything she's got.

Knocking him through a bench, Jamie pounced like a deranged animal with her fangs bared and laughed maniacally,

"I can't believe it! You're actually putting up a fight, Watterson!" she delightfully sang as she landed on top of the downed feline and attempted to punch his face in,

"Where did you get this strength anyway?" she questioned with only half a care.

Gumball moved his head left to right as each time her fists came down a hole was punched into the dirt and after dodging the seventh time, he reached up, grabbed her shoulders, planted his foot into her hard stomach and launched her off of him. He quickly got back up, dusted himself off and clutched the sheathed weapon tightly. He could end this fight quickly if he wanted to, but he couldn't risk going over ten-percent and injuring her by accident.

Unsurprisingly, when he looked, he could see that she had already gotten back up and was cracking her knuckles in anticipation, so he sighed and readied himself,

"You know, maybe if you calmed down a tick, I could share that with you and we can also tell you what else has been going on lately." he explained, hoping that would cool her jets.

It didn't and she was already cracking another wild, toothy grin as she raised her fists in a fighting stance,

"Where's the fun in that?" she spat, her dark eyes shadowed by fading light and her overgrown hair, giving her a more menacing appearance,

"Why don't you quit holding back and show me how much of a tough guy you really are!" she challenged, shaking her head and snorting.

There was no getting through to her, she just wanted to fight and seeing as she could see right through him, Gumball knew there was no way the tomboy was going to listen. He figured he could unfold his scythe and perhaps scare her out of a fight, but that could possibly lead to her viewing him as a greater threat. Worse, she'd probably go find a weapon herself and use that too, then they'd both be in trouble.

"Gumball!" a voice called out from above.

Pivoting on his heel, he turned and saw a dark shape heading towards him with a white figure sitting on top and waving. He recognized the person as Teri and her origami bat, causing him to ditch the fight and take off with a mighty leap. He cleared the distance easily and landed behind Teri on her winged creation, while Jamie was left below in furious indignation.

Jumping up and down, Jamie hurled her rage in the form of an insult directed at the escaping pair,

"Get back down here and fight me, coward!" she bellowed.

Turning his head back, the eldest Watterson child stuck his tongue out and made an L-shape with his thumb and pointer finger on his forehead,

"Catch me if you can, T-rex bait!" he jeered as Teri sped off.

At first, all Jamie could feel was her anger rising to uncontrollable levels as a promising fight was torn from her grasp, but then she paused to think about what he meant by that nickname he gave her. She didn't get much time to herself though, as the ground began to shake rapidly and something big began to approach her from behind. She managed to get one glimpse of a Carrie-possessed Tina before the husky daughter of the Russo's was snatched up in the dinosaur's jaws and carried off into the depths of the park itself, all the while screaming and using offensive language.

Having managed to escape all the commotion, Rachel guided Rob by the hand as the two made a break for the park entrance and the odd pair could already hear the sounds of conflict starting to die down. Rob mentally berated himself for not noticing the four people he'd knocked out almost an hour ago earlier and for not hiding when they came to. Now he felt bad for fleeing while his accomplices were taking the brunt of it for him instead and probably getting hurt too.

He tugged against Rachel's grasp and the two came to a stop, with Rachel shooting him a questioning glance,

"What are you doing?" she demanded, looking back towards the entrance that was several yards away.

Rob freed himself from her grasp and took a step back, back to the park where the chaos ensued,

"I've gotta help them and set things right! Part of this is my fault and I shouldn't leave them behind!" he replied, his eye set with guilt and determination.

Shaking her head, Rachel grabbed his hand again and pulled the grey-skinned Nephilim fighter back with her,

"I don't know what you did to them exactly, but they're mad enough to pulverize you! I can't let you go back there because they'll just get angrier!" the fluffy haired high schooler countered, keeping a firm grip on him.

"But-!" Rob started to protest, but was cut off by a sudden glare from his roommate.

"NO! We'll settle this in the morning once everyone has calmed down. Right now isn't the right time and all you'll wind up doing is-?" she paused when she heard something in the distance.

It was a police siren. Its wailing could be heard as the patrol vehicle made its way in their direction and given that they both saw laser fire and heard multiple screams coming in from behind them, it didn't take a genius to figure out why they were coming this way. There had been a heavy police presence in Elmore following the terrorist attacks in San Francisco and that meant any risky behavior after dusk was likely to be called upon by the authorities.

With fear coursing through them, Rachel turned to Rob with a frightful glance,

"You need to get us out of here!"

Knowing full well that they couldn't stay, Rob begrudgingly agreed and pulled out his teleportation rune. Eventually a portal was opened up in front of them and the two found themselves looking into the living room of their apartment, a comforting sight indeed. Feeling glad that Teri and Gumball were safe, the rainbow lass and the cyclops, hands still joined, leapt through the portal and entered their domain.

With immense distances crossed in a single moment, the portal closed behind them and the two were left to wait for the next day to resolve the issue that had been interrupted.

Meanwhile, Teri and Gumball caught up with the rest of the group along with Carrie/Tina and Jamie, but couldn't stay for long when the approaching sirens grew louder by the second,

"Better book it!" Gumball shouted in alarm.

And just like that, the group of eleven took off and faded into the line of trees leading them to the park's nature reserve. The animal filled forest was pretty safe to be wandering through, provided you weren't a walking piece of toast, because this place was only filled with creatures like ducks, rabbits (feral ones), a few snakes, and just small critters in general. The group of kids found it not too difficult to make it through the slightly dense forest with Anais and Macey riding atop Chimera, Bobert flying with Ocho tucked in his arms, Teri and Gumball still riding their bat, and Carrie still in control of Tina's body with Jamie clamped between her jaws and Darwin riding her scaly back.

Once the sirens could no longer be heard, the kids slowed down and Jamie was the first to say something,

"Put me down already and stop controlling my friend, you transparent weirdo!" she cried out in protest.

Carrie grumbled a bit before doing as she was told, tossing her head back and sending Jamie up into the air before landing on Tina's back in front of Darwin, saddle style. Then Carrie emerged from the T-rex's mouth and the lizard's eyes went from ghastly red to yellow again as Tina regained control of herself. She kept on going, but snarled at Carrie when she saw her,

"What's the big idea, taking me over like that?" she snapped.

Carrie floated right beside her and shot her an equally nasty look before folding her arms in agitation,

"That's because you weren't cooperating, jerk!" she retaliated.

Within the entangled coils of Bobert's arms, Ocho grunted and squirmed, but couldn't do anything about his current predicament,

"If you don't drop me right now, I'm going straight to your manufacturer's tomorrow and raising hell!" he angrily warned.

Bobert complied with a simple "suit yourself." before unraveling him and allowing the school's hardcore gamer to float beside him.

"Tin can. Now can someone please tell me what's going on? Why was that one eyed monster and that weird chick hanging out with everyone? And what's Gumball and Teri doing here? Also, since when does Teri have the ability to use origami like that?" he looked to multiple faces as he waited for an explanation.

Answering his question, Anais cleared her throat and made sure that everyone could hear her,

"Carrie told us everything. Turns out all the strange things happening in Elmore are caused by invisible giants called Nephilim and Gumball, Teri, and Rob (that guy who attacked all of you today.) have been fighting them off in secret. They also got Carrie involved after she found out and she's been covertly helping them too." she paused as she turned to Teri for a moment and then shrugged at Ocho,

"As for Teri's origami related ability, I'm not quite sure why-!" she began to theorize, but was cut off by the origami rider herself.

"It's an ability I've always had and was passed down on my mom's side. Most of you never knew about it because I never used it except in an emergency or out of necessity. To be honest, I've used this ability more in the past two months than I have in two years." she explained, sounding grumpy.

This left everyone speechless, at first there was confusion (except for Gumball, who already knew) and then everyone slowly pieced it together.

However, the pink bunny's explanation caused quite a stir in the four that were unconscious during Carrie's confession. With the utmost probability, Jamie was the first to voice her frustrations and confusion. With no regard to volume control, she was already bursting everyone's eardrums when she started screaming at Gumball, Teri and Carrie,

"WAIT, WHAT?! You mean to tell me that you three had something to do with all those crazy weird blackouts, explosions, and that dangerous thing that attacked Tina's pops!" she interrogated.

At the mentioning of the recent incident at the junkyard, a fire was lit in Tina's eyes and her burning glare traced itself over to the flying bat along with its passengers. Gumball gulped in fear and prepared for the worst while Carrie also stiffened up in guilt. Without hesitating, Tina lashed out at them,

"Wait a minute! There was a Nephilim in my home and you guys dragged my dad into it?" she angrily asked.

"I tried to keep him out of danger, but I…" Gumball stopped himself when he thought about Carrie, who was the one who possessed Mr. Rex and brought him into the fray in the first place.

Luckily Carrie was willing to step for Gumball and flew right next to the T-rex until she was at eye level,

"Tina, I was the one who dragged your father into it. Gumball's life was in danger and I couldn't fight Tartarforas as I was, so I had to possess your father. I'm sorry for putting him in danger, but I was trying to help save everyone else!" she explained, looking rather fretful.

Her attempt to calm the landfill dwelling bully was met with failure when she let out a roar of anguish and launching a hurtful wave of insults at the ghost,

"You little twerp! Why did you even bother entering the landfill in the first place? If there was a big monster running around my home, my dad would've handled it!" words couldn't begin to describe how enraged she was.

Angered by her seriously dumb rebuttal, Gumball snapped back at her which was quite a gutsy move on his part, but not one he was unfamiliar with,

"Because if we didn't, the Nephilim would've killed him! They're deadly to people who can't see them and if that monster so much as touched your dad, he would've dropped dead! Why do you think Teri and I started fighting these things in the first place?" he scowled as soon as he finished speaking, not even caring what she may try to do.

What she did next did not meet his expectations, rather than spout off more insults and threats towards them, Tina just went silent. There was a look in her eyes that Gumball swore he thought he would never see again the day after his mom took them to her home to confront the Rexes about Tina's bullying and that look was fear. She was legitimately scared and while Gumball was unaware at first, it slowly came to him as to why this was: she had joined Anais to find out the identity of her dad's attacker. With the truth being what it was and the monster that had set her on the narrow path of revenge revealed to be impossible for her to kill left her terrified.

There was a familiar tightening in Gumball's chest and he recognized it to be sorrow for the dinosaur. He understood that for once, Tina was feeling helpless and there was nothing she could do to ease her anxiety. Jamie saw this too and her pity towards her friend was far greater than Gumball's.

Butting in next was Ocho, who was more concerned with his own well-being and didn't like what he was hearing,

"Wait, that's how deadly those things are? What else are they capable of? Were these the same creatures that attacked San Francisco and you didn't warn me about them!" his anger levels spiked again and his voice was becoming more distorted.

Then came the robotic chatter from Bobert, who was notably calmer than the other three,

"I apologize for interrupting, but could one of you please further elaborate upon these "Nephilim" creatures? I've searched all publically known databanks and found no results that matched your descriptions of them." he politely raised a clamp as he brought up his query.

Sensing the rising tension in the group, Darwin knew he needed to act fast or else things were going to explode into a conflict that no one would be able to walk away from without scars,

"Everyone just stop it, okay!" his issued ceasefire reached everyone present and all eyes and ears were on him,

"Look, it's been a long day, there's a lot that needs to be processed right now and I think we all need some space. Let's just go home, sleep on it, and meet up tomorrow after school at the mall where we can further discuss this matter without tearing at each other's throats." he stated, partly in defense of his girlfriend, who he knew had no evil intentions when it came to protecting others.

No more words needed to be spoken, as everyone knew right away that a lot has transpired and their stress levels were at an alltime high right now. A little rest wouldn't hurt anyone and with that being the case, everyone began to depart right away. Carrie took hold of Darwin's body and flew him off to her mansion, Tina lumbered off into the woods with Jamie on her back, Chimera also took off with his passengers, having been asked by Anais to take them to Macey's house, Gumball and Teri flew off towards Gumball's house and Bobert along with Ocho decided to race one another to Ocho's place since it was closer.

Soon nothing could be heard in the woods, except for small animals and insects.

 _-Carvington street, half a mile from the Watterson residence, 7:08 PM-_

Towering over the neighborhood, Hector strode quietly along the near vacant road and kept a lookout for any oncoming traffic. On his right shoulder was Molly, whom he made friends with last weekend at the mall when she came out and had a quick conversation with him. The two had really hit it off that day and when school came on Monday, they met up before class, in between hours, and during lunch with every meeting bringing the two closer together. It's been three days now and the two were the bestest of friends.

With each step passing an entire block, Hector travelled pretty quickly despite the fact he was only out on a stroll, but time seemed irrelevant to him as he was caught up in his conversation with the tiny sauropod,

"...and when Bambu was being chased by that evil farmer and his dog, I was so scared that he was going to get caught when he got entangled in that overgrowth! Panda's are already going extinct, so why do people keep attacking them? They're so cute and cuddly-looking, why would anyone want to kill one!" Molly whined as she recounted the events that happened in the film they watched, _Bambu_ , and threw out her opinion to the quietly listening giant.

"I thought it was pretty sad when his mother disappeared." he commented, thinking about his own parents,

"My dad's asleep most of the time and he can't come out from where he lives, so my mom has to do all the hard work in raising me. I can't imagine what I would do if my mom disappeared like that." he said in monotone.

During their three days together, Molly had heard about Hector's absent dad and honestly felt some sympathy towards him. Her parents were almost never home to see her and it was rough dealing with it at first, but her grandparents made great company, so she was pretty content. Sitting down on his balcony-sized shoulder, Molly's head dipped a little as she was reminded of her home life,

"Yeah, I know what you mean." she muttered and felt her tail start to swish a little in agitation.

Normally she tries to keep an upbeat and optimistic attitude, but whenever her parents were brought up, she would always feel bothered. It was one of the things she kept hidden from others, but then again, no one really noticed her anyway, so she had to deal with her issues internally and sort things out herself. She always wondered if the way she was coping with reality was correct and the sad part was, she wasn't entirely sure herself.

"Huh, check that out!" the sound of Hector's booming voice caught Molly's attention and she swivelled her head to see what it was exactly that Hector was referring to.

"Woah, that's a big bat!" she cried out in surprise and alarm.

Not too far away, a large flying bat was soaring through the open air and following along one of the streets. It was flying real low, probably around twenty feet or so from the ground and when Molly got a closer look, she could see two figures on its back. The one in front appeared to be a flat, bear person and the one behind her was a humanoid cat with a big head.

In a moment of recognition, she gasped in surprise and got up quickly,

"It's Teri and Gumball!" she exclaimed, pointing it out to the gentle giant.

Squinting through all the fur and getting a closer look, the star athlete saw that his cheerleader friend was right,

"Huh, you're right! They must be riding on one of her origami again." he rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he watched the two bank in the direction of another street and vanish completely.

Keeping her focus on where they were headed, Molly ran through a few quick calculations and came up with a theory,

"I think they're heading to Gumball's house." she guessed before suddenly snapping her head Hector's direction with a vexed look,

"And what do you mean _they must be riding her origami again_? I didn't know Teri had a power like that and they've done this before?" she asked quizzically.

He wasn't sure why Molly seemed so put off by this, but he figured he may as well tell her what he knew seeing as it wasn't hurting anyone,

"To be honest, I don't know much about it. It started a little while back and every now and then I would see Gumball and Teri leave the school on one of her origami and they would come back within half an hour, sometimes looking a little beat up. I'm not sure what it is those two do, but given that Gumball carries that scythe of his whenever they take off like that, I'm sure it's pretty dangerous and now that I think of it, they did save me from that sword wielding skeleton last Friday. Stupid demonic salesman." he grumbled.

He knew that the two schoolmates of his were sneaking off on their own and going off on some adventures, seeing as he had tutoring done outside in the school courtyard. It also just occurred to him that Gumball was carrying the same scythe he used to fight that one guy who cut his knees and stabbed his hand. The one-eyed one named Rob told him that there was a curse plaguing Elmore and that he and his associates were dealing with it.

Could it be that Rob's associates were Gumball and Teri and this so-called "curse" was actually the appearance of powerful entities like the ones he faced?

While his mind sat on this, Molly had more questions and was asking away,

"Wait, wait, back up a bit! So those two have been sneaking off to do dangerous things for some time now and you also said Gumball was carrying a scythe? Was it about four feet long, and silver with weird symbols on the blade? Also who are the demonic salesmen?" she kept firing them off and patiently awaited Hector's response.

The massive football player carefully considered this and realized that Molly was new to the world of magic that he had been accustomed to since birth,

"Um, I'm sure whatever it is they're doing is very important and probably magical too, seeing as your description of his scythe is pretty accurate. Sadly, I'm not allowed to talk about strange creatures because my mom thinks it'll frighten other people and cause harm, so sorry." he mumbled, watching his footing as a car made its way underneath his massive, hairless feet.

With her brow knitting into one of a serious expression, the pensive dinosaur recalled finding that very scythe at the football stadium a while back and when she brought it to school, she bumped into Carrie in the hallway, who laid claim to it before taking it off her hands,

" _I figured it was Carrie's because it made the most sense, but why would Gumball be using it? This is so weird."_ her thoughts carried her skepticism as she continued to stare down at the furry orange floor.

There was nothing more he could offer her on the matter and so Hector decided to drop the subject altogether,

"Yeah, I'm not quite certain what's been happening lately, but things are getting pretty crazy around here." he said in a glum tone before remembering something that cheered him up a little and he quickly informed his best friend,

"Oh, that's right! Before I forget to mention it, my mom was wondering if it was alright for you to come over for dinner tomorrow after school? I talked to her last night and she told me that you were a pretty good friend, so she doesn't mind!" he recalled, his hopes already rising.

"Really? That's awesome and yes, I would love to!" she declared, feeling a tremendous feeling of warmth from within.

Underneath the shaggy mat of fur, Hector smiled and continued on with their little stroll through the neighborhood,

"Thanks, I really appreciate it." he replied in a warm tone,

"My mom says all you need to do is get your folk's permission so that way she knows and meet up after school where she will come to pick us up." he explained.

He was glad that she was up for this, he knew that they met only five days ago and that visiting someone else's house was kind of a big change in pace, but there wasn't much going on at his place, plus his mom was cool whenever guests didn't get on her nerves. He was bubbling up from the inside, but he had to be careful 'less his emotions run free and cause a catastrophe. He was grateful that Molly was comfortable enough to come over and was already planning ahead as to what they could possibly do, being sure to follow Rob's advice as he did so.

After he got confirmation from Molly that she will talk to her folks tonight, the two had their plans set for tomorrow and continued to enjoy their nighttime stroll. They had gone to a drive-in theater just outside of Elmore to watch the previously mentioned film, _Bambu_ , just after school let out and the two of them really enjoyed it. Now he was taking her straight home, like a gentleman, and endorsing himself in the pleasant small talk they had.

Now they were quietly enjoying the skyline as multiple police helicopters swept through the skies above downtown Elmore.

 _-Watterson residence, 7:15 PM-_

Sitting quietly in the early evening, the blue suburban house Gumball called home quietly awaited its residents as they set down on the front porch and disembarked from the flying paper mount. Folding up their respective tools and putting them away, the two made their way into the house and closed the door behind them. Seeing as the yellow station wagon was parked out front, Gumball knew both parents were home and didn't worry about getting into trouble.

Dropping his bag on the floor next to the doorway, Gumball walked his way over to the kitchen while Teri remained in the living room,

"Well, that went about as well as I could've imagined!" he quipped in heavy sarcasm as he thought back on the ride through the park's nature reserve.

Setting her bag on the couch, Teri just shook her head and let out a large sigh,

"Ugh, I don't even want to think about it right now! First, the trip through space, then the encounter on Babyloth, and now everyone knows! It's all too much to process right now." she groaned in exhaustion.

The blue cat was in full agreement and decided to take his mind off of it by focusing on tonight's task,

"Right. You want me to make you dinner while you call your mom and let her know you're here?" he politely suggested,

"Gotta warn you though, my mom hasn't done any shopping yet and the only thing I'm allowed to make is spaghetti and sauce." he mentioned with a nervous rub of his neck.

Plopping down on the couch, Teri was more or less content with that and gave him her approval,

"That's fine, as long as you're the one making it." she said.

Gumball smiled and gave her a brief response before turning tail towards the kitchen. With Darwin and Anais being in separate houses and both parents probably hidden away in their bedroom, Gumball noticed that the house was unsettlingly quiet and empty. He busied himself with cooking, snagging a lucky find when he discovered that they had some brownies leftover from when he was experimenting with a new recipe, and in the living room, Teri talked to her mother over the phone.

Eventually the meal was ready to be served and Gumball, being the gracious host he was, brought over two steaming bowls of pasta to the living room where his girlfriend just finished her conversation with her mom,

"My mom's shift ends at 8:15, so she said she's going to be here at 8:30 to come and pick me up." she announced, slapping her phone shut.

The clock read 7:32, so they had a little less than an hour to hang out and that was okay with him,

"Fine by me." he chirped in a happy tone before handing her a bowl,

"Here you go by the way." he offered.

Taking the bowl and smiling back in appreciation, she moved over a little to let him sit next to her,

"Thank you, come here." she said, patting the spot next to her.

Doing as he was told, the blue cat settled himself in right next to her and before the two could get started, he grabbed the remote to switch on the television set. Unfortunately, _Under the Stethoscope_ wasn't going to be on until 9, so they had to settle on some other channel and began to unwind from there. While snuggling up beside one another, they ate in silence and watched some random cartoon show. Considering all the craziness and stress the day has brought, this was exactly what they needed.

Once he had gotten a second bowl for the both of them, plus brownies and a blanket to wrap themselves up in, Teri wondered about something that happened earlier, deciding now was a good time to ask Gumball about it,

"Hey, Gumball?" she started, gaining the cat's attention.

Swallowing a fork full of noodles and sauce, Gumball focused his attention on the paper puppet when he heard his name mentioned,

"Hmm?" he mumbled.

Setting her bowl on the coffee table, she placed her hands in her lap and turned her head towards him,

"Back when we were out in space, I kissed you on the cheek and then you kissed me back, but only on the forehead. Why was that?" she questioned, keeping her face simple.

This kind of caught him off guard as he had to take a moment to think back on that event and wondered why he went for her forehead instead of her lips,

"Oh, that! Ummmm, I'm not sure why, I just kind of assumed you didn't want me to kiss you on the lips because you were uncomfortable with it." he explained, rubbing the back of his neck with his palm as he bashfully looked at her,

"Did you want a kiss on the lips?" he asked with uncertainty.

Backing up a bit, Teri threw her hands up in front of her and began waving them back and forth,

"Oh no, no, no, no, no! I wasn't trying to pressure you into giving me one!" she countered very quickly, almost startling Gumball,

"I'm just glad that you were being considerate of my feelings and that you didn't go for it without asking me first, I mean, if you did then I wouldn't have held anything against you, but thank you!" she beamed in appreciation.

Now it made more sense and Gumball could see why this was a major concern for her. Every one of her romantic encounters up until today had been rather "off", as in she was always under the influence of some kind of spell and thinking back on it, Gumball felt extremely guilty for being responsible for one of them. He was right in making the safe decision to kiss her forehead in response to her kissing his cheek, he loved her and wanted to make sure she was happy,

"Yeah, don't mention it! I want you to be happy and comfortable around me. If you want to take things slow, then as your boyfriend, I accept your decision and will do as you wish!" he boldly declared.

Hearing this proclamation coming from him, Teri felt grateful and was simply glad that not only was he kind, funny, and accepting, but respectful too. She couldn't ask for anyone better and this gratitude radiated from the paper girl,

"Thank you, I'm glad you think so and don't forget, I also want you to be happy and comfortable with me too." she said, kindly reminding him that this worked both ways and she pulled him into a warm hug,

"I love you." she said into his shoulder.

Gumball held her close and nuzzled his face against her cheek,

"I love you too." he whispered and pecked her papery skin.

Teri quickly pushed him away and wiped her cheek with her hand,

"Ugh, don't kiss me when your face is covered in sauce!" she angrily replied as she grabbed some disinfectant from her bag.

Feeling the tender moment being ripped away by that remark, Gumball was first met with surprise then mild frustration as he folded his arms across his chest,

"What the what? Hey, come on now, it was a touching moment! Could you at least reel in the paranoia after the moment had passed!" he retaliated.

And then they began arguing again, just like they always did and there was an exchange of curses coupled with mild insults as the two went at each other. The exchange didn't last long though and the two were back to cuddling in no time, finishing their dinner with both occasionally stealing a brownie from the plate. Eventually the light from the screen and the sound from the speakers became distant as the combined warmth from the blanket, their body heat and from the meal they shared began to cast a shroud of drowsiness over the two, causing them both to drift off into a dreamland where they laid by a massive oak tree in a peaceful meadow.

Their argument had gained the attention of Gumball's mother, who went out to go investigate and when she found the two sleeping on the couch together, the motherly cat couldn't help, but smile softly at the two as she made her way over to the dining room to grab a seat and a book to read until the two woke up.

 _-Elmore Shopping Mall, October 10th, 2013, 4:52 PM-_

Sitting by himself in the _Siren's allure_ coffee shop that had recently opened up in the mall, Leslie the flower boy was enjoying the fact that there were no cheer meetings today and was taking this newfound freedom to hang out at one of his favorite coffee shops. He wasn't here to eat and drink however, rather he was focused on the phone in front of him. He was on a video chat with someone he hadn't seen in a long time and missed dearly.

On the tiny screen was a yellow shape-shifting fairy with antlers and a friendly, approachable aura that more often drew people to her,

"...and so the prime minister of Japan is sending aid overseas to help the citizens of California recover from the San Francisco attacks." Penny said, wrapping up a conversation they were having about recent events.

Clapping his leaves together, the daisy's bright face seemed to shine even brighter and he chuckled happily at the news,

"That's a relief! When all the explosions stopped, I left the shelter with everyone else and I gotta say, the amount of damage was so extraordinary, I thought they were going to need an army of engineers to help fix it!" he claimed, remembering those terrible few hours vividly.

Shooting him a sympathetic look, Penny nodded slowly and sighed in relief,

"I'm glad everyone got out okay. When I first heard of the attacks, I was completely horrified and then I learned of Hector's injuries, so I worried that others got hurt. Thankfully Masami told me everything was alright and Hector was back in shape the next day, which is very pleasing to hear. I guess his mom's magic is effective in curing Elmore's greatest athletes!" she said, rubbing her hands together nervously.

Leslie nodded in agreement, feeling as though everyone was indeed very lucky for surviving that ordeal, especially when four hundred others didn't, and kept in high spirits,

"I know, it was really scary, but everything turned out okay and the mayor is even helping out by keeping a lookout for any suspects that may have been involved in the bombings. Unfortunately, there's been a dramatic increase in police patrols and it like, totally sucks right now because they keep holding up traffic and they're also really paranoid right now." he responded in frustration before switching his focus on Penny's newest accessory,

"Speaking of magic, that necklace you're wearing is simply enchanting! Is that a Jade statue from made from actual Jade stone?" he asked, raising his brow in a curious manner.

Looking down at her chest, Penny saw that he was referring to the miniature green statue of the Jade Emperor himself, dressed in elegant flowing robes with a small halo behind his head and having the appearance of a regal Chinese figure. The figurine itself was as big as a human thumb and was wrapped in a leather cord that hung around Penny's neck. It was a precious item and Penny heard all sorts of tales regarding the stone's value as well the connections it had to the lord of the seven heavens.

Holding it up for Leslie to see, she talked about it with an air of mystique,

"Oh, this? It's a gift my friend Castro gave me a month after moving to Japan, he found it in some kind of charm shop and told me that it brought the wearer luck. I'm not sure if that's true or not, but I like it anyway and yes, it's made from real Jade stone." she set the necklace down and gave Leslie a warm smile.

Leslie was impressed with what he heard and placed his petal covered chin on his leaves as he prodded her for more information,

"So even in the land of the rising sun, you're still just as popular with others. I bet you're having so much fun over there with all your new best friends that you've forgotten about all your old one's in Elmore, aren't you?" he asked with a wicked grin and a look that was so playful, you would have to be a fool in order to miss that he was joking.

Feigning hurt, Penny shot back in her seat, hands placed over her heart as her face twisted into one of pretend shock and disbelief,

"Why Leslie, how could you accuse me of such a thing? I still miss and love all my friends back in Elmore with all my heart. Especially you, seeing as you're not only my best friend, but also my favorite cousin!" she gasped, before breaking character when she cracked a smile.

Giggling in response to her playful banter, Leslie waved her off with a single leaf and shook his head,

"Oh please stop! Fluttery won't get you anywhere!" he replied in between giggles.

"You mean flattery?" Penny corrected.

"I know what I said!" Leslie rebuffed with a huff.

Then something else came to the yellow fairy girl and an excited look crossed her features,

"Oh, speaking of Elmore! My dad was talking to some construction worker, who was also from California and he told him another construction company was opening up in Elmore!" she explained in a rapid machine gun fire voice,

"Do you know what that means?" she squealed, leaning in closer to the screen.

"Girl, tell me what it means!" Leslie demanded, his excitement already building.

"My dad's taking us back to Elmore during Winter break and if he lands the job, he says we can stay!" her voice had risen so much, she was practically shouting with astonishment.

Now he was completely blown away, the news was too much to handle and Penny's cousin needed to pinch himself to make sure this wasn't a dream. Jumping up in his chair, the flower's little roots bounced him up and down as he whooped and cried with joy along with his relative. His cousin and one of his closest friends was coming back and there was nothing on this Earth that could make him feel any happier.

Once the two had finished celebrating over the news, Leslie settled himself back down in his chair and held up the screen again so he could see her clearly,

"This is beyond awesome, Penny! Once everyone figures this out, they'll be drowning in excitement and best of all, we'll have the original cheerleading gang back together. I mean, we can finally toss Sherry out because she's such an airhead and doesn't even socialize that much anyway." he spoke with venom at the mentioning of their newest member.

Sharing her relative's high enthusiasm (minus the part about booting Sherry because she's actually heard decent things about her contrary to Leslie's beliefs.), Penny couldn't stop grinning and was really glad to have more to share,

"Yeah, I would like to get together with everyone else again and hang out like the good old days, but I'm also bringing some of my friends from Japan over too! You guys will absolutely love them, they're all really cool people to be around and you have got to meet Jamiko Miyamoto, he's so awesome!" she announced.

"Looking forward to it!" Elmore's greatest dancer replied eagerly,

"Is he hot?" he followed up, giving her a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows.

Rolling her eyes, Penny sat back in her chair and folded her arms in dissatisfaction,

"Leslie! He's my friend!" she groaned while he only tossed his petal head back and laughed.

The two then got started on a conversation regarding travel and their plans for when she arrived, when over Leslie's shoulder, through the cafe's window Penny saw someone very familiar wander on by. At first she thought it was nobody important, but after a double take she noticed that he was blue and dressed in a brown sweater. Right next to him was another figure, this one almost completely white and flat as a sheet of paper.

When she recognized them, she gasped and drew her cousin's attention right away,

"Is that Gumball?" she stated in surprise.

Looking back and through the glass, Leslie spotted them right away and nodded to confirm Penny's inquiry,

"Yep, and Teri too!" he said, holding up the phone so she could get a better look at the two.

At first she was so happy to see him not only walking about the mall, but with a smile on his face too! He was happy now! She couldn't believe it herself, after hearing from Leslie and the other girls on how depressed he'd become after she moved away, she'd been so heartbroken at hearing this and tried her best to reach out to him, but to no avail.

Now he was up and in high spirits again, which was splendid for her because maybe she could try contacting him again to deliver the good news,

"Oh my Jade, he's actually looking better now! I'm so glad he's- eh?" she stopped when she noticed something else soon after.

Right next to Gumball was Teri, which she had already noticed, and at first she believed that the two were just hanging out as casual friends. This seemed rather off to her, considering how those two normally interacted before she left, but what she saw next completely took her by surprise. The two of them were holding hands and talking to one another in a way one could describe as affectionate.

There was a very tense moment of silence as Penny watched this scene, her emotions mixing and clashing as she tried to piece it all together,

"Um, are Teri and Gumball usually that close?" she wondered in a serious tone.

It was this question that sparked Leslie and the resident drama queen was already in full gossip mode,

"Oh my goodness, you wouldn't believe what happened today at school! So I was at recess with Masami, talking about Hector and Molly's "little exchange" during practice last Tuesday, when she saw, you guessed it, Gumball and Teri sitting by the shed and playing some video game on Gumball's phone." she said, blowing the Hector and Molly part out of proportion because the two were actually just friends and not that close, yet,

"So we approached them all cool-like and when we got their attention, they were both red in the face when they saw us. So we chatted with them and guess what they said next? They're going out with each other, that's right!" he snapped his leaf tip (somehow) and made a sassy _mmm-mmm!_

All the color seemed to fade from Penny's face under the span of a single instant and her expression was stone-like. Something wasn't right, when she got her last update on Gumball, it was about a month ago and according to Leslie, Gumball was starting to get better and Teri was just hanging out with him. She initially saw this as nothing to worry about and sometimes she would wonder how those two came to start being friendly, but this was the complete opposite of what she heard.

She was so caught up in her own inner turmoil that she almost forgot to say something,

"...what?" her voice deadpanned, sounding brass and hollow as she stared seemingly ahead at nothing.

Completely unaware of her dispassionate reaction, Leslie continued on with his train of gossip,

"I know, right? I mean, I already knew they were about to get together and when they said they were dating, I was like _Ugh, finally!_ and Masami seemed happy too, she had this really big smile on her face. It was so big, it almost looked fake! I haven't told anyone else about it yet, except you and Sarah, but I can't wait for school tomorrow to start spreading all this juicy information." he was fully immersed in the drama zone, so much so that he'd already gone blind to the world around him.

That was until Penny got mad and exploded at her, shapeshifting into a hissing Gorgon that frightened poor Leslie,

"What?! Leslie, why didn't you tell me they were getting closer? Why didn't you tell me Gumball was happier in the first place?" she didn't mean to shout, but there was no other outlet for her negativity.

Leslie stopped what he was doing, the effects of her anger already stunning him into a silent statue of fright and confusion as he wondered what was wrong with her,

"I, uh… is something wrong, Penny?" he asked, genuinely confused and scared as was evident by the way he used his leaves to shield his face.

The red Gorgon hissed once more at him, her forked tongue flickering in and out of her fanged mouth, her tail rattled menacingly and the nest of snakes on her hair seethed in anger like their master before she got a hold of herself and reverted back to her original form. She took a deep breath and let it out, calming herself down. Next she furiously rubbed at her temples and spoke slowly to the phone, as if she were on the brink of unleashing her rage again,

"No, everything is fine." she whispered, though the edge in her tone clearly suggested she wasn't,

"I was… I knew he was going through a hard time and I figured it was going to be a while until he got better, but I wished he would call me first. I wanted to let him know that everything was going to be fine and that I was coming home soon. That we could have… we could…" she sniffed as tears began to well up in her eyes and she wiped them away with her hand, before reaching for the phone again,

"I gotta go!" she sobbed, cutting the feed shortly after.

Leslie watched in horror as the screen went dark and he grabbed the phone while shouting,

"Penny, wait!" but it was too late.

Feeling sorry for her and for bringing that up, the potted plant slumped back into his chair with a look of pure dismay written on his face. Before she left Elmore, Penny had told him that she wanted to see if she could keep her relationship with Gumball going online, but Leslie found that unlikely seeing as there was no telling how long it will be until they actually saw each other again. He was right too, as soon as Gumball got the news, first he tried to convince her folks to stay and when that didn't work, he tried to persuade Penny to stay and live with him. This too was met with failure and as soon as they said their good-byes, that was it, their relationship had ended just like that.

When they got in touch with one another, Leslie did his best to keep her up to date on the status of her friends and Gumball included. She often told him how much she missed him and was always asking on how he was feeling once the conversation stretched on long enough, but he remained unaware of the fact that she still believed they could make it work somehow, until today, apparently. He honestly thought that she would've been happy seeing her ex moving on, but now he felt bad for ruining their chat together.

While he was sinking into a well of despair, the drooping flower failed to notice a peculiar person approaching from behind and jumped when he felt a soft finger poking him in the back,

"Hey, what's the big id- Masami!?" he gasped in alarm as he peered into the blank, white cloudy face of his current best friend and fellow gossiper.

She greeted him with a warm smile and proceeded to sit down next to him,

"How's it going, Les? Who were you talking to on the phone?" she questioned with slight intrigue.

Happy to see someone he could talk to, Leslie tried to force a smile, but failed and his plump lips sagged back into a frown,

"Not good. I was talking to Penny over video chat and it was going great at first, but then I went and said something without thinking. Now she's upset and mad at me." he whimpered, feeling very downcast.

Now further interested, Masami's eyes opened wide and she leaned back a little in her seat,

"Really now? You wanna tell me what happened?" she asked, though this was a lie because she had overheard their entire conversation after she trailed him into the coffee shop.

Keeping his eyes directed only at the table top, Leslie retained his sad demeanor, but continued forth anyhow,

"Well, for starters, there is some good news…" he began.

The two sat together at their lonely table, with only a few people coming in every now and then and quickly leaving once their order has been delivered. Masami quietly listened to Leslie describe the details of the online conversation he had with his distant relative, from the part where he told her about their disastrous field trip, to the news that she was coming to Elmore this upcoming winter, and to the final part after she noticed Gumball and Teri together. Once he was finished, Masami feigned shock and reacted in a way that seemed appropriate,

"That's amazing! We can get the whole girl's gang back together and do all kinds of fun stuff, just like old times!" she beamed, displaying a face full of content and nostalgia.

Seeing her look all happy brought him some joy again and he too lit up like the sun,

"You know it, girl! We should celebrate by throwing her a party at your place or maybe we should take her to _Elmore Funland,_ where they've installed some new rides that are way better than last year's. Oh, she's also got some friends coming over to visit as well, so we should hit up that karaoke bar and party all night long, show them how awesome American culture is!" he boldly proclaimed.

Masami nodded along and kept up with the excited exchange,

"Right! I heard that the _Stomach destroyer 2.0_ has an extended track that increases the ride time from three minutes to six minutes and the _Tunnel of love_ has some new features being added in for Valentine's day." she added in before her expression was replaced with one of clarity,

"Hey, you know we can try getting Penny and Gumball back together when she comes back, right?" she suggested with a sly smirk.

As she expected, Leslie's first reaction to this remark wasn't necessarily positive and the flower boy was already reeling back in surprise,

"But we can't do that! Gumball is already dating Teri and I'm sure Penny is willing to move on, given enough time of course." his round face displayed his inner shock to the cloud as clear as day.

Masami kept up her charade and nodded sympathetically, making sure she looked as though she were on his side,

"You're right about that, but think about it for a moment: was it Penny's fault that she had to move away? How is it fair to her that she had to leave all of her friends and boyfriend behind, only to learn that she's coming back in a few months anyway? That's only seven months she was gone and now she can't restart her relationship with Gumball all because Teri managed to get a jumpstart on him. She practically stole him and now you saw how upset she was, she was completely devastated by this." her masked concern was actually leaving an impression on her friend and she had one last trick up her sleeve to completely sway him,

"Besides, you want your cousin to be happy right? Picture how excited she'll be when she finds out that things between Teri and Gumball didn't work out so great and that she can have everything the way it was again!" she eagerly explained while leaning in closer to hear his response.

And just like an enchantress, she had the flower boy completely under her spell. While he was excited for Teri and Gumball kicking off a new romance, the fact that Penny was so broken up about their own relationship officially being over broke his heart too and he wanted to see her happy again. Maybe he was wrong about rooting for Teri in the first place and besides, even if something were to happen between those two, it's not like Teri wouldn't be any different anyway, right?

There was the issue of Teri herself and how she would take the break up, considering for one, she's never been in a relationship before and two, once December arrives that will make it only three months that those two have been dating.

He pushed those thoughts aside and after a moment of consideration, the flamboyant classmate of Masami's slowly shifted in tone before nodding in accordance,

"I see your point, but how are we going to get those two to break it off before Penny arrives?" he asked quizzically, still feeling slightly conflicted as to whether he should be doing this.

Easing back into her chair, Masami simply didn't seem all too concerned for Penny's arrival and the truth was, she wasn't,

"While getting those two to part before winter break would be ideal, it wouldn't necessarily be a hindrance if she were to come home before then and there's a way we can work it to our advantage." she simply replied, stretching her cloudy arms behind her head.

Arching an eyebrow, Leslie peered curiously at his fluffy friend and further wondered what she could have in mind,

"Really now and what are your plans exactly?" he questioned.

Happily accepting his request for additional intel, Masami leapt at the question and proceeded to fill him in,

"Glad you asked! In the months leading up to her arrival, all we have to do is instigate some heat between the two and try to make them distrust one another. You can also take the time to spread lies to Penny about Gumball and Teri's relationship, that way she'll be more than willing to get together with him when she comes back and when she does, that'll be an opportune moment to set up an "incident" involving Penny and Gumball right at the wrong moment when Teri is nearby. The best part about our paper friend is that like her body, her mind is fragile too and it won't take much to break her little heart." she quickly explained.

Leslie understood this and was now completely on track with this plan. With their relationship being as young as it is, it'll be easy to convince Penny to think that something's going wrong and destroying their bond would be just as easy too, provided everything was set up right.

With an affirmative nod, she continued,

"Right, spreading misinformation is my specialty and I'm also guessing that you weren't really a fan of Teri hooking up with Gumball?" he was curious, seeing as he noticed that her reactions towards the paper girl were noticeably hostile.

A small nod and an honest look of pure disdain was given to him, prompting the cloud girl to sigh in agitation,

"You can say I'm not really a fan of Teri herself." she replied honestly.

While Leslie could make a few guesses regarding the rich girl's animosity towards the hypochondriac, he decided not to pry any further and got down to discussing particular plans for the weekend. While they talked, Masami also reminded the walking flower to keep Penny's arrival a secret from everyone else and Leslie assured her that he would and that he could also get in touch with Penny herself to tell her to keep it a secret too. Once that had been settled, Masami turned to the window and caught a brief glance of Gumball and his obnoxious girlfriend walking out of a clothing store to head towards a different store for movie rentals.

She scowled at the two, mainly at Teri herself and turned her head away from the sight of both of them holding hands,

" _Seriously, how in Jade's name did that irritating, wretched snowflake of a girl manage to get Gumball completely wrapped around her finger?"_ she thought bitterly to herself.

Out of all the classmates Masami personally detested, the name Teri was close to the top, just beneath Sussie, Sarah, and Tobias. She hated Teri for the fact that she was a complete nutcase when it came to cleanliness and found some satisfaction in seeing her alone, chasing one activity after the other while trying desperately to gain some attention. While Masami was aware of her own flaws, at least she believed herself to be well respected and appreciated amongst the student body. Teri, on the other hand, deserves no such respect or even the slightest bit of attention, especially when she demanded that everyone give it to her.

Now she has a boyfriend and the entire class was captivated by the unusual turn of events for her.

" _I'm going to knock that lightweight back down a peg and make her regret seeking out more than she deserves."_ was her final thought regarding the matter before she went back to her private exchange with Leslie.

 _-Dinner, 5:01 PM-_

"Here's your order of french fries, a chocolate cookie milkshake for you, sir, and a raspberry lemonade for you, ma'am." Karen listed off as she set their orders down in front of Gumball and Teri,

"Is there anything else you two would like?" she asked one last time before getting ready to part for the next table.

With everything they wanted set right in front of them, Gumball and Teri shook their heads and sent the waitress on her way with a simple reply. After getting some shopping done today, they still haven't received a message from Darwin, or anyone else for that matter, in regards to where they were meeting and decided to take a snack break while they waited. Digging into the basket full of fries, the two went over today's events while enjoying the salty potato slices that were really thick when compared to normal fries and relishing the cozy atmosphere the restaurant brought,

"I'm so glad they had _Under the stethoscope_ seasons one through two at _Ripley 2000_." Teri commented, patting her backpack where the films were stored.

Swallowing a french fry and taking a swig of his milkshake, Gumball was nodding in agreement,

"Me too, I was kind of bummed I missed out on the first two and half of season three!" he remarked.

Teri giggled and munched on another fry,

"Well, tomorrow evening we can go to my place and help you catch up while snuggling on the couch together." she said, giving him a wink and the kitten grinned from ear to ear.

Setting his glass down, Gumball went over today's events and how he felt about it,

"You know, despite some of our classmates keeping their distance, I thought today was really great! I'm kind of impressed not many of our classmates have picked up on us being a thing now." he said, recounting most of the student's supposed lack of interest, despite the fact they were both holding hands on the bus and in the hallway.

Thinking back on it, Teri too noticed the absence of the student's opinions regarding how they were behaving today, but already considered a possible reason for such a matter,

"I had a great day too, so far, and I think the reason no one, except Leslie and Masami, has picked up on us yet is because we haven't really done anything that couples normally tend to do. I mean for example, Carmen and Alan are always flirting and sharing meals while your brother and Carrie are always cuddling on the bus and occasionally sharing a kiss in the library when they think no one is looking. I'm sure given time, Leslie and Masami will spread the news and everyone in a hundred mile radius of Elmore will know about it." she thought her words over carefully and felt what she said made sense,

"Of course, this is going to take some getting used to, I mean for starters, calling you my boyfriend now just seems so unreal to me and I'm not even sure how the rest of this is going to go. I'm just so nervous right now because I've never dated anyone before." she honestly replied, not sure why she was though.

"I know what you mean, I remember waking up this morning and thinking to myself, _"Oh my goodness, I can't believe Teri's my girlfriend now! If this is a dream, I don't want anyone pinching me!"_ , the wait for the bus was especially nerve wracking because I didn't know what I was going to say or do when I met you. I mean, do I just walk up to you and say "hi!" or do I hug you tight?" he stated before remembering the conversation they had last night at his house,

"I think last night's decision to take things slow was a good idea for both of us. There's no rush to take things to the next level and there's still quite a lot left for us to figure out." he said, feeling as though that was the right thing to say.

Teri stopped sipping on her lemonade and checked her boyfriend (okay, that's still weird to say), to see if he was alright or if he had somehow been replaced by an android. There was no way in heaven she had ever heard him sound this mature before and it surprised her. It was hard to tell if he was starting to get better thanks to the war itself or if it was thanks to the events of yesterday that helped him grow or perhaps it was both?

Chuckling to herself, Teri began to fiddle with the straw and watched it spin around the glass rim,

"I thought I was supposed to be the mature one in this relationship?" she joked, sending him a teasing smile.

Laughing along with it, Gumball leaned back in his seat and swiped another fry from the basket,

"I'll keep that in mind the next time I try to be sensible." he teased her back, to which she stuck her tongue out at him and he returned by pulling at his lower eyelid.

After sharing some more laughter and shenanigans, the two quietly went back to snacking, both happy with their current situation. It honestly didn't matter to either of them whether people noticed they were a couple or how they should act, as long as they were comfortable with each other, then everything was fine. Both of them weren't sure if they should consider this little outing a date, seeing as they were meeting people later on, but it did bring back pleasant memories of the first time they hung out here.

Once they were finished with their meal, the duo shared a brief kiss, one on the cheek and one on the forehead, before striking up a conversation with the primary topic being the increased security in Elmore, when someone familiar let out an excited squeal,

"YES! I KNEW IT!"

Turning in their seats, Teri and Gumball spotted Carmen, of all people, rushing up to them with a sparkle in her eyes and the biggest smile they'd ever seen on any person,

"Sarah told me you guys were dating once school got out and at first I thought she was just looking too deep into things again, so I checked with Darwin and he said you guys totally were. Then I walk in here and you guys are!" she was a never ending fountain bubbling with joy and both were completely caught off guard by this level of attention they were getting,

"I'm so excited and happy for you both!" she exclaimed, bouncing up and down excitedly.

Realizing that Leslie must've already told someone and Sarah happened to be one of those few, the two knew very well that tomorrow was going to see some very different reactions in comparison to today's. Still, they were glad someone else approved and was happy to see them finally get together. Teri also suspected most of Carmen's excitement was directed towards her, given how many times she's teased her about it and tried to set up potential dates to kickstart the relationship.

Calming down from her initial surprise, Teri went first and thanked the cactus girl for her support,

"Well, thank you very much, Carmen! Yesterday, Gumball and I went… out of town for a bit because he wanted to show me a great view of the stars and then while we were out, well, we talked and then he kind of let it slip that he liked me." she explained, fudging up the story just a tad bit before smiling warmly at her furry, Cyan partner sitting across from her,

"You can say, the evening really took off and we had quite blast afterwards." she added, using a little inside joke between them.

Gumball picked on her humor right away and further stacked it with his own,

"Well, the view was exquisite, but Teri really knows how to take my breath away!" he commented, watching her turn to him and go beet red when she figured it out, then giving him a hug afterwards.

Gushing at the flirty exchange going on, Carmen pressed her hands together and began bouncing again,

"Oh my Jade, you guys are too adorable! I need to hear all the details on how this evening went tomorrow during lunch and Teri, I expect _juicy_ tidbits!" she demanded, giving her a wink.

Parting from their hug, the paper puppet was reminded of something and returned her attention to the leader of the seventh grade girl group,

"That sounds almost exactly like what my mom said when she found out last night! There was also Gumball's mom's reaction too, and that was pretty hilarious, if not embarrassing." she retained her blush at the recent memory of the humiliating moment and Gumball's face also shared the same hue.

Curious, Carmen tilted to the side a little and opened her mouth to question her,

"Really? What happened last night?" she placed her stick hands on her hips as an amused smile crept into her features.

With a pleading glance directed at Gumball from Teri herself, the boy caved and started off with what happened after they woke up on the couch.

 _-Flashback, yesterday evening-_

 _They didn't sleep for long, only about twenty minutes or so, when a loud noise from the active television's speakers sounded off and startled the two of them awake. While Teri was slow to rise, Gumball was fully awake the moment his eyes opened and he noticed right away something was amiss. Whether they realized it or not, when the couple began to fall asleep, they rearranged themselves in a way where Teri was in front of Gumball and the latter had an arm draped around her torso, holding her close while under the covers. At first, all Gumball saw was white and when he pulled his head back a little, he saw that this blank surface was moving on its own._

 _Seconds later, he further scrutinize this strange object in front of him and realized all at once that it was the back of Teri's head,_

" _Oh?" he mumbled as he pushed himself up a little._

 _The little noise he made in addition to his movement helped wake Teri up even faster and the paper bear finally noticed her surroundings as well as the furry, blue arm snugly wrapped around her. She was very warm right now and even though this all seemed strange to her, she didn't mind as much and grabbed the paw she knew belonged to Gumball before bringing it closer to her. She massaged his knuckles with her thumb and the cat began to purr right behind her, making her all the more comfortable._

 _Turning her head around so she could get a good look at him, she smiled when she saw a dark pair of eyes staring back into her own,_

" _Well hello there, Mr. Purrington." she spoke soothingly._

 _Finding that nickname legitimately funny, Gumball couldn't force back a giggle and he shook his head at her silliness,_

" _So we're doing pet names now, eh? I thought we're supposed to be taking this slow?" he remarked with a hint of sarcasm._

 _Flashing him a sly look and smile, Teri giggled back,_

" _That's rich coming from the one who's spooning me right now." she countered, raising an eyebrow._

 _Looking down, Gumball saw that she was indeed correct and rectified this by sitting up quickly, though his face was already bright red by this point. Once again, he didn't remember how they wound up in this position, but he didn't want to take things too far and thought it better if he put a little space between her and himself. Teri, however, was fine and didn't mind his close proximity, showing it by cuddling up beside him again._

" _It's okay, you're fine and I'm fine too, you lovable dork." she explained humorously before pecking him on the cheek, which was a humongous relief to Gumball._

 _Settling down again, Gumball pulled out his phone and checked the time, finding that they had about twenty minutes or so, until Teri's mom came to pick her up. At a loss for what to do during their remaining few minutes, Gumball turned to Teri for ideas. Feeling just as perplexed as to which possible activities to indulge themselves in, there were only a few that came to the cheerleader's mind,_

" _Well, we could either just go back to sleep or we can finish that Raging Red the Bandicoot game?" she offered with a shrug, fine with whichever._

 _Before Gumball could process the question and weigh the pros with the cons for each choice, a third party made itself known,_

" _How about you guys tell me about your evening together went?"_

 _It was feminine, coming from someone middle-aged and it's direction was from that of the dining room, where neither had bothered to look once they woke up. Freezing up like criminals caught in an act of a felony, two heads slowly turned and found the form of a blue feline sitting at the dining room table, book in hand and clad in her beige PJ's with her head turned in their direction. Smiling knowingly, Nicole continued to stare at the children and the seconds ticked by as a multitude of confusing thoughts ran through their heads._

 _Then both of them exploded into action the moment it all set in and no one could clock how fast it took them to throw the blanket off, hop off the couch, and start babbling nonsensical gibberish as they both tried to explain their current predicament in a way that made it sound less scandalous._

 _After Nicole had nearly fallen out of her chair from laughing too hard, Richard came crashing out of the parent's room donning nothing more than his tighty-whities and a sense of curiosity as to what could be the cause of such a commotion,_

" _What's going on here? Why is there so much noise and why do I smell pasta and brownies? Did someone have a party without inviting me?" he questioned almost accusingly, before finally seeing all three members in the living room, with Nicole practically in tears at this point and Gumball and Teri looking at him in pure mortification._

 _Noticing that one of them wasn't a family member, Richard casually greeted the newcomer with a small wave and a friendly demeanor,_

" _Hey, you're Gumball's girlfriend, Mary, right?" he asked, pointing at Teri._

 _However, Gumball placed a paw over the horrified Teri's eyes as well as his own before shouting,_

" _DAD! PUT SOME PANTS ON!"_

 _-present-_

"And yeah, after dad got dressed, we all sat down and talked about what happened yesterday. I'm still scarred for life, by the way." he quipped, his eye twitching slightly.

Teri nodded in agreement before placing her hands together on the table and sighing slightly while fighting to keep that image from re-emerging in her head,

"They were pretty happy to hear that we were finally going out and Gumball's dad even called me his new daughter-in-law." she chuckled, remembering the ecstatic, overweight bunny's reaction.

Patiently listening, Carmen nodded and saw Gumball shake his head before muttering,

"Yeah, then my mom gave me a list of places I should take her because she wanted me to get to know Teri a little better and to get out of the house more." he thought that was pretty thoughtful considering they've only been hanging out for only a month, a little over one actually.

Then came the next part Teri wanted to share and she told Carmen what else happened that night,

"Oh yeah, speaking of mom, when mine finally arrived…"

 _-Flashback, twenty minutes after the discussion-_

 _Yui just stood there for a moment, as still as a statue, while she processed what she had just heard and both kids and the Watterson parents patiently awaited her response. They just broke the news to her and now the curvier look-alike of Teri finally grasped what this meant for her daughter. Stretching from ear to ear, a smile broke out on her face and her eyes lit up as she began shaking like a toddler hyped up on sugar._

 _Then she lurched forward and threw herself around Gumball, much to the young boy's discomfort,_

" _EEK! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! You just made my daughter the luckiest girl alive and you made me the happiest mother on this planet! Thank you so much for accepting my Teri-bear!" she cried, hugging him as though she were trying to squeeze the life out of his lean body, though it didn't really hurt in the slightest._

 _She then reached out and grabbed Teri to join in on the hug, catching the two of them together in a tight embrace,_

" _You two are going to be so great together, I know it!" she said, sounding very sure of herself and the two just blushed in embarrassment._

 _Stepping back from the hug, the circular paper bear mom drew on her striped dress a pocket, that she pulled a paper flip-phone out of and pointed the camera at the two,_

" _Okay you two, I wanna snap a couple photos to commemorate this moment with. First we'll dod one with you two standing side by side, then one of you two holding hands, and finally one where you two kiss!" she instructed with passionate enthusiasm._

" _MOM!" Teri screamed in embarrassment, hiding her face in her hands as she tried to keep her eyes off of Gumball, who was looking equally as flustered._

 _All three parents laughed together and continued to have a good time._

 _-Present-_

"She took several pictures, but at least she was kidding about that last part." Teri recalled, still feeling her heart racing at her mom's prompt to kiss Gumball.

Having wrapped up the story, Carmen nodded in appreciation and got ready to leave,

"That's lovely, you two. I wanna hear more about this later, but I gotta get back to shopping. We're having a student-staff meeting tomorrow discussing the increased security detail around Elmore, including the mayor's morning statement regarding the contract he made with the _Bobert store_ and _Elmore Dynamics_ to manufacture security sentinels and send them out to patrol our streets. It's a very unsettling topic and it needs to be addressed, I'm hoping we can form a petition to cease the mass production of security droids." she explained, sounding very distressed.

This came as a bit of a surprise to the two, as they had just been discussing a similar topic before Carmen showed up and neither of them knew about this,

"That is very alarming." Teri responded.

"I agree. There's already enough police officers in the streets and this will just cause even more panic!" Gumball followed up in agreement.

Nodding in acknowledgment, Carmen sighed and clasped her hands together,

"I know, Alan and I were thinking the same thing and wanted to spread the news to everyone else. We understand that everyone is scared right now and the citizens of Elmore are very concerned considering our entire class was caught up in the attacks, but there's got to be a better way to look after ourselves." she stated.

She took off from their table and waved back at them as she exited the restaurant,

"Enjoy your evening you two and congratulations, both of you! I will be seeing you both at school tomorrow, but please consider coming to the meeting as well, we need as many members present!" she said and they both gave her their word before wishing her good-bye.

As soon as she left, there was nothing being exchanged between the two and a heavy silence hung over them, filled in by the sounds of the restaurant and it's customers. When the Nephilim first showed, most people had their concerns, but seeing as they couldn't make heads or tails of the strange events, no one was really too concerned, save for a suspicious few. Unfortunately, it was only a matter of time before the Nephilim did something bold and now the culmination of all the anomalies, plus the events of the past few weeks was finally getting to the citizens.

And now many of them knew the truth, catching them in the center of all these events.

Releasing the tension building up in her shoulders, Teri groaned and slumped down in her seat,

"We really can't keep doing this anymore. People are starting to connect the dots and the ones that already have want to reveal everything. What's worse, if we do manage to keep it hidden, then people are just going to keep getting desperate for answers and this whole thing may collapse in on itself." she said, feeling as though she were suffocating with all this secrecy.

Gumball glumly nodded his head and brought it down on the table top, air hissing past his lips as he exhaled,

"Yeah, you're right. I never expected any of this to get out of hand, but I should've expected it anyway, given how powerful our enemies are. Maybe we should contact the NEA and see if they could help us out. If people felt safer and were given a proper explanation, maybe they'll be less scared?" he wondered.

Curious, Teri set her drink down and leaned forward a bit,

"Are we going to do that after we warn them of the invasion? We were lucky enough not only to escape with our lives, but also with critical information that could save millions, but we still don't know where they are and time is not exactly on our side here. They way they mentioned it, it sounded like it was happening soon and also, what are _we_ going to do when it does happen?" she pried a little with a quizzical expression.

Finishing his milkshake, Gumball fought off an incoming brain freeze before answering,

"Honestly, I say we should start looking in San Francisco, it's the last place we found them and it can be done tomorrow seeing as your origami can get us there. As for the actual invasion itself, we can definitely- wait, hang on a moment, someone's texting me!" he stopped his original line of dialogue to pull out his phone and check his messages.

Making her way over, Teri read the text over her boyfriend's shoulder and found that it was from Carrie. It read:

 _Gumball, the meeting's been postponed, Rob and Chimera spotted the Nephilim in their sleep and they're appearing over the Channax building. If Teri's with you, bring her and meet me out front near the mall entrance ASAP!_

Putting the phone away, Gumball got up and paid the check, before ushering Teri out the door along with himself,

"Looks like Nimrod's not happy with yesterday's visit and is bringing his friends along to finish the job he started." Gumball said, feeling a twinge of fear grip his stomach, making it do flip-flops.

Fearing his wrath, Teri too was nervous and wanted to hope the Nephilim's arrival wasn't going to be high in numbers,

"If they're appearing in downtown Elmore, then we have to hurry, many people's lives will be in danger, including your mom and my parents!" she exclaimed, picking up her pace.

Feeling the urgency of the situation bearing down on them, the fighting pair rushed to the mall's main exit, pushing past many shoppers and onlookers as they went. Eventually they got outside, where Carrie was waiting and she was relieved to see that both of them were there. With the target location not being so far, Carrie grabbed them by the hands and within a flash of light, the emo teleported all three of them away.

 _-Channax building rooftop, 5:11 PM-_

Time and space mattered not for the trio, for in the blink of an eye the ghost, the cat, and the paper doll were brought to the concrete square that sat atop the capitol of Elmore's most ambitious conglomerate. They were not alone in this towering landscape, standing not too far way from where they appeared were three others: their long time ally, Rob, and Gumball's adopted brother, Darwin. Surprised to see him here, Gumball was immediately wrought with confusion,

"Um, nice to see you, bud." he greeted with a nervous wave before he looked around and noticed the small number of people present,

"Where's everyone else?"

There wasn't an immediate reply, but after a long moment of intense stares and awkward silence, Darwin finally said something much to the relief of the newly arrived,

"Anais is home, waiting for mom to come back from work. Macey's at her place with Chimera, she was the one who texted everyone, and Ocho is on his way along with Bobert. Jamie went over to Tina's house because she wasn't acting like herself today, but she's probably heading this way as we speak." he explained, sounding like an irritated teen having to explain something so simple to someone a second time and Gumball could still sense some hostility in his sibling.

"I was at the mall's arcade with Carrie when we got the message and she brought me up here just as he arrived." he hiked a "thumb" over at Rob, who didn't seem all too happy to see him.

Up next was Rob, who was dressed in a space suit covered in tin foil and a kevlar vest along with two strange devices covering his hands. On his right hand was a thick, metal, cylindrical casing holding a cluster of coil gun barrels ranging differently in size and caliber. Feeding into the guns was a series of wires and rubber hoses that acted as a track for all the ammo stored in his bag, which is where the hoses and wires led up to. On his left hand was a gauntlet also connected to several wires that ran along his arm and mounted to the index finger was a spray nozzle, no thicker than a pen tip, that connected to a canister containing a gel-like substance strapped to his wrist.

He looked like a spaceman invading from another world and his angry, one-eyed face kind of sold it too,

"This is a waste of time! You and everyone else need to stay as far away from this place because once the Nephilim arrive, you'll just be in the way." he said in exasperation, curling his left hand into a fist.

It didn't take any of them long to realize that there was some kind of uneasy tension between the cyclops and the fish, with Carrie holding even more knowledge as to why Darwin was acting this way. While Darwin wasn't easy to anger, he'd already been put in a bad mood today with all the stress from yesterday still lingering and this combined with his mistrust of Rob made him particularly perturbed. Pivoting on his heels, he had to tilt his head upwards in order to look him in the eye and he stomped his foot in defiance,

"None of us should be here in the first place! This is not a job for kids and once I've personally seen how dangerous this all is, I'm going to help Anais explain this to mom before we move onto informing the authorities. So until then, we're not going anywhere!" he argued, curling his fins into fists before briefly glancing off to the side where Gumball, Carrie, and Teri were standing and sighing,

"Besides, I want to make sure they're safe." he muttered, this being the real reason why he insisted on coming along.

All day at school, he kept his distance from Gumball and Teri, even though it made him feel bad because his brother was finally happy again with finding love in Teri. He needed space to think and would only converse with Carrie every once in a while. Before they went to school, they had a long talk at breakfast and when they got down to it, Darwin had explained to her that he was afraid of losing both of them, to which she told him that she was sorry for making him worry needlessly and for lying to him in the first place.

She was forgiven, obviously, but he still stood by his beliefs: a line had to be drawn on how to keep everyone safe.

As inevitable as the morning, Rob's rebuttal came and was driven by the same desire to protect, but not in the same way as Darwin wished,

"The authorities won't be able to do anything because they won't be able to see them, no one else can either and that goes especially for you! You want to help out, then stay out of our way and let us handle this!" he countered.

Now was the time for Carrie to speak up and she moved forward with a hand gripping her other arm,

"Actually, I need a body to possess in order to fight the Nephilim." she stated as a matter of fact before checking with her boyfriend,

"What do you say, Darwin?" she asked, hoping for his consent.

At first Darwin was hesitant and rightfully so. He knew that the Nephilim were dangerous, but were also like people and he found the act of fighting others completely distasteful. However, his desire to protect his loved ones was stronger than his fears or his beliefs and he accepted Carrie's offer,

"Of course." he chirped in agreement, having complete faith in his girlfriend's abilities.

Rob didn't object to this and seemed less agitated by the fish's presence, now that he had a means of providing further assistance. Then there was Teri, who also had a point to make regarding the things he said earlier and spoke to him,

"Just before Carrie came and picked us up, Gumball and I were talking about contacting the NEA at San Francisco." she left out the fact that they were leaving to warn them about an impending invasion, but now probably wasn't the best time to bring that up.

Raising his monobrow, Rob thought back to when he first heard one of them mention that name and it came back to him quickly,

"You mean the organization that one woman mentioned working for during your field trip?" he asked, needing confirmation.

Teri nodded and a smile was present,

"Yeah, that one! I believe her name was Amy and she helped us in our fight against Gorothim, she even saved Hector's life!" she explained with hopeful enthusiasm.

Rob remembered now and when he thought about it, there was an uncertainty that was pressing into him that he needed to voice out to the group,

"Right, but how do we know we can trust these guys? They may be fighting the same opponent, but we have no idea how they operate and what conditions they're willing to follow when it comes to outsiders." there was something else too, he remembered what Fjel had mentioned and was worried about what actions these guys would take once they figured out how important Hector and the Void were.

Upon the mentioning of this new group, Darwin's hopes rose and the group's youngest member was all for contacting the NEA,

"That's it! If there's a group of specialists that are trained to deal with this kind of threat, why don't we contact them and let them know that our home is under attack!" he suggested.

"I guess that could be beneficial." Carrie thought out loud, somewhat agreeing with Darwin.

"Creating allies would be a great help if we are to pull through this." Teri added in. In reality, she was all for it if it meant that they could live slightly normal lives, not that she hated defending Elmore from the forces that conspire against it, but felt as though the war was slightly taxing on all of them.

Gumball remained silent because he was unsure of what he wanted. On the one hand, Rob was right, they didn't know anything about these guys and even though they may want the same thing, their ways of achieving their goals may conflict with how they do things. Then there was Darwin's point, they _were_ just kids and a group of highly trained specialists could probably get the job done better than they can, plus they could probably go back to living their lives if the NEA took over. He stared at the ground, his tail swishing back and forth while his ears flattened against his head as he racked his brain for a possible solution.

Completely against the idea, Rob objected and voiced his opinion,

"Did you not hear a single word I said? We don't know these people and if we're going to start reaching out for outside help, then we should at least test such an alliance before we-!"

"Greetings organic classmates, spectral entity, and former hostile!" a robotic voice from afar interrupted.

"Hey guys! Did we miss the show yet!" another one called out in a friendly greeting.

Rob felt his shoulders slump forward as he groaned in irritation and his eye rolled in his head,

"Great, here comes more deadweights!" he muttered venomously.

Arriving by air, Bobert and Ocho soared over to the _Channax_ rooftop and set themselves down right besides the five already gathered. The robot appeared to be nonchalant whereas his companion was looking very excited, not even caring that Rob was there and armed with more weapons. Everyone, except the aforementioned cyclops, seemed shocked to see the two bickering school rivals here and not at all upset with what they learned as of recently.

Being the first to greet them, Gumball walked up and said hello,

"So what are you guys doing here? Are you still upset about the whole "keeping secrets" thing?" he nervously asked, a few sweat marks appearing on his head.

"Negatory." Bobert answered,

"In the last twelve hours I have calculated the best response to the situation and I have come to the conclusion that it would be beneficial If I gathered sufficient data on the electromagnetic spiritual anomalies labeled "Nephilim" in order to better assure the survival of Elmore and its residents." he listed off in a rapid machine-like manner.

Rolling his eyes at the droid's prattle, Ocho butted in and explained himself,

"You talk too much!" he spat before turning his attention towards the blue feline,

"You kidding? Of course not, well, maybe a little, but that's all water under the bridge. I just want to beat these guys and help out!" he exclaimed very boldly.

" _Wow, that's a lot of confidence coming from a guy who's never seen a Nephilim before and probably can't either."_ Gumball thought in shock before getting to the main issue at hand,

"Um, yeah, as much as I'm glad to see you taking this very well, I don't think you guys should be-!" he stopped abruptly when Carrie let out a gasp.

Right at that very moment, the ghost sensed something very powerful appearing in the skies above and not too long after, several presences could be felt emerging from somewhere unknown. To Rob, Teri, and Gumball however, they could see this just fine and all three bore witness to not one, but five portals opening up in the sky above. The black tears that served as gateways to Babyloth contrasted against the hues of the late-afternoon sky and from these gateways, twenty Nephilim emerged.

Pulling out his folded scythe, Gumball cried out in alarm,

"They're here!" and with a click of two buttons, the stock and blade sprang out like an extended claw.

"There's so many of them!" Teri exclaimed in fright.

Just as she uttered that phrase, all the power in the skyscraper they were standing on and from the surrounding cityscape went out, leaving an unnatural aire of silence. The only machines that hadn't shut down were Rob's weapons and Bobert himself, who lucked out after getting that anti-EMP software installed following the attacks on San Francisco. The two boys searched the sky desperately, but couldn't find anything out of the ordinary and Rob readied his weapons for the inevitable showdown.

Sliding his visor into place, a digital HUD appeared on the glass and Rob smiled when he saw that all systems were nominal,

"Perfect! With this many Nephilim showing up, I can put _Leviathan Book_ to the ultimate test!" he remarked anxiously, priding himself with the weapon system he so caringly constructed in all his spare time.

Snapping into action, Carrie turned to Darwin and began to drift towards him,

"Darwin, I need to use your body!" she commanded.

Darwin, who also had no idea what was happening, quietly nodded and opened his mouth to let the emo spirit in. Like a white comet, she sailed right into his maw and after a few convulsions along with a color change from bright orange to sickly green, Carrie had complete control over his body. With new eyes, both Carrie and Darwin could see the true form of Elmore's greatest threat.

From the recesses of his mind, Darwin was already reeling in terror not just at the nightmarish sight of the giants, but at the alarming amount present,

" _Oh my… the whole city is in danger! How are we going to deal with all of this?"_ came his worried thoughts, which was heard loud and clear by the fish's current driver.

While she had her own concerns with the horde gathered in the sky, she pushed those down and forced a smile onto her face, flashing a dangerous set of fangs,

"We'll deal with the big guy first, the rest will be easy pickings!" she declared. It may have been arrogant for her to say such things, but her excitement was being fueled by the adrenaline Darwin's body was pumping.

The Nephilim she was referring to, was by far the largest and most intimidating of the ones who arrived. Standing at over three hundred feet in height, this behemoth was so large that even though all the Nephilim were at least a thousand feet above them, every small detail could be seen by the ones who could perceive them and the nineteen other giants were like dolls to him. Humanoid in appearance, his outfit consisted of a white samurai kimono decorated with black, linear geometry that ran along his sleeves and in one hand, he carried a golden sickle. Though lightly exposed, they could see that his skin was silver and the back of his hands were covered in glowing markings that flash different colors and made him more noticeable.

The only odd thing about him was his head: there was a lower portion that had a mouth lined with shark teeth and stopped where the nose began, with there being no upper portion, rather a large disk that sat horizontally like a hat and there was nothing above it.

While everyone was hastily readying themselves for what looked to be an intense confrontation, the Nephilim in the sky remained where they were and the one in the kimono produced an object from his pocket. It was a hologram projector in the shape of a gem and only Gumball and Teri recognized the device. Moments later, the hologram of a ginormous figure sprang from the gem and in full view of the defenders was the image of an antlered figure wearing a regal cape and robes with a mess of wild black hair traveling down his backside.

His empty black eyes burned holes through the souls of the onlookers and a certain two within the crowd trembled in fear upon recognition of this Nephilim, then he spoke,

"Gumball Watterson and Teri Pepakuma." he hailed, a hollow sound passing through his thin lips.

"Nimrod!" Teri and Gumball addressed in unison.

Carrie and Rob looked at one another for the briefest moments and then back at the towering hologram presenting the fearsome leader of the world's deadliest opponents,

" _So that's their leader."_ Carrie realized with shock.

" _Given their description of him, I didn't think he would look that terrifying, but this guy really freaks me out!"_ Rob thought once he saw that the form Nimrod was in was the same first form the two survivors described before he transformed into the deadly one the Nephilim were mostly known for.

While Darwin was also shocked to see the evil president was speaking to them, there was something about the mysterious figure that stood out to him and he couldn't help but wonder,

" _He kind of reminds me of Penny, only more human and less radiant."_ his inner voice mused.

Meanwhile, Ocho and Bobert still couldn't see what was happening and when the paper girl and cat boy mentioned a particular name, a frustrated Ocho demanded more intel,

"What's going on? Who's Nimrod and how many of them are there?" he asked in a raised voice, narrowing his eyes at the two and moving back and forth rapidly.

Bobert's head swiveled up, down, and side to side as he completed a scan of the environment,

"Multiple electromagnetic disturbances detected, but no signs of hostile life forms!" he reported.

Ocho's questions went unanswered as the other five continued to listen as Nimrod's projection continued to deliver its message,

"That was quite the lucky turnout for you two to survive Chalon's trap, to stand up to my trusted bodyguards, Michael and Gabriel and myself included before ultimately escaping my Republic Guard back to your insignificant speck of a nest." he praised, but there was no respect behind it, just disgust.

Gumball felt his paws clench into fists and Teri gritted her teeth, both of which were enraged with him for still talking down on them.

Nonetheless, his speech went on and his face contorted into one of smug satisfaction when he got to the part he was looking forward to,

"But it was only luck that's gotten you so far. You may have defeated wave after wave of my soldiers in the past, but it all ends here and I most certainly can't have you revealing my plans for invading Los Angeles to those lowly pests, the NEA." he prattled on, a dangerous gleam in his eyes.

Catching that last part, Rob and Darwin, who had managed to regain control of his mouth, both asked at the same time,

"What's he talking about?" their focus directed at Gumball and Teri.

Snapping his head to the side, his glare was all he needed to cease further interrogation and the feline swiped a paw in front of him,

"I'll explain later!" he hissed.

"Guys, this is getting really annoying!" Ocho chimed in, the 8-bit spider already turning red from his building fury.

Finally wrapping up, the wrathful leader of the giants took one last hateful look down at the insects below and commenced the final verdict for the unfortunate,

"For the death of my son and the obstruction of my grand plans, you will be washed away in a rain of light!" he then whirled around to face the Nephilim holding the communicator and issued an order,

"Captain Az, I order you and your men to unleash a concentrated blast upon their location. Destroy the building they're on and once they're reduced to atoms you are to send the Enoch squad out to eradicate the city. I want that wretched Earthling blotch completely leveled by the end of the evening!" his word was swift and powerful, not once did he raise his voice.

The disk head bowed obediently before moving to carry out his orders and raised his golden sickle until the point was directed at the gathered defense team,

"As you wish, Mr. President!" he responded sharply, his voice gruff and hardened,

"Enoch squad, prepare to fire on my mark!" he barked at his subordinates.

At the tip of his curved blade, an orb of red energy manifested and was joined by many others when the members of his army charged up their devastating attack. Feeling the gravity of the situation, a million things went through the minds of the defenders while the two oblivious children continued to press for more updates of the given situation. However, there wasn't much they could do when the combined strength of the Nephilim's presser fields began to weigh them down and lock them into place. It was even too much for Gumball to handle and the poor kitten found himself in a desperate state when he tried to activate his weapon's ability, only find himself still being crushed.

He let out a strangled grunt as the air started to leave his compressed lungs and he struggled some more against the invisible force that held him in place,

" _Darn it! I can't stand and even if I could, how will I be able to deflect twenty of these things? If we all leave, the people inside the building will be in danger too and I don't know if we can save everyone with all these guys running around either!"_ he looked around as best as he could and saw everyone struggling like he was, with Ocho crying in confusion, Bobert's systems going haywire as he tried to divert more power to his limbs, Rob was gasping for air while trying to raise his gauntlet, Darwin was still possessed by Carrie while snarling like a rabid animal, and Teri, poor Teri was spread flat on the ground not even able to move because of her frailty,

" _I can't believe it! We had less than a day with each other and there was so much I was looking forward to. Why did it have to be today?"_ he thought with a grim realization that they had only been dating for less than twenty four hours and that this could be it for the both of them.

Struggling even harder to free himself, Gumball's heart sank when he heard the all too familiar hum that followed the Doom blast trap and signalled the near completion of the destructive attack,

" _Everyone, I'm sorry!"_ Gumball's last thought came as he realized he still couldn't fulfill his promise to protect everyone and looked up to see his death waiting in the form of twenty red lights that shone like stars in the late-afternoon sky.

Watching with delight at the closing seconds 'til his most hated enemies were vaporized, Nimrod continued to his surveillance of the mission and thought the secret task to be practically completed.

That was until the combined barrage was interrupted by a surprise attack from an unseen vector:

BRAKKA! BRAKKA! BRAKKA!

Tearing through the air, bullets streaming by in magic trails of neon pink and blue, three Nephilim were instantly cut down and exploded in a plume of purple flames. Caught completely off guard by the sudden loss of three squad members, the attack was aborted and their attention was turned towards the direction of the lowering sun. Feeling the Nephilim's grasp suddenly lift like a cloud, everyone quickly got up and checked to see if everyone else was okay before turning towards their saviors.

Rob couldn't believe what his single eye was showing him and his breath nearly left him a second time,

"No way!" he gasped.

In the distance, eleven military helicopters approached like dark birds of prey and remained in formation. Having some basic knowledge of American military aircraft, the first thing Teri noticed about the incoming reinforcements was that their aircraft were quite antiquated and probably saw use in the 60's and 70's. The one in the lead and the only one of its type, a large, tandem rotor, transport helicopter officially designated the Boeing CH-47 Chinook, while flanking it were two Bell UH-1 Hueys, and the remaining eight were formed of Bell AH-1 Cobras, dedicated attack crafts with multiple rocket launchers and machine guns.

One thing they all had in common was that they were colored black and there was a red insignia painted on the side of each one: a crescent moon with a sword running through the middle.

The kids cheered in triumph once they saw the newcomers engage the scattering Nephilim, which remained airborne thanks to a strange spell they all utilized and while they weren't sure why the military was here, they were just happy to be alive for now. The air was filled with the sound of gunfire, whirring helicopter rotors, and the otherworldly screeches of the giants placed on the defensive. Watching the squad fall apart immediately, Nimrod once again issued an order to Captain Az, who charged a Doom blast and blasted an attack helicopter out of the sky, melting the entire front half and sending the rest down in a burning heap,

"Captain Az, pull your men out of there and report back to base immediately. They've won this round." he begrudgingly ordered.

Carefully surveying the battle itself, the Kimono wearing captain saw no need to retreat and shook his head in spite of the president's orders,

"No need, Mr. President, the NEA are outnumbered! If we regroup now we can finish them off and complete the mission." he countered, sounding very sure of himself.

Nimrod gave the defiant Nephilim a hard look before sighing and turning to leave,

"Very well, captain, but should you obtain too many casualties, you are to retreat right away. I don't want to waste precious lives on a pointless skirmish and I certainly won't hear it from the senate. Do you understand?" he looked back one last time to the thirty story behemoth.

He nodded as he swiped his curved blade at another helicopter that got too close, guns blazing away as the magic bullets simply bounced off his enchanted clothes and the pilot veered off,

"Affirmative, Mr. President!" he replied, his shark teeth flashing in an optimistic grin.

The hologram faded faded back into the gem and after stowing the device away in his coat, Az was free to use both hands again.

Down on the building top, Gumball and company watched as the opposing forces darted through the air, pursuing one another as machines and beasts gave it their all. In the minute that had passed, seven Nephilim were killed while the NEA had sustained one loss, technically two, considering that attack helicopter seated a pilot and a weapons officer. The only aircraft not engaged in the fight was the Chinook, which was just hanging back as multiple creatures tried to tear at it, but were intercepted by an opposing aircraft.

Seeing as there were thirteen hostiles remaining and only nine aircraft actively in combat, Gumball saw this as an opportune moment to strike. He rallied his team's attention and called forth a plan,

"Come on guys, let's help even the odds!" he declared before setting a plan into motion,

"Rob, find cover and provide support fire, target any enemy that gets close or try to hinder their movement. Darwin and Carrie, you're with Teri and I, we're going to get up there and pick off anything that strays too far away." an explosion sounded overhead, causing the whole building to shudder, but no one was fazed by it,

"Bobert and Ocho, you guys can't see them, so I'm going to need you guys to help evacuate the _Channax_ building." he finally stated.

Saluting and following orders, Bobert activated his thrusters to lift himself up off the ground,

"Affirmative! Proceeding to assist with the evacuation of all remaining non-combatants!" he replied and with a roar of his engines, he swung around in a graceful loop before smashing through the metal door that lead to the stairwell.

"Sheesh, he's not even going to use the safety stairs, what a waste of taxpayer's money!" Gumball cringed.

Ocho however, did not follow behind Bobert and remained rooted where he was, his expression stone-like,

"I am not going anywhere. I want to help you guys fight!" he stated, sounding firm.

Gumball, not one to put up with this nonsense, tried to talk some sense into him,

"Ocho, you can't, these guys are dangerous and can kill you. Besides, only magic can kill them!" he countered with a seriousness he rarely showed.

Still not having it, Ocho remained fixated on helping out with the fight and retaliated with greater tenacity,

"I don't care! I'm not some kind of punk who ditches out on a fight and besides, I can still be of use." he was dangerously close to exploding.

This didn't matter to the scythe wielder and he continued to debate this, albeit with urgency due to the battle overhead growing more intense and his teammates patience teetering ever so slightly,

"Ocho, listen to me! You c-!"

The voice of Rob cut in and provided an easy solution for both,

"Hey, bug boy, you wanna help out? Provide me a lift and I can better cover everyone else." came the sharp response of Rob, causing Gumball to look back at him in amazement.

Without a single argument, Ocho jumped up and tagged along with the cyclops as the two headed towards the roof's edge,

"Sure thing and don't call me bug boy, unibrow!" he snapped.

Offended, Rob shook his fist at him before the spider cleared the edge and allowed for the space suit clad gunman to hop on his head. Gumball wanted to object, but kept his mouth shut after the pair took off and proceeded to get ready with his girlfriend. Soon Teri formed an origami F-35 for Gumball and herself to ride on, along with six deadly shurikens to blow the enemy away with. Without further ado, the remaining four took off and joined the battle in the heavens.

From her position in the co-pilot seat of the UH-1, falling under the call sign "Azura one" Captain Amy Rajit watched as a vulture-like Nephilim with six eyes tore an attack helicopter to shreds with its claws, killing both the crew inside, before it broke off and banked in a wide, arcing circle. It noticed them and was making for an attack run, its beak full of serrated teeth opened and charging up another Doom blast. Using the radio headset, the female Svarn alerted the helicopter's starboard gunner to the Neph's position,

"Braunwhen, we have a bogey on our eleven! He just took out Phoenix three and is preparing a Doom blast!" she shouted into her mouth piece.

Then came in Brock's voice, loud and clear over the radio,

"Copy that, Captain Rajit, bogey sighted! Engaging right now!" he replied.

Seconds later, a stream of neon blue bullets swept across their flank and the vulture was caught up in the gun's arc. Try as he may to dodge, it was no use and the flying Nephilim's left wing was severed from its body, sending the creature tumbling down in a purple blaze before a final dying screech was uttered. The Bison man verbally scratched off the target and remained on the lookout for any more hostiles.

The woman with the golden eyes breathed a sigh of relief before turning her attention to three hundred foot monstrosity that was still harassing their forces with a combination of sickle swings, punches and kicks. Realizing that he must be their leader, Amy turned to the pilot and asked him for the enemy's status,

"Jackson, what's the status of the enemy's strength?" she asked, keeping an eye on the giant warrior as he chased the second troop transport through the air.

Officer Nox Jackson, a Telkhine with the head of a coyote and flippers instead of hands, swerved the aircraft to the left as a lance of red energy zipped by and seconds later, a saw-shaped Nephilim with a human face in the center came into view with an AH-1 in hot pursuit,

" _Jormungandr_ reports ten losses on the enemy's side and with the remaining units attempting to regroup. Also, there are reports that five unidentified combatants have entered the battle and are engaging the hostiles." he stated, keeping the light troop carrier level as both gunners continued to open up on any visible airborne unit marked unfriendly.

Sure enough, when Amy looked out the window, she spotted a paper jet with two riders, a paper bear and a blue cat wielding a scythe. They were accompanied by a flying fish with legs and both teams attacked a Minotaur Nephilim covered in armor and wielding an oversized meat cleaver. The monster attempted to get a swing in on the flying pair, but Darwin, under the control of Carrie, caught the blade between his fins while Gumball leapt from the origami F-35 and landed on the Nephilim's sword arm.

Charging his scythe with energy, the blade was coated with silver flames and the cat shouted as he raised his blade towards the Nephilim's incoming hand,

"Moonfire slash!" he shouted as his eyes glinted with dangerous determination as he called the name of his signature move.

An arc of grey fire leapt from the swinging crescent and cut into the giant's armored hand, splitting it down the middle and exiting through the elbow. The one half fell and the Nephilim screamed as he saw the damage done, but failed to realize that he was completely defenseless against Teri's attack. Approaching at high speeds, Teri pulled two folded shurikens and with a flick of her wrist, sent the spinning projectiles into the crevice between the Neph's helmet and shoulder.

Swinging the paper jet around, Teri allowed for Gumball to hop aboard and sped off just as the evil spirit's head was separated from his shoulders thanks to the resulting explosions created by her spells,

"Nice one, Teri!" Gumball commented, watching carefully as two helicopters shot by to pursue different targets.

Teri turned back to him and gave him a thumbs up before she noticed Darwin still holding the cleaver, which was fading fast, before he swung it around in a full circle and hurled it at another giant adversary. The burning blade spun through the air before lodging itself into a monster that looked like a cross between a crab and a human, with many legs and powerful pincers as it tried to snip the tail off of an attack helicopter it was pursuing. The fallen Nephilim's weapon bore itself into the entity's spiky head and the two burned away to nothing.

Seeing the amazing performance done by the four, the golden woman ordered all aircraft not to harass the local defenders and to keep the Nephilim from regrouping,

"If they keep dropping at this rate, the only one left will be the one with the funny hat and I think he's their leader." she stated as she spotted the three hundred foot tall warrior of silver send an AH-1 down in a ball of flames with a single Doom blast before charging another squadron with his sickle raised.

In the passenger cabin of the _Azura one_ , Brock, the massive Bison, manned the starboard gun while Hei Brookes, a Chinese-American who resembled a human, but sported a pair of white antlers and two whiskers just beneath his nose, manned the port gun. He wasn't a Nephilim by any means, rather the descendant of a Chinese water dragon spirit that controlled the Yangtze river, some of which he kept in a massive jug tied to his back by a thick rope.

He opened up a few rounds on a giant insect covered in a black chitin, large gossamer wings that lit up like glow sticks, and a set of vertically aligned mandibles that snapped like scissors,

"Die, you giant homeowner's nightmare!" he shouted as he pumped round after round into its narrow head.

Eventually, the neon tracers broke through the shell covering its narrow head and split the whole thing open like a coconut: the Nephilim didn't even know it was dead by the time its body began decomposing. He didn't get a chance to celebrate however, as two more Neph's, twin knights carrying shields, swung in from behind and began charging up a directed energy shot to bring them down. Reacting quickly, the demi-spirit warned the pilots of the approaching danger before he swung the mounted .50 caliber machine gun around and started peppering the giants with enchanted shells.

Taking them down proved to be a greater task in itself because both were protected by an anti-magic barrier produced from their forward-facing shields, causing his bullets to melt on contact,

"Shoot! Jackson, try pulling us around! We need to get behind them before they- huh?" he stopped when he spotted something in the distance.

Riding atop an 8-bit spider that flashed rainbow colors, like an invincibility stat from a certain video game franchise he knew of, was without a doubt a spaceman wielding a hand mounted weapon of sorts and was directed at the two pursuing Nephilim. Hei almost mistakened the two for a Nephilim himself, when he saw the spaceman fire upon the shielded giants and his bullets transformed into fourteen serpentine dragons made of emerald fire that swirled in double helix patterns straight towards his intended targets. The Nephilim sensed the oncoming attacks, but were too slow to do anything and were caught up in the gunfire, burning away into nothing as the dragons consumed them.

With only smoke clouds being the only indicator that two beings once existed, Hei remained in a surprised stupor for the slightest moment before he saw the figure clad in white wave at him and he slowly waved back as he watched him dash off on his flying spider,

"Brookes, do you still have visual confirmation on the bogey?" came Amy's voice on the radio.

Snapping out of it, Hei answered his captain on the open comm. and described the status of the enemy pursuers, now deceased,

"Uh, that's a negative, captain! Both hostile entities were taken out by a friendly wearing a spacesuit and riding what I believe to be a flying spider." he reported.

Then came a voice from within the cabin,

"I keep telling you, Brookes, stop smoking those Chinese herbs before we launch!"

The sarcastic response belonged to one of the two passengers seated towards the aft of the UH-1, Alicia "Medusa" Rodriguez, a transparent jellyfish with the body of an adult human female, only colored navy blue with glowing pink spots that acted as freckles on her face. She possessed the typical dome of a jellyfish atop her head like a hat and was lined with thin, wispy, venomous tentacles. Her hair was also made up of tentacles, but these ones were thicker and frillier and her second most striking feature were her eyes, a lovely shade of glowing pink surrounded by blue sclera. Her only outfit consisted of a black tank-top and army green camo pants.

She was a bit of a joker and Hei knew it, though she tended to get very personal with her humor,

"First off, they're incense and I don't smoke them! They make the place smell better after you and Brock finish a workout!" he retorted, earning himself a sharp glare from both Brock and Medusa.

"Hey!" they both shouted in unison.

" _Knock it off you two._ " came the annoyed response of Remus Satyrn, a bizarro with a muscular figure covered in red scales, like a dragon, with a head in the form of a glass bowl. There were no facial features to distinguish, except for a single black pupil that sat on the surface of the glass and two antennae on top that allowed him to communicate telepathically. He wore the same outfit as Hei and Alicia and as the squad's oldest member acted as an older sibling to everyone, so he was a bit of mediator when it came to disputes.

They all did as they were told and went on high alert as Amy's voice came in through the radio,

"Look alive everyone! Three targets remain and I want all available units to concentrate fire on their captain. His kimono is enchanted, so target the exposed areas and that should cause some damage." she ordered, and the _Azura one_ 's two gunners readied themselves for the next assault while the other two passengers remained on the lookout.

What she said was true and only three Nephilim remained in the air. Two of them were average, run of the mill behemoths standing in between thirty feet to sixty feet, that were set upon by four attack craft and the defenders of Elmore, all of which battled fiercely for dominance of the air. One was the captain himself and he was in a bit of a rut now, as three aircraft were swarming him like flies, peppering his body with bullets,

"Augh! Enough of this!" Az roared, his attention seemingly focused on one of the aircraft unleashing a metal storm that was traveling up his torso.

With a rapid spin, the colossus shot upwards, a feat that would seem impossible for a figure his size and with an outstretched hand, he swatted a helicopter aside and cut another in half with his sickle. When he finished, _Azura one_ and _Azura two_ swooped in and started harassing the exposed areas his magic kimono didn't protect. Wounded, the silver warrior dressed in white and black tried to blast them out of the sky, but did not heed the Chinook helicopter, _Jormungandr_ , which was rotated in a way so its port side was facing the enemy captain.

On the side, a door slid open and in it was a red-skinned devil man with curving horns set on his forehead, a forked tail, slicked back jet black hair, a leather vest and a scowl that could make Attila the hun cry,

"I got eyes on the big guy!" he shouted back to the crew and hefted a large, metallic cylinder covered in chains and runes onto his shoulder: a demonic rocket launcher!

The runes burned red as he acquired the appropriate target and let out a bellowing battle cry as he launched magical ordinance in the form of a bats swarm trailing smoke right at the three hundred foot monstrosity. Captain Az sensed the incoming attack and aborted his current pursuit of Amy's chopper to deal with this new conundrum. His hands moved like striking vipers and his sickle was an extension of himself, a golden fang that brought death, but even as he was able to cut down many bats, his head was severed from his body after one got through his defenses.

Then the remaining bats sought out and cut down every last Nephilim present, leaving the NEA and the defenders of Elmore victorious.

With the loss of five out of the eight AH-1's that accompanied them, Amy sent the rest home while Azura squad proceeded towards the double landing pads present on the _Channax_ building and the Chinook containing the elite capture squad, Jormungandr, took off for the northern mountain range. If all goes well, the son of Jotenheim should be in their custody along with Gumball Watterson and Teri Pepakuma.

Speaking of whom, the kids celebrated their victory and spotted the military craft making a landing on the building they started from. With no better option other than to go meet them, the six kids proceeded straight to the skyscraper and watched as the city slowly started to come alive again once the Nephilim's presence wore off. With the sounds of battle gone, the city was at peace and everyone was relieved to have survived that ordeal.

Wiping the sweat from his brow, Gumball took a deep breath and let it out,

"Thank goodness those guys showed up! I thought we were goners back there!" he exclaimed, still surprised with their luck.

In front of him, Teri shared the same sentiments and was trembling from all the adrenaline coursing through her flimsy body,

"Yeah, I knew Nimrod had it out for us after we left, but I still wasn't prepared for twenty of them to show up like that!" her voice, just like her body, was shaky too.

Gumball nodded in agreement and directed his attention to the landing platforms where the two black helicopters sat, their rotors still rotating at high speeds,

"Right, good news is, with these guys here we can finally warn someone about the invasion and not have to worry about travel plans." he said, sounding happy.

Teri turned back to him and the moment she did, Gumball recognized that smug look gracing her drawn on features,

"Oh, so you don't want to travel with me? I thought we could stop by, see the sights and enjoy a few quiet moments together while we worked." she replied, before lightly shrugging and turning her back on him,

"but, I guess you're just not that interested anyway." she huffed.

Mentally smacking himself for walking right into that one, Gumball's interjection came as swiftly as a batter's rebounding strike and the fool was a babbling mess,

"Now wait just a moment! I didn't say I never wanted to travel around the world with you! I just meant that- no wait, hang on! What places are you interested in seeing?" he stammered out, until a laughing Darwin under the control of Carrie flew up to them.

"So the happy married couple is up and at it again! You two sure can bounce back fast!" both of their voices overlapped and Gumball could hear both of them chuckling.

However, the blushing blue cat wasn't able to get a word in when Rob and Ocho pulled up on their right, with the former voicing his dissatisfaction,

"Save the flirting for the date, you guys! In case you haven't noticed, those guys just showed up packing some serious gear and I have a feeling they weren't just here for an assist." he mentioned, gesturing towards the seven figures now exiting the pair of matching NEA aircraft.

It would be a lie to say none of the children except Rob weren't suspicious with the arrival of these powerful new challengers of their would-be alien destroyers and with a unanimous silent agreement, they all embarked on a descent towards the rooftop.

Words could not express how please Amy was to see the motley crew that lent them a hand in the skirmish heading towards them and she made her way to the front, making sure Gumball and Teri would recognize her first. They eventually came to a stop and made preparations to greet the Azura squad, with Carrie even emerging from Darwin. This raised a few eyebrows and even threw Amy off her rocker a little when she saw that there was an independent specter amongst them.

A rare sight indeed and quite a valuable one too, the golden girl made a mental note to further look into this city's inhabitants as she adjusted the bow rifle strapped to her back and steadily made her way over,

"That was quite the spectacle you lot displayed out there, for a bunch of pre-teens, your skills are quite extraordinary! Nicely done, all of you." she congratulated, clapping her hands together.

Recognizing her right away, Gumball pushed aside his snide thoughts towards the lady that was quite rude the first time they "met" (Teri was also on the fence as to whether she was supposed to be grateful for her help or angry at her for shoving Molly and herself to the ground during their field trip. Was that too petty of her?) and straightened his stance as he presented himself to her,

"Glad we could help out in some fashion, although we definitely owe you guys our thanks for saving our skins back there." he smiled in appreciation, but there was a sense of unease in his eyes.

Returning his smile with one of her own, her bright teeth really complimenting her overall radiant appearance, and brought both hands behind her back as she took a step back towards her squadmates,

"We're glad we could make it on time." she replied. Her optimism never left her voice, even as she explained herself to the upright kitten and his crew,

"When we consulted the oracle of Delphi this morning, she foretold of a devastating attack led by one of President Nimrod's deadliest kill squads and we were pressed into countering with a joint operation consisting of my squad, Azura, Jormungandr, and Phoenix squadron. We've met a few losses, but at least that scratches off one kill team lead by Babyloth's butchers." she spoke the name of Babyloth with such venom, that one could easily guess that the blonde Svarn harbored a lot of resentment towards the invading nation from the moon.

Curious, Rob popped his visor back up so everyone could see his face and stepped forward to ask her something,

"Wait, you guys have an oracle too?" he spoke without a regard for formalities and didn't even bother addressing himself.

Amy's raccoon eyes bounced from Gumball to the one who spoke and then she analyzed him carefully as though she were sizing him up for a fight before answering him directly,

"Yes, there are few people in this world that receive the blessings of Jade in the form of his clairvoyance, but the oracle at Delphi holds a special gift, unlike other prophets who can only see one event every now and then, the one at Delphi is capable of tracking multiple futures at any time she wishes." she spoke this knowledge with a sense of pride, for there were few who ever met her or knew of her and she was one of those lucky few,

"It's how the Nephilim Expulsion Administration or NEA for short, has been able to effectively intercept the Nephilim for five years. Well, most of them at least, she can't use her gifts all day and sometimes they will attack during those times she isn't looking." she looked off to the side for a moment as though remembering something a while back.

It may have come across as a good idea for Rob to look into asking Banana Barbara, Banana Joe's strange, artistic, and sometimes cryptic, psychic mother, for particular outcomes in their distant future as a better alternative then just sleeping and waiting for visions, but thought it unlikely to work seeing as she probably can't see the Nephilim. However, when the NEA member told him that each one was selected by Jade himself, he remembered what Fjel had told him a while back and that the heavenly ruler of the cosmos played a role in selecting the Earth's defenders against the forces that seek to destroy it. He wondered if his initial theory was wrong and that Elmore's oracle can help them out in the future, by painting it for them.

While he consulted this with his inner voices, Amy got straight to the point and turned to Gumball as well as Teri with an interested look,

"Anyways, as much as I would like to spend all day sharing precious knowledge, I've got a mission to complete and wouldn't like to keep Iris waiting, for our overseer likes to see results delivered as quickly as possible." her tone shifted from comfortable to serious when mentioning the subject of their mission,

"Gumball Watterson and Teri Pepakuma, you two are to come with us immediately!" her voice was steady and full of authority, providing a sense of force that was not to be taken lightly.

Before anything could be said by either of them, Amy snapped her head in Hei's direction and the soldier stood at attention,

"Private Brookes, use your senses, tell me what you can see in the others!" she barked and remained patiently quiet soon afterwards.

The demi-water dragon spirit fulfilled his orders dutifully, closing his eyes and reaching out with his senses, encompassing not just the skyscraper, but the whole city before delivering his verdict,

"Gumball and Teri are very powerful, their soul signatures burn brighter than the other four! The one in the spacesuit carries a strong mark too and the amphibian shows some potential as well. The ghost is powerful in her own right, but not as powerful Gumball, Teri, and the cyclops, and the spider has very little spiritual energy. I'm also picking up multiple powerful signatures all over the city!" he finally finished his search and opened his eyes again,

"With proper training, these individuals can become worthy assets to the NEA and it may be possible to defend the Void entrance with just the inhabitants, plus a small regiment." with that, he reached the end of his analysis and stood at the ready.

She dismissed him and with a salute, he stepped back into formation with the other six, turning on her heels once more to gaze down at Teri and Gumball, who were shocked at how Hei was able to pick out certain individuals with just his own senses,

"Very well then, Private Klaus and Private Argus, escort Mr. Watterson and Ms. Pepakuma to the _Azura two_ and get ready for departure. Once we've secured Jotenheim, we'll make way for Jeruzalem and in the meantime, Lieutenant Braunwhen and Corporal Satyrn!" they saluted as she turned and delivered her next set of orders,

"I want you two to escort the rest to their dwellings and keep an eye out for more Nephilim activity. We'll be sending a helicopter to pick you guys up and with the proper authorization, Iris can begin the construction of a training facility where we can bring in the new recruits."

"Yes, sir!" they complied and stepped out of line to separate the group appropriately.

There was an immediate protest from all the children and the air was filled with their shouts,

"Wait a minute! You're not taking them anywhere!" Carrie shouted defensively.

"You can't just show up and take people without their consent, where's your legal right to do so!" Darwin cried, hugging his brother tightly.

"I thought we're on the same side here! We can help you guys out, there's no need to take us anywhere!" Gumball shot back, hugging his little brother with one arm and clutching Teri's hand in the other.

"And what do you mean by Jotenehim? Are you referring to Hector? What does he have to do with anything?" Teri questioned, refusing to let go of Gumball's paw.

Rob secretly knew what they wanted from Hector, how they acquired information on him and his worth was beyond him, but right now all he cared about was driving them off,

"We just got those two back and we're not going to let you take them from us!" Rob declared,

"And you're not going to do anything else to anyone here because we are the Defenders of Elmore, this city is our under our jurisdiction!" Rob's voice spoke out above all the others and further emboldened the crew.

"And did that guy with the whiskers call me weak!" Ocho seethed, eyeing Hei with a murderous glance.

This vocal opposition was expected by the Svarn and her team, leading the blond haired woman to try and reason with them,

"I have all the authority I need from the U.S. Government and the U.N.'s Supernatural Commission branch to seize any individuals I see fit to serve Earth's army. In case you haven't noticed, we're fighting for the survival of all Earthlings and we all have to make necessary sacrifices." she wasn't angry, but it was clear she was frustrated and given the way she was clenching her fists, she was close to the tipping point,

"As for your three friends, they'll be stationed in one of our heavily defended facilities where they'll be sheltered, fed and clothed while receiving top tier training and for the sake of comfort, their families will be allowed to join them on the base's housing units. Everyone else here who has the potential of being awakened or already is will be trained, but otherwise won't see much change in their daily lives and will be able to defend their homes from the Nephilim." finishing up, she waved Klaus and Argus over to complete their tasks.

Private Lycarius Von Klaus was a Lycan native of Germany and was a fellow of few words, a man of spectacular build covered in a fine layer of thick brown fur with only his upper face, pointed ears, and broad hands being visible. Half naked, the only clothing he wore was the same camo pants everyone else wore along with a harness holding his back-mounted, double-barreled cannon. He was very intimidating and served as one of Azura squad's primary enforcers, with his wolf form making him very formidable to his enemies.

Joining him was Private Argus, simply, a soldier who looked less organic and more like hundreds of thick metal cables wound together to form the body of a gorilla. His only defining feature was a simple mask of white marble, with three glowing red eyes peeking out from the corresponding holes and remained silent. While he didn't say much, his body was constantly emitting screeches and scraping sounds as the metallic coils grinded against each other, making him very unpleasant to hear or stand by.

With the two NEA personal from the _Azura two_ aiming to take Gumball and Teri away, by force if necessary, the soldiers were blocked by a wall consisting of Rob, Carrie, Ocho and Darwin, all of which were wearing their game faces,

"I said you're not taking them anywhere!" Carrie warned, preparing to use her telekinesis against the two.

"You will leave Elmore empty handed and never return." Rob stated.

From behind them, Gumball tried one last bid for a peaceful resolution and spoke up until his voice was heard,

"Guys, there's no need to fight! We can help each other out, for starters there's an invasion that's about to happen in Los Angeles and if we come together we can probably-!"

"We know already and the only way you're helping us is by laying down your weapons before you two get on that chopper!" Amy interrupted.

This angered Teri to the point of shouting and from the back, she let the blondie hear it from her,

"What part of not going did you not get! None of us care how desperate you think the situation is, we're fully capable of taking care of ourselves and have a month's worth of experience to prove it!" she jumped up and shook her fist at her, getting a good view of her surprised reaction.

This was it for Captain Rajit, she hadn't come all this way over hundreds of miles, losing ten brave pilots in a brief aerial battle and wasting precious resources, just to get lip from a bunch of prepubescent brats playing soldier,

"That's it, I've had enough of this place already. Klaus and Argus, push them aside and grab the two-!" she was about to finish her instructions, but stopped when she spotted Rob pointing his gun arm at her.

"SHUT UP, BLONDIE!" he shouted, before squeezing his enclosed hand into a fist around the trigger.

A burst of coil gunfire and ten Ruby Sun runes were ejected at high velocity straight at the Svarn's face. However, Remus Satyrn was faster and the bowl-headed telepath raised a barrier resembling a glass flower in front of Amy and the copper rounds smashed harmlessly against the solid shield, blossoming into spiky orbs of Ruby stones before shattering into nothing. Snapping into action, Amy pulled the bow rifle off of her shoulder and dropped herself to one knee with the strung weapon already pointed at him.

Aiming for his heart, Amy called out to her attacker and waited for the barrier to drop,

"You're dead, blinky!" she snarled.

Everyone else scattered when the barrier dropped and Rob remained where he was, his next move already in motion. With a press of the trigger, the bow string snapped forward and from the rifle shaft, an arrow was fired. Drawing a rune with his left hand, the cloud gel that squirted from the finger's nozzle hung in the air as though the space itself contained an invisible canvass and Rob poured forth his spiritual energy.

The flying arrow, enchanted with strange magic, formed into a glowing white beam accompanied by three more swirling around the central one and crashed into a solid iron wall, exploding with the force of a dynamite stick. Walls of Jericho, the magic barrier left Rob completely fortified on all sides with hexed iron, brandishing spear-like protrusions along the tops and the symbol proudly carved on each wall, a square formed of four corner arrows with a smaller square in the center intersected with eight lines. With its purpose being fulfilled, the walls faded and Rob was granted the time to refill his ammunition stock.

Such was the power of _Leviathan Book_ , a weapon system consisting of duel components that provided a variety of utility and defensive spells and overwhelming firepower to deal at his enemies.

With all the kids scattered, Carrie possessing Darwin once more, Ocho arming himself with "Smiley Bullets" provided to him by his uncle Mario, Gumball and Teri in the air once more and Rob ready to unleash another onslaught, Amy was left to formulate a plan of attack.

" _They're directionless for now and don't have a solid plan in dealing with us, plus we have numbers and knowledge on our side. Our objective remains the same: capture Gumball and Teri."_ she carefully thought this through and it all came to her naturally,

" _We gotta split them up and take them on individually, if we can get those two alone, then capturing them should be simple."_ with that lone realization, she drew back her drawstring and another arrow was loaded from the rifle's stacking chamber.

She sent Rob running when she fired another energy arrow at him and when he fled the explosion, she took off after him,

"Everyone split up! Satyrn, you're taking on the moon man with me, Brookes, you've got Watterson, Rodriguez has Pepakuma, Braunwhen's keeping the ghost/fish pair busy and I'm leaving the spider sprite to Klaus and Argus, you two are more than a match for him! Everyone copy!" she pressed the button on her headset and everyone confirmed accordingly.

Taking to their designated targets, Azura squad broke formation and multiple engagements began on the rooftop. The two UH-1's were ordered to take off and remain in close proximity, but out of range for potential stray fire. Each soldier was equipped with a unique skillset or magic ability that made them a very versatile fighting force.

When Brock took on Carrie and Darwin, the anthropomorphic Bison pulled a lump of beige molding clay from his cargo pockets and stabbed it against the horn carved with a rune depicting a circle surrounded by six hands,

" _Golem!_ " the Isrealite chanted.

The rune glowed red like a star and his clay began to morph and expand, enveloping him completely. Soon the blob of clay took a form, a ten foot bulky man with a broad upper body and a pair of arms that split into three at the elbows. From the Golem's neck stump, Brock's head poked out and acted as the clay giant's actual head.

Smashing all six fists together, the man from the Middle East slowly lumbered his way over to the ghoulish two-legged fish and uttered a single warning to the two as a sign of courtesy,

"I really don't want to hurt children, but if you two don't stand down now, I will make an acception right here, right now. So please make the right choice." he pleaded in his brass voice.

Not moved one bit by his colossal form nor his peaceful demand, Carrie gave her answer loud and clear,

" _Deus Belli Leonus! (War god's lion!)_ " she chanted in Latin.

From Darwin's mouth and eyes, pillars of crimson flames spewed outwards like jets and with the roar of a hungry beast, the flames spread and completely covered his chubby face. As soon as this all happened, the flames ceased and left behind a monstrous visage in place of Darwin's face. Surrounding the mask in a halo of red flames was a voluminous mane and a pair of fierce red eyes pierced from the masks eye holes, its gaping mouth salivating with a viscous, green glowing substance.

Overcome with a voracious appetite for bloodshed and violence, the possessed individual reared up in a feral stance before it roared like thunder and pounced with a newfound strength burning through the shared body. Like a flaming cannonball of gnashing teeth and endless hunger, the fish embedded itself into the Golem's stomach and with enough force to send all three of them flying, they quickly engaged in a dangerous match of fisticuffs.

With Alicia and Hei both capable of flying, the water based pair easily crossed the distance put between them and Azura squad's VIPs. With Hei summoning a pair of draconic water wings as well as a claw fashioned from ice, the water dragon spawn caught Gumball by the neck and sailed off into the distance with him caught in a vice grip. Seeing her beloved feline being taken so easily, Teri momentarily took her eyes off of the second adversary on her attack run and that moment was all the jellyfish needed to catch her.

Wrapping her tentacles around the paper F-35's wings and nose cone, Alicia spun herself around and swung the paper craft with its passenger in a full circle several times,

"I see that you're really upset, how about we take this chat somewhere a bit more private, shall we?" she said with a childish giggle.

Releasing her hold on Teri's plane and letting the gathered momentum do the rest of the work, she sent Teri's plane tumbling off into the skyline and floated after her as soon as she was far away. As soon as Teri was able to stabilize the aircraft's flight path and regain her bearings, she spotted the transparent invertebrate drifting towards her, using her umbrella-like membrane to ride the air like a parachute. She giggled some more when she saw that Teri was looking at her and curled a single finger inwards, beckoning her to come,

"Come on now, this is really starting to get fun!" she cheered, acting like a kindergartener and sounding like one too.

Growling in response to this woman's lack of seriousness, Teri withdrew one of her shurikens and with a single command, she willed the strike craft to pursue the blue lady. Seeing her coming in fast, Alicia's eyes widened with a child-like innocence and she gasped in shock while placing her hands on her cheeks. Quickly darting away from the paper puppet by opening and closing her dome to generate thrust, the jellyfish was trailing laughter and tentacles as she seemingly fled.

Tilting her head slightly to look in her direction, Alicia called out to Teri and began mocking her as she remained far behind,

"Wow! You and I both practically weigh nothing and you're still slower than me!" she teased, while Teri tossed her spinning projectile in response to the insult and Alicia easily dodged, bending her body in an unnatural way to avoid collision,

"Lame! I hate dodgeball, so let's play tag instead and since I already touched you, you're "it" until you tag me back." she challenged.

Practically losing it at this point, Teri let her anger fuel her and formed another premade rune shuriken,

"Shut up, you annoying blob!" she screamed, using her spiritual energy to give her plane a boost.

The more they danced around each other in their aerial game of tag, the further away they got from the _Channax_ skyscraper and away from any kind of support, all of which was Alicia's plan.

On the rooftop, everything quickly fell apart for the divided team of defenders, who were ill equipped and unprepared to deal with professionally trained soldiers. Amy's pairings did the the Azura team justice when many of the most effective members on the opposing side were evenly matched or surrounded. Up against Lycarius and Argus, both of whom were packing some serious firepower, with the former firing spinning green crescents of explosive energy called "Wolffen gouging claws" from his dorsal cannons and his partner dishing out damage from several raised tendrils in the form of purple lightning bolts, they had Ocho on the run.

Firing back with a flurry of smiley bullets, black shells with his eyes and menacing grins of sharp teeth, of which they either dodged or blasted out of the sky, Ocho was placed on the defensive as he tried to find a better place for cover and decided to fly upwards when he couldn't find any,

"I can't shake these guys and it's two against one, punks!" he griped, wincing as a spinning claw zipped past him, almost cutting off one of his legs, and quickly found the air being filled with ordinance as the two concentrated their fire on him,

"No choice, gotta use my ace!" he proclaimed, realizing that he couldn't keep running and dodging forever because sooner or later, they were going to catch him.

Moving in a specific pattern, Ocho formed a particular code he memorized and used quite often: Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, and then finally,

" _B, A!_ " he shouted.

The code took an immediate effect on his body, bolstering his speed and power to awesome levels while leaving him completely invulnerable and the only noticeable change to his form was the flashy light show his formerly black body was creating.

"That doesn't look good!" Lycarius uttered to his partner.

Argus remained silent and the two kept up the fire, but were quick to discover that Ocho was immune. Then began the blitz, a relentless barrage of lightning quick strikes done on all sides as ocho's invincible body slammed into them both repeatedly and left both the lycan and the cyborg knocked to the ground full of bruises and dents. As quickly as it began, it ended and Ocho was back to his normal color again.

"Hah! Take that you… you… (wheeze!) oh, geez, gotta lie down for a moment." he breathed as his ace sapped him of strength.

Setting himself down and wheezing out a laugh, Ocho slowly began to crawl forward, keeping the sound of the ongoing battles around him as a reminder to stay conscious, the 8-bit fighter tried to figure out as to who he should assist and looked to see Rob in a bit of trouble,

"That'll teach those punks not to underestimate me!" he chuckled as he inched forward,

"Once I'm able to float, I'll summon an energy bar to get my strength back an-AUGH!" he howled in pain.

From behind, someone backhanded him hard enough to send the exhausted child flying into the exit door's housing and the hard smacking sound of flesh connecting with concrete could be heard as he tumbled to the ground.

"AAUUUGH! OH MY G-AAAH!" he screamed, closing his eyes tightly.

Head burning like a wildfire, the arcade bug couldn't even scream out anymore because he was so choked up on the sheer hell his body was in and he was on the edge of just forcing himself to restart. Able to roll over slightly, Ocho could see that the people he originally thought were done for were actually far from being knocked out and were even more terrifying than he could imagine.

With their combined footsteps ringing heavy, the usually quiet Lycarius spoke out to his downed foe and mocked him for his arrogance,

"Did anyone ever tell you that when a Lycan changes forms, they heal quickly and to make matters worse for you, my little friend, Argus here can never get hurt." the wolf man said with delight.

In his new form, Lycarius Von Klaus, was a beast, literally! A wolf, no bigger than a bear prowled on all fours, his once brown fur now jet black, longer, and more jagged, his face less than that of a man's, was pointed and narrowed into an elegant snout covered in fine fur. Covering him, like a set of slithering armor, was Argus, completely wrapped around his streamlined canine body for extra protection, and to make up for his lack of firepower. His mask face was set just above Lycarius brow, giving the wolf a menacing two-faced appearance, with five eyes, three of which were red and the other two a striking amber.

Ocho wanted to get up, to challenge this beast, to get his dignity back and to prove to everyone that he wasn't useless in this new fight, but his body wouldn't let him. Wracked with pain and exhaustion, Elmore's most aggressive and hot-headed male was overcome by darkness that pulled him into unconsciousness. Once again, he had lost to an opponent he'd severely underestimated.

" _Damn it all…"_ his thoughts faded as the darkness closed in.

Seeing his blackout, the combined Lycarius and Argus switched targets and spotted Rob holding his own against the unified forces of their leader and master barrier maker. Snarling in anticipation, the two headed off and silently stalked the one-eyed spaceman from behind. The unsuspecting lad never knew he was about to be ambushed and remained focused only on the two in front of him.

Blasting away with a barrage consisting of Diamond Hydra and Ruby Sun runes, Rob broke the broken mirror barrier Remus set up around them and was met with another arrow strike from Amy's bow rifle. Using one of the two remaining shields from the Three shields of Alexander Rune, Rob sent the Hoplite inspired barrier out halfway to meet the swirling bolts of energy and the two magical objects collided, resulting in a white explosion orb that quickly died out.

"Alright, here comes the charge!" Rob said to no one but himself.

Using the gauntlet of _Leviathan Book_ , Rob extended his pointer finger while squeezing the other two shut, pressing the trigger and activating the nozzle. Out came the cloud gel and Rob used it to form a hydro-trident rune. With the symbol complete in seconds, a three pronged spear formed from water appeared and rested itself in his open palm.

Raising the weapon and bringing the shield up to bare, the disfigured cyclop's upper body was completely protected as he lowered himself for a sprint. However, before he could put one foot forward, Lycarius and Argus struck from behind!

"Heads up, bucket head!"

He heard the snarl and managed to twist himself around in time to meet the surprise attack head on, catching the swiping claws on the shield's lilac surface and stabbing blindly at the wolf's neck, only to have the icy tips of the weapon chip off against the armor Argus covered him with.

With the round barrier's strength being depleted after one attack, Rob was completely defenseless and unable to stop the Lycan from spinning around to catch him in a tail swing.

Smacking hard into his body, Rob flew like a ragdoll across the concrete surface and after a few bounces, his helmeted head was struck with something solid, shattering his visor and Heads-Up Display. The added padding his suit brought, saved him from serious injury, but he was still winded and dizzy, unaware that he smashed into one of Remus' barriers. What happened next, he couldn't remember, except that he looked over and saw a pair of golden eyes belonging to his adversary, then his body went limp as paralysis set in.

With the second one down for the count, Amy met up with the Lycan and the cyborg, who slithered his way off the wolf's back and returned to his gorilla form,

"What's the status on the spider?" she demanded.

Returning to human form, the hairy German spoke swiftly and quietly,

"He's out cold." he pointed in the appropriate direction.

Nodding in approval, the woman with the golden look issued more orders and checked on Rob,

"Grab the two of them and bring them down to the first floor. Once you've placed them in a safe place, I want you back up here and on standby for further instructions. Understood?" she asked, keeping a straight posture.

Saluting, the two responded with respect and discipline,

"Yes, sir!" they said, before taking off to carry out their captain's orders.

With two more left on the rooftop to deal with Amy silently goaded Remus to follow her and the two proceeded straight to where Brock was facing off against the possessed sibling of Watterson. It was quite the spectacle, really, the ghoulish fish was squaring off pretty well against Brock's Golem and his soundwave-based attacks with dark magic to cut him with and even though the clay was capable of regenerating, Brock had to be extra careful when it came to his face. He would knock them down on occasion, but whenever they got back up, a merciless assault quickly followed.

"Let's go, you Clayton wannabe!" Carrie's voice screeched from Darwin's vocal chords as another weapon was formed in their fins.

Bringing his six arms up to cover his exposed head, the Bison grunted as a halberd constructed of bones and jagged skull plating, sliced halfway through the top layer of limbs. With the shafted weapon catching in the malleable material, Brock pulled back hard and dragged the two kids with the weapon as he reared three fists clasped together in a blunt hammer to strike them with. He threw the punch forward with a mighty yell, but before the triple fist connected, Carrie pushed off with a telekinetic blast and forced the offending object away.

Using the executioner's sorrow's ( _Dolorum carnificus_ ) handle as a launching platform, Carrie controlled Darwin bounced up, kicked the NEA lieutenant in the face and backflipped to safety. Spitting out a broken tooth, the Israeli angrily cast aside the halberd, having figured out a plan to separate the two, and formed four runes in his Golem's hands, two sound blast runes and two slithering rope runes.

"Time to end this! I think you two need some time apart." he said,

Clapping his hands together, the ghoulish amphibian braced themselves as a sound wave powerful enough to clear the rooftop of any obstructions crashed over them and pounded the two mercilessly, luckily Carrie was able to fix most of the damage done to her lover's body, provided she had the energy.

In their bid to protect themselves, Brock was already taking action, holding his lowest set of palms out with spiraling snakes etched into the clay surface and uttered a special phrase,

"Foul spirit, with this spell, I command you to leave this young man's body!" he quoted an exorcism and the snakes, slick with oil shot out from his open palms.

Still feeling the sound wave, neither heard the man's chant and when their eyes opened, the slimy creatures were already upon them. Reacting fast, Carrie tried to push them away with a psychic blast, but they proved immune and the dancing ribbons wrapped themselves around his legs before moving up to sink their fangs into the cheeks of the possessed. As soon as the venom pumped itself into Darwin's veins, an ear splitting scream emitted from the ghastly mouth of Carrie's vessel before violently convulsing and twitching in an unnaturally horrific fashion.

"NO!" they screamed in unison.

Then Carrie's spirit was ejected from Darwin like a sickness, laying the boy to rest as he became unconscious.

Seeing him like this, Carrie was left in dismay as she never ever wanted to see him harmed and her dismay melted into fury when she turned towards the Bison man who did this,

"You monster! How dare you hurt him!" she shouted.

Wiping his six hands, Brock only shook his head and sighed in frustration,

"I tried to warn you both. Now for the last time, please surrender." the dreadlocked man offered, not even moving to attack.

While he wasn't moving, she certainly was! Hellbent on invading his body and turning him inside out, Carrie assumed her ghoul form, a ghastly apparition with spiked edges and ripping claws. Her advance was put on hold however, as a green dome produced by Remus formed around her and trapped the specter inside. Not even willing to pay this barrier any sort of mind, carrie tried to pass through like she would any solid surface, but was bounced back by the shimmering green wall.

Realizing that she couldn't pass through, she tried her magic, but that did nothing and the barrier began to close in on her,

"Stop! Stop! Someone help me!" she cried out in fearful desperation as the structure of the dome was unbearably close now.

Eventually the barrier finally settled in around her, taking on the form of the spirit and vanishing as soon as she closed her eyes. Remus' spell paid off and now both Carrie and Darwin, the last of non-essentials, were peacefully at rest. Overseeing the work done by Brock and Remus, Amy congratulated the two of them on a job well done,

"Excellent work, you two!" she praised, her black and gold eyes eagerly lighting up as she proceeded to her favorite part of the mission,

"Now get these two downstairs and meet back up here. I'll have the chopper ready and we'll go and collect Gumball and Teri once Brookes and Rodriguez takes care of them. Now let's go, double time soldiers!" she snapped, driving the men into action.

"Sir, yes, sir!" Brock respectfully addressed.

" _Sir, yes, sir!"_ came the menta response of the bowl head at the same time.

They saluted, before taking off with the unconscious kids in their custody and leaving the chipper Svarn on the roof by herself. Slinging her weapon over her shoulder where it naturally rested, Amy radioed the _Azura one_ for an immediate extraction while _Azura two_ was to remain in the air for the inevitable task of collecting the valued targets. She also wondered how the Jormungandr squad was doing in their mission to retrieve the giant that had eluded them for so long, thanks to his meddlesome mother.

" _Oh, just you wait, Grendella. We'll have your child in our possession and we'll make him into the finest protector the world has ever seen."_ she mused as she looked off into the direction of the northern mountain range.

 _-Rainbow factory, 5:39 PM-_

Another busy day in the grind and just when Nicole thought her time spent in the office was going to be boring and uneventful, there was a black out that left the workers in her department completely confused, followed up with an air show consisting of eleven military aircraft firing at _nothing_ and four exploding for no reason whatsoever, then the power came back on and now everyone was trying to get everything reorganized and secure. Surrounded by many busy office drones, filing reports and taking phone calls, the head manager of the complaint's department made her way over to a nearby cubicle where an orange bizarro with blonde curly hair sat over a desk full of papers.

Tapping his shoulder to claim his attention, the man looked up and his eyes widened when he saw who it was,

"Oh, Mrs. Watterson! I have those reports you asked for ready for you to look them over." he replied in a hastened fashion, scrambling to gather together a stack of papers before handing them over to the patient female cat.

Flipping through the pages, Nicole found that everything was indeed where it should be and she nodded in appreciation,

"Thank you, Ted! Did you get my coffee too?" she asked, remembering also placing an order earlier seeing as it's been a long day for her.

The worker was stricken with panic as the realization set in that he totally missed that opportunity when he was scrambling about the 27th floor to gather those reports and he began sweating profusely,

"Uh, coming right up, just give me a second!" he squeaked, as he stumbled out of his chair and dashed down the lane, knocking aside several office workers, including a woman who was carrying a leaning tower of paper, sending them flying all over the place in a messy explosion.

Normally Nicole would've gotten on his case for being so careless and for forgetting her coffee, but given how much confusion was plaguing the workplace, Nicole just let it slide with a long-winded sigh. Walking over to help the woman collect her fallen papers, the middle aged woman knelt down and started scooping them up. The employee thanked her kindly and when she was all set, Nicole sent her on her way with the promise of sharing lunch tomorrow.

Wiping her brow and twisting her head to crack all the kinks out of her neck, Nicole made her way to the little office she owned with the reports now in hand,

"Last time this place was in this much turmoil was when Gumball and Darwin visited and filled the office with the factory's vapors." she muttered, remembering that day with a slight shudder and grimace.

CRASH!

Breaking through the glass window, smashing through several cubicles and landing directly in front of her, a blue cat in a tan sweater holding a scythe no longer than himself lay sprawled on the floor. The boy groaned as he slowly lifted himself up, placing his palm on the back of his head as he winced, screwing his eyes shut as white hot pain poked needles through his cranium and he groaned some more.

"Ooh, ow, ow, ow! Ugh, where did that guy throw me?" he wondered as he finally opened his eyes.

Looking around to see where he landed, he first noticed that it was an office building of some sort, people all around him were screaming and running about, (though he couldn't tell if that's how they normally acted on a work day) then he noticed the towering figure standing over him wearing a white work shirt embellished with a colorful pin and a grey mid-length skirt.

Something about that simple work attire seemed familiar and dread kicked in right when he looked up to the face of his mother staring right back at him,

"Mom?!" he cried in alarm.

Dropping her stack of papers, Nicole's jaw went slack when she recognized her son right in front of her and covered in scratches. With her maternal instincts already kicking in before she could question him, she knelt down beside him and lifted him to his feet,

"Gumball, sweetie, are you okay? What happened? How did you come crashing through that window?" she hugged him tight, there was more she wanted to ask him, but then she took notice of the item in his hand and gasped in shock,

"What the- where did you get that scythe? Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to be run-!" she tried to take the weapon away from him while she berated him for his reckless behavior, but was cut off when he pulled away from her.

"Mom, I can explain, but there's a guy after me and an entire team of guys out there is attacking Darwin, Teri and- oh no, GET DOWN!" he shouted when his eyes darted over to the window, only to see the demi-dragon already flying toward them on wings made of water.

Sailing through the window with claws covered in a coat of ice, the American-Chinese bizarro reached out to grab Gumball again as he cleared many cubicles and this time the cat was ready for him. Staying clear of his mom, he swung his scythe out to the side and let the fire burn within. Soon the blade was engulfed in glowing silver tongues of flame that lapped hungrily at the air and snapped like closing jaws.

Waiting for him to close in, Gumball swung hard like a baseball batter and shouted,

"Moonfire slash!" he shouted, uttering the name he made up on the spot during his fight with Gabriel for the attack that became his signature move.

The burning crescent set off in its destructive path, its flames devouring any obstacle that came in contact and failed to slow down as it cut a path towards the antlered hydrokinesis wielder. Sensing the danger and seeing the destructive power himself, Hei was quick to wrap his wings around him, simultaneously summoning water from his jug to further reinforce the protective shell while it all froze and hardened. The wave of fire smashed into the icy sphere, knocking it back into ceiling and punching a new entrance into the upper floor.

More screams, followed by debris raining down in the form of plaster, severed wires, and other supports found in the ceiling. Gumball felt bad for causing this level of damage to his mom's workplace and cringed at the potential costs for all this destruction, especially if his mom was likely to take the blame. Turning to his astounded mother, who stood still with her jaw hanging open as she marveled at what her kid just did and Gumball made an attempt to relieve the tension,

"So, um, how was work today?" he asked, trying to look casual, but failing miserably.

Closing her mouth and shaking her head, she shot her child a stern glare as she placed her hands on her hips,

"You've got a lot of explaining to do when we get home, young man!" she exclaimed, her voice elevating to a dangerous tone and her disapproval was all the more apparent on her features.

Trembling with fear, if there's anything Gumball dreaded more than his fights with the giants, it was getting a scolding from his mother and having to explain his actions to her and he only nodded meekly before quietly replying with,

"Yes, mom." then he gulped nervously.

From the hole in the ceiling, a stream of water shot out with an icy claw attached to the end of it and latched on to the unsuspecting child's neck, sending him headfirst into the floor. Dragging him along the carpet, Gumball's face and shoulder burned from the increasing friction, he tried to scream, but the dragon's vice grip was cutting into his windpipe. He was sent crashing into a wall before the hand retracted back into the opening and down came the NEA warrior with two raised water claws protruding from the gourd-shaped vessel roped to his back.

Dusting himself off and sneering at the fallen kitten, the whiskered man talked down on him,

"Water always trumps fire, cat! Your attack did nothing." he fumed in a condescending tone.

He took a step forward, but failed to take another when the blue hardened fist of Gumball's mother connected with Hei's cheek, his teeth forced against each other, and sent the half-spirit flying through a wall. Smoke sifting from her enclosed fingers, Nicole gently blew it out and walked herself up to Hei's silhouette before reaching in to grab him by his black tank-top. Pulling him out, she brought his face close to hers until their noses were inches apart and her all encompassing stare of death was all he could see,

"Listen here, you thug! I don't care who you are, why you're here or who you work for, you don't get to waltz in here, trash my workplace and hurt my baby without paying the price." she warned, snorting at him like a charging bull.

When she was done threatening him, she tossed him up in the air, delivering a hundred punches straight to his gut in a series of rapid jabs before swinging her leg up and bringing it down on the whiskered NEA fighter. Seeing such a brutal takedown delivered by his own mother, Gumball almost felt sorry for the poor sap and watched as her kick sent Hei straight through the floor, down to the level below. The cracking sound of a table being smashed to splinters could be heard from where they were standing and more people who were nearby started to shriek in terror and confusion.

Peering down into the hole she made, shock gripped the older cat as she saw something slither its way up to her,

"What the-HEY!"

A transparent liquid tendril wrapped itself around Nicole's waist and lifted her up into the air, where she failed to find any way out of her tight predicament. She scratched, punched, kicked, flailed, hissed and did anything she could to escape the water arm's grip, but her attacks did nothing to sever the liquid appendage and then the portion wrapped around her waist began to harden into ice, squeezing her midsection tightly.

Gasping as her middle was clenched, she struggled harder to escape, but Hei had climbed out of the hole with the aid of two more summoned arms and brought her closer to him,

"Utterly unacceptable." he whispered, dusting himself off.

Keeping her out of arm's reach, the humanoid water wielder chuckled at his flailing opponent and wondered how such a fool could be so powerful, yet so gullible,

"I am Hei Brookes, son of the Yangtze river spirit, and within my vessel I hold a portion of the river I was born in. I control its currents and like all rivers, mere muscle power alone cannot overcome it." he smirked as he squeezed tighter and could see Nicole's face turning red as her diaphragm was starting to crush under the intense stress,

"Do me a favor and stay out of my way." he finished.

Raising a second tendril, he shot off towards the side in the direction of a charging Gumball Watterson, desperate to save his mother, and the charging blue cat was impeded by the incoming strike. Such a delay was temporary, as Gumball simply jumped upwards, twisting himself and planting his feet on the ceiling, he rocketed towards Hei with a single superpowered pounced. Scythe already in full swing, Gumball hacked at the water dragon as soon as he got close, but the soldier was quick and blocked with his third icy appendage.

The good news: when Gumball forced him to take on defense, Hei's concentration faltered and his mother was set free.

Tumbling to the ground, Nicole gasped and inhaled the fresh air after nearly being cut off from it. Coughing and retching, she was joined at the side by her concerned son, but when she stood and gave him a look, he knew that everything was alright. Taking up a defensive stance, both of them, Nicole took to her studies as a martial arts student under master Sanda Yoshida and scrutinized her opponent.

Spotting a few possible weaknesses, the experienced martial arts champion turned to her child/student and whispered out a plan,

"Gumball, can you keep his water constructs away with your scythe while I take him on myself?" she asked, never once seeing him wield such a weapon before, but having a distinct feeling he knew how to use it.

"You can count on me, mom! Let's take this guy down!" he boldly declared, shifting into a ready pose.

Smirking, hers knuckles cracked just by squeezing her fists and she popped the rest of her neck joints with just a roll of her head,

"That's my line!" she said, her grin getting wider by the second.

Pulling larger quantities of water from his back jug, Hei did not look pleased and taunted the two as he formed multitudes of claws and snapping jaws,

"A miracle only happens once, you two will never last against my unrelenting force and skill." the corner of his mouth tilted in a cocky smirk as he assumed his own fighting position, legs positioned apart, hands tucked in at the core, and eyes dead set on the nearly identical cats.

Once the clock ticked down to zero, the room exploded into a violent hellstorm as mother and son took on the dragon. With the increase in strength his scythe drew out, Gumball moved past his mom and used his superior strength coupled with his greater reach to clear the way of attacking water constructs. Whenever Gumball missed one, Nicole would simply strike it aside before it reached her, her powerful punches creating blasts of air capable of blowing the water apart and evaporating instantaneously.

However, try as they may, they could not get close to the master of hydrokinesis, for every limb and fang filled mouth they took out, a legion of replacements would come to his aid and slow the pair down. He was on the move too, keeping light on his feet as he made his way back through the narrow hallways and kept the pressure up on the attacking cats. Realizing their progress was being hindered by all these water weapons, Gumball gradually increased his overall power outlet and his moves became faster, stronger and harder to predict. Nicole too was giving it her all and more, becoming a blue tornado that tossed everything thrown at her aside.

Eventually, Gumball hit a breakthrough at eighty percent of his power outlet, slashing hundreds of swiping claws and gnashing teeth of ice every second as Hei's defenses began thinning. Backing himself into a corner, it seemed as though Hei had nowhere left to turn to and the Wattersons were getting closer as the two tore through his powerful defenses.

Charging up another moonfire slash, Gumball turned to look over his shoulder where his mom stood,

"Mom, get ready!" he warned, already spinning his body for the swing.

Powering up for a final charge, Nicole lowered her body, clenched her fists tightly and placed one foot in front of the other. Finishing his rotation, Gumball shot off a flaming torrent towards the NEA soldier's water wall and as soon as he did, his mom took off in a leaping sprint. Working in tandem with her son's powerful attack, Nicole waited for the grey fire arc to cut through Hei's defenses, steam forming in abundance as the blazing inferno came in contact with the water, causing it to boil and evaporate, as Nicole punched through the opening.

Only to meet nothing, but air.

Having already predicted their attack, Hei lowered himself and slipped by under the cover of the steam, effortlessly dodging Nicole's punch. Forming a spinning vortex of water around his own fist, Hei retaliated and slammed his covered hand into her abdomen. Knocking the wind out of her, she made a strangling sound as she was sent flying down the hall and Gumball watched in horrific shock as the strongest person he knew crashed through the wall.

Turning to him with a raging glare followed with a roar, Gumball sailed towards him with his scythe pulled back to remove the dragon's head,

"You're going to pay for that!" he bellowed.

Forming a scythe from ice, Hei met Gumball's strike with his own and the two remained locked in place, with both scythes hooking onto each other. Pressing against one another, both fighters struggled to unlatch their weapons or to gain supremacy over one another in this shoving contest. Looking him in the eyes, Hei quietly spoke to the cat while still trying to push him back,

"You're mother's strong, Gumball, but she's no match for the spiritually gifted, even your soul burns brighter!" he grinned as he closed his eyes for a moment, reaching out to sense the others, before opening them again,

"I can sense your friends back on the rooftop, they've been defeated and it seems as though Pepakuma is in trouble with Medusa. I doubt she'll last long against her on her own." he remarked, playing into Gumball's fears.

It worked and the blue kitten's strength wavered a bit as he wondered about his friends he left behind as well as Teri. This was the exact moment Hei needed, shoving as hard as he could and knocking Gumball back, forcing him to stumble backwards. Lunging forward with his ice scythe's tip directed just above Gumball's left eye, the water dragon's son aimed to leave a gash so the resulting blood flow would blind him and thus earning him a swift victory.

He only got within a foot's distance of Gumball's head before the cat caught the scythe, using an open palm to halt the blade's advance. The tip struck the flesh, but didn't pierce through and from where the point connected veins glowing purple appeared, spreading across his paw. Realizing he was using some kind of spell, Hei nervously looked down to see the second rune on Gumball's scythe glowing the same color and when he looked up again, he saw a pair of blue eyes gazing back into his own with a warrior's resolution.

Feeling his power spike from the impact, Gumball pushed his blade aside before lunging forward and clashing once more with this water wielder that insulted him so. Every time their blades met, Gumball's speed increased and the two fought fiercely, moves becoming a blur until Gumball's strength dominated his own, causing his ice scythe to shatter completely. Kicking him in the stomach, Hei was sent back and looked up as the cat stepped forward,

"If what you're saying is true, then I have no choice, but to crush you and all your comrades with _all_ my might!" his voice thundered.

Holding his chosen weapon up with both paws now, with the blade being directed downwards, Gumball tried something new and poured his spiritual energy into the third rune,

" _I know that my knowledge of the scythe's powers is limited, but if the first one grants me strength and fire while the second provides a limited invulnerability along with replenished stamina, then the third one must be in a league of its own. Besides, I don't have time to deal with this guy, I gotta save the others so we can save Hector."_ he argued mentally.

Placing his power in the third rune initiated a strange reaction from the blade itself, the fanged skull that served as the scythe's third power symbol turned black before it spread across the entire weapon and the cutting edge dripped with a tar-like substance. It didn't stop there however, as Gumball could feel his power being amplified to levels beyond that of the first two, his mind being filled with nefarious thoughts as his power filled it completely and from the outside, his body was experiencing some strange changes.

Startled, Hei jumped back at the sudden transformation his target began going through and could only stare in awe,

" _What's happening to him? His spiritual energy is climbing drastically and why's his scythe completely black? That magic is completely unnatural and what's that forming on the left side of his head?"_ he wondered as he continued to observe.

Whether Gumball was aware of it or not, his left eye had blackened entirely and from it, the dark material began flowing outwards, covering the upper left portion of his head. The viscous substance bubbled before hardening into a black mask with a single antler protruding from the side, just above the ear piece, and several sharp teeth appearing at the jawline. Running from his neck down across his left arm and to his fingertips, black tribal markings formed into swirling patterns.

Once the transformation was complete, Gumball, drunk on power, laughed hysterically before raising his jet black scythe, dripping with black ooze to cut him up with.

"I. WILL. CRUSH. YOU-ACK!" before he could finish, he stumbled forward and fell to his knees with both paws clutching his stomach.

From his mouth, blood gushed forward and splattered all over the ground as the cat sputtered and coughed. His partially complete mask cracked and shattered into thousands of little pieces before his scythe returned to its normal color. Shaking and trembling, Gumball tried to piece together what just happened, but his strength left him and he collapsed, unconscious.

Completely at a loss and with a million questions in regards to what exactly all that was, the water dragon's son cautiously stepped forward to analyze Gumball's body,

" _No doubt about it, that mask and those markings were definitely like those of a Nephilim's. His energy level's back to normal, but he's completely knocked out. Whatever power he just tried using was too much for him to handle. I need to get him on a chopper immediately, he probably needs medical attention."_ he noticed the amount of blood he's lost and deduced that he might live if provided the right amount of care.

Walking over and scooping him up with one arm, the American-Chinese NEA member folded up the scythe before placing it in the unconscious cat's backpack. He had so many questions for this young man who fought him so bravely, but could not wait for him to awaken. Making his way through the halls and towards one of the windows, the black haired individual prepared to take flight with his wings of water.

He was stopped however, when he heard a crashing noise along with someone calling out to him and when he looked back, he could see a battered Nicole standing there, clutching her sore arm as she stumbled towards him.

Through gritted teeth, she growled and her eyes were filled with a mother's desire to protect,

"Give him back to me! You're not leaving with my son, I won't let you!" she demanded, her voice unwavering in its authority.

" _This woman's tenacity is truly astonishing! I can see her son picks it up from her, but I need to end this now. I believe she's too exhausted to do much, so this shouldn't take long."_ he mused, before turning to face her and retracting his water wings,

"Your offspring is part of the NEA now, Miss Watterson, the world is in danger of being overrun by a threat you can't possibly perceive and we need strong warriors to defend it. Try not to be angry with us." he knew it was a pointless endeavor to try and make her understand, but he was just doing his duty.

Spitting out some blood, Nicole shook her head and picked up the pace, claws extended and ready to gouge his eyes out,

"I don't give a flying fuck about your organization's needs or your stupid reasoning, I'm not letting you take away my child to go play soldier in someone else's war!" she boldly declared.

Sighing, Hei tried one last time and offered something reassuring,

"You won't lose him forever, you can come with us, we can provide you a home for your family and a job too. You'll be able to see your son everyday when he's not working or on missions." he promised, his face and his tone calm.

Having heard enough at this point, Nicole lunged forward, putting everything she had into sinking her claws into his face and as she closed in, she roared,

"We already have a home, you bastard!"

Saddened and severely disappointed in the woman's inability to listen to reason, Hei unstrapped his river carrier and hefted it until the opening was pointed at Nicole like a cannon,

"I'm sorry to do this." he apologized before uttering in Chinese,

" _Diguo Shuilong de iller! (Imperial water dragon's piller)_ "

Foam sprayed like a faucet from the opening followed by a raging torrent as a column of water splashed forth, a chinese dragon's head mounted at the tip and a force as great as the rapids was all it took to push the flying cat lady back into the building. The unbelievable quantity of water tore through the _Rainbow factory_ 's walls with Nicole taken in as an unwilling passenger and she screamed soundlessly as she was pulled further away from her child. Soon she smashed into the final wall and blacked out from the heavy impact, leaving her sprawled in a puddle on the ground.

Seeing that she was taken care of, Hei re-tied the vessel to his back before spreading his wings again and taking off through the broken window. He really made a mess back there, with most of the twenty third floor sustaining some kind of heavy damage, but he never expected the fight to last that long. As unbelievable as it may have sounded, that last attack almost drained his magic gourd of water and had he used any more, he would've been left defenseless.

Impressed, a smile formed on his thin lips as he sailed over the cityscape and got a closer look at Gumball's unconscious face, his lips and chin stained with blood,

" _They're both really strong, can't believe they actually drove me this far and lasted as long as they did. Utterly impressive. I hope Fjel awakens her to the real danger and she reconsiders that offer, she could be a great asset to our forces."_ he wondered how great a spectacle it would be to see those two on the same team and against a Nephilim, truly terrifying indeed.

His thoughts were then turned to Teri Pepakuma and how her spiritual signature matched Gumball's in strength. He'd never seen the paper puppet in battle, but given how she and Gumball were together at the beginning, they must make one hell of a was right, this city had many great catches and the raw power Hector possessed outshined every soul currently in Elmore.

 _-somewhere over downtown Elmore-_

Flying at top speed, the jellyfish remained steadily ahead of Teri as the both of them continued their aerial dance and the latter of the two was just about finished with the childish invertebrate. Ten minutes of teasing her for her poor aim and slow speed, Medusa had the Pepakuma practically ripping her ears off in frustration. She'd wasted a good fifteen shurikens and not once had she even come close to hitting her, meanwhile Alicia hadn't even done anything yet in terms of attacking.

Watching as she wasted her sixteenth paper throwing star, Alicia laughed and pointed at her in ridicule,

"Ha, ha, you missed again! I think your aim's getting better though, you only missed me by eight feet that time." she teased, before pushing herself away again.

Several tick marks formed on Teri's forehead as her mind was consumed with a fiery hatred for this taunting woman and was about to give chase once more while getting another projectile ready, but stopped when she noticed something.

"Hmm?" she hummed to herself as she got a better look.

Far below her was a bridge that crossed a small channel that ran through the city and an idea struck her. Changing course, she dove straight down and arched her flapping head back to call out to her,

"Hey, Medusa! Let's play a different game, how about hide-and-seek and you get to be "it" this time!" she shouted in the same childish manner before sticking her tongue out at her.

Flabbergasted at this sudden change in games, Alicia stopped flying forward and remained in the air for a moment to see where she was going,

"Hey, no fair! You can't just start a new game without finishing the first one, you meanie!" she huffed, puffing out her blue cheeks, bringing her arms to the side with her fists curled, and stomping her foot in the air much akin to a child throwing a tantrum.

It was kind of cute to be honest, but Teri just found the behavior to be odd,

" _Meanie? Just how old is this woman exactly?"_ she wondered in amazement as she zipped beneath the bridge.

Closely trailing from behind, the female jellyfish tailed the paper bear and her jet beneath the bridge, but when she found herself underneath, there was no one there! Searching left and right while looking up once, she couldn't see anything within the darkness of the bridge's underside, much less the paper puppet. Frantically searching for her, the boneless NEA soldier flew back over the bridge, completely unaware that Teri was still down there, just folded up and tucked away within one of the concrete ledges carved inside the bridge's underbelly.

Searching for any signs that she may have flown away, Medusa's blue and pink eyes carefully scanned the area,

"Hey, Teri where did you go? Would you settle for a game of _Marco Polo_?" she suggested, hoping the child was still around to answer her.

Silence.

Hearing only the soft lapping of the waves below, the Jellyfish shrugged and called out again,

"I'll take your silence as a yes, so I'll go first. Marco!" she shouted.

Suddenly from down below, an object appeared on the water and Alicia caught it through the corner of her eye. Intrigued, the gelatinous woman fluttered down to the river and towards the paper object, which turned out to be a large paper boat colored black. Swooping down, she used one of her tentacles to lift the craft out of the water and inspected it closely,

"Teri, are you hiding in there somewhere?" she playfully asked, turning it over to see the inside.

Within the cone that served as a cabin was not Teri as she expected, rather it was a single glowing rune shaped like a square with three lines bisecting it.

Lifting a frilly eyebrow, the transparent creature was confused before momentarily realizing what it was she had been holding,

"Oh! Clever girl." she smirked.

KRAKOW!

Summoned by the ancient magic, a single lightning strike punched into the jellyfish's dome, sending bolts of electricity coursing through her body and the chatty female was sent into the waves. Peeking out from her hiding place, Teri atop a wasp of her own creation, hovered and watched to see if she survived. The water hissed and boiled where the lightning struck, turning white and foamy as pieces of her destroyed boat disintegrated. After a solid minute of intense silence, it appeared as though she wasn't coming back up and while Teri felt bad for possibly killing another person, she was glad that she wasn't going to be attacking anyone else soon.

Turning around, the wasps wings beat hard as it kept them both in the air and she willed it to take her back to where her friends were,

"I hope everyone's doing okay back there. I didn't realize how far this was going to take me, but at least she's gone n-!"

SHHWWP!

While flying over the bridge, something long and spear-like ripped through the tail end of her origami wasp and protruded from the head, with the sharp tip cackling with electricity. Recognizing the blue hue of the shafted weapon, Teri was shocked to see it was one of Medusa's tentacles that had been thrown at her, but confused as to how it got there. Seconds later, another one tore through her wasp's right wing and Teri lost control of the paper insect as she tumbled down onto the asphalt below.

Striking the ground, Teri was thrown from her mount and felt her left arm tear as she scraped it against the hard surface,

"Rrrgh!" she winced as pain surged through her left side and she quickly got to her feet.

Checking to see if the damage was severe, she saw that the rip had gone halfway through and that her arm was now as limp as an actual sheet of paper. She needed glue or tape, but now was not the time. That was the least of her worries however, as she noticed that her surroundings were getting brighter and twisted to the side to see a set of headlights belonging to a car speeding straight towards her!

"Oh my Jade, NO!" she cried out,wishing she had a barrier moon to save her while raising her one good hand in a feeble attempt to stop the car.

Then something odd happened and she was saved by what one could describe as a miracle. The ink forming the cuff of her blazer's sleeve moved on its own down her arm and onto the palm of her hand where it formed a barrier moon. Seconds before the car came into contact, a circular glass window appeared and the car's front crumpled upon impact, the shrieking of bending metal reverberating in Teri's ears as the speeding vehicle was brought to a stop. The driver inside was so overcome with sudden shock, that he passed out in the seat and remained unaware of the little girl out in the road

Baffled and not believing that she'd somehow done that, Teri brought her palm to her face only to see that the symbol had gone,

"What did I do?" she asked, no one hearing her and unable to answer her self-imposed question.

That was put on the back burner however, as she was snatched up by two electric tentacles from behind and brought up to Medusa's hovering form. Being paper, she was immune to the electricity's harmful effects, but that still change the fact that she was still in danger and she squirmed as the tentacles continued to wrap around her. Screaming for help that would never come, Teri realized how utterly helpless she was without her weapons and found herself tiring out the more she struggled.

Leaning in closer, Teri got a better look at the face underneath the hood and saw that it was strikingly beautiful for a dangerous sea predator. Her childish grin never faded, but her eyes held a form of viciousness, like a cat catching a mouse before it started tormenting it,

"Well done, Teri, you actually got me with that one! I'll tell you one thing that may _spark_ your interest though: even though I'm a water creature, electricity is my primary element. Good try though!" she cheerfully said, before a more serious face settled in on her freckled features,

"Anyway, I think playtime is over, let's get you back before Iris gets mad for waiting too long, okay? I'm going to put you to bed first, so nighty night!" she giggled.

With one of the fine, hair thin tentacles that lined her glowing membrane, she allowed it to slither upwards like a snake and raised it until it's tip was pressed against Teri's shoulder. With barely any effort, she poked the sharp barb into Teri's flesh and released a small bit of venom. Teri groaned in pain as the non-lethal chemicals pumped through her system and she fought hard to stay conscious, but the harder she fought, the more tired she became and soon darkness clouded her vision.

With a final groan, she mouthed the word _no_ before her head fell forward and her eyes closed as she slipped under.

Seeing as she was finally out, Alicia unravelled her tentacles from the paper bear's unconscious form and pulled her in with her arms, cradling her like a baby. She was pretty clever, but the NEA soldier knew that on her own, Teri was simply no match for any opponent who was equally as thoughtful. Hopefully the training will provide the young lady the skills she needs and bring out her true potential. Hei said she was strong and she knew it too.

Radioing in the _Azura two_ , the jellyfish was ordered to stay where she was until the extraction craft came to her and in a few minutes time it did, where she floated aboard where Hei Brookes and an unconscious Gumball awaited her before they took off into the night.

 _-Jotenheim's cave, 5:50 PM-_

While Molly has seen plenty of caves before on some fishing trips with her grandpa, the home of the Jotenheim's was definitely something worth noting and the shy school girl was happy she was invited over. Even though it seemed mostly empty, the mountain's cozy interior housed so many things that piqued her interest, namely all the books sitting on the living room's shelves, all of which looked old and full of mystery. For a girl, whose passion was reading anything she could get her trunks on, Hector's home was a wonderland and she would have to ask his permission to come over more often so she could touch on all this material.

Sitting on Hector's shoulder with a book popped open, Molly was fully immersed in the story she was finishing up on while Hector flipped through his tiny issue of _Captain Punch_ , a popular comic book his mother "edited" to make sure it was suitable for reading, while Hector's mom got off from a crystal ball call with a delivery man and hobbled her way over to the living room where they sat,

"Okay, sorry that call took an hour, _Amazing_ delivery services haven't been living up to their title, but at least I know my package will be here next monday once they retrieve it from Montreal." she wiped her hands off after finally feeling some relief from that whole ordeal,

"Are you two finished with your homework?" she asked, finally looking up at the two of them.

Nodding in unison, the two looked down to where the tiny troll stood and answered simply with,

"Yep!"

Then Molly followed up with,

"Your place is so cool, Mrs. Jotenheim!" she complimented.

Chuckling to herself at the dinosaur's little comment, she really found Hector's friend to be rather pleasant, albeit a little bit of a motormouth if you let her go for a bit, but she was very laid back and that's honestly all the witch could ask for,

"Glad you think so, kiddo! You two have been so quiet and I was worried you guys had somehow wandered off without my knowing." she paused as they shared a laugh before she directed their attention elsewhere,

"Since you guys finished your homework so early, why don't you go downstairs and get yourselves something to eat. There's a pizza in the oven, a vegetarian one for you, Molly, and the sausage/pepperoni topper for you, sweetums!" she doted lovingly as she gave Hector's leg fur a pinch.

Excited at the prospect of a meal, the giant shot straight up and the two cheered before making their way downstairs to the lower confines of the cave. Reminding them that she'll be checking their homework once they finished, she saw them off before turning to her witch's brewery where all her supplies were she kept her magic supplies and selecting a jar of pine cones. Earlier during her call to the delivery company, her talking skull alerted her to the presence of magic in Elmore and consulted another all-seeing orb to check it out.

Sure enough, there was trouble in downtown Elmore, as an entire attack force of NEA helicopters showed up and most likely several elite ground units too.

This didn't bode well for her, as she knew if the _Supernatural Commission_ 's lackey's showed up here in Elmore, chances were they wanted more than just to help out and she feared for her son's safety. Digging up a patch of dirt, she placed a pine cone in the hole before covering it back up and pouring some water on it. After whispering a spell and breathing life into the buried plant, the green-skinned cleaning lady removed her hair band, allowing her wispy white locks to fall around her shoulders.

The sound of whirring helicopter blades cut the silence the cave offered and Mrs. Jotenheim just sighed to herself,

"Never a quiet moment in this place." she spoke with irony as she reached over and grabbed an ancient mug from her stovetop.

Pulling in overhead, the twin rotor Chinook veered around and from the rear-facing ramp cables dropped, allowing for several men and women wearing specialized black uniforms to grapple down onto the cave's ledge. Then came the red devil man, still hefting his chained covered bazooka and once all twelve Jormungandr squadmates were assembled up front, he took the lead, allowing them to follow in from behind.

Raven hair ruffling in the wind, the hulking devil eyed the place with amber eyes and spotted the tiny troll woman inside, holding a mug of some sorts while paying them no attention. According to his intel, this was Grendella Jotenheim, wife of Fjel Jotenheim and mother of their current objective. His men, armed with magic staves that produced an electric shock powerful enough to bring down a T-rex while two were armed with loaded M4 Carbines housing enchanted ammo for lethal support, and himself were tasked with bringing in a highly valued target named Hector to their home base in Jeruzalem, where he'll be shipped off to a far more secure location. The devil man, Ignius Blackwell, was handpicked for this job, solely based on his background as a former monster hunter/trapper, with a confirmed record of over three hundred dangerous species successfully detained with very little casualties sustained to his own party.

There could be no better man for the job than him, yet he was advised to be very cautious, and when he got a good look at the place, he wasn't thoroughly impressed nor concerned,

"Good evening, ma'am! Love what you've done with the place, but it's a lot of space for such a tiny thing such as yourself, don'tcha think?" he greeted, his voice ashen and lacking in respect.

The tiny witch in the purple dress continued to inspect the contents of the cup without even bothering to answer nor acknowledge his presence. Irritated, the horned individual rocking the leather jacket and a soul patch, slammed his cannon on the ground, leaning it against his side as he cracked his knuckles and his mouth twisted into an amused sneer. Behind him, his fellow soldiers dressed in all black with heavy body armor and face concealing helmets with masks, stood around nervously as their captain grew impatient.

Picking up his cannon, he pressed a button from the top and a long handle extended from the bottom middle section while both ends closed, transforming his bazooka into a warhammer that he carried as he made his way over to her,

"Not sure if you're hearings not what it used to be, crone, but I'm really far from home right now on official government business and I need to pick up a giant brat, who coincidentally doesn't show up on any official records or documentations. If I don't do my job, then Iris is going to be very mad and that's one more headache I don't want to deal with, so what'cha say? Can you help me out?" he asked, his eyes lit with a fire as dangerous as this man's voice was implying.

Not intimidated in the slightest, Hector's mom rubbed the edge of the mug with her gnarled finger and peeked in closer as if noticing a smudge. With his patience wearing thin, the hot-headed Ignius silently gave her to the count of ten to answer before he brought the hammer her own husband constructed himself onto the poor womens little misshapen head. However, before he could reach the end of his countdown, the haggardly troll finally made a sound and he stopped out of curiosity,

"No, no, no, I must be losing my mind! I've washed this mug fifteen times today and I still can't tell if that's a stain!" she fumed in disgust before holding the brown, clay mug up for him to see,

"Can you check to see if that's a stain for me, dearie?" she asked innocently.

Before his common sense could get ahold of his better judgement, he peeked inside and was surprised to see not the bottom of a plain old cup, but a sea of stars without end. Before he could react, the capture squad captain was pulled in by a powerful vortex and disappeared into the vessel with a startled scream. Alarmed, the twelve soldiers raised their weapons to her and began shouting amongst each other,

"He's gone!?" one screamed in despair.

"Release Captain Blackwell, you witch!" another armed with a carbine demanded.

"Who's in command now?" a female soldier asked.

"That'll be me." another female, this one taller with a long neck and snout like a Zebra. She too carried a stave and was known as Lieutenant Carla Vanchez,

"Just got word that Gumball and Teri have been successfully captured. Our task now is to free need to free Captain Blackwell and capture Hector Jotenheim. Let's go, Jormungandr squad!" she commanded.

Stepping in front of them with a fierce look in her eyes, Grendella feared none who stood before her and was ready to defend her family at all costs,

"Might want to delay that order, miss, because none of you will take five more paces in this room before you are all defeated!" she declared, before raising a hand in front of her,

"Rise, Manfried!" she shouted.

From the ground where the pine cone was buried, a beast erupted, flinging dirt everywhere and taking its first steps into life. A giant, measuring in at nineteen feet, made of lumber with skin of bark, a head full of branches bristling with pine needles and fingers much the same, the creature faced down the twelve stunned soldiers with hollow eyes. Reacting to this horrifying sight, both soldiers with guns stepped forward, took their aim and fired several rounds into the giant's bark hide.

"RAAAUUGHH!" the walking tree roared as bullets, exploding into orbs of green light, ruptured his skin and further agitating him with their stings.

Raising a branch-like arm, the creature roared once more as it swung it like a club and it grew longer as it came towards the capture team. The soldiers screamed as they tried to run back, with the two gunmen still shooting, but were caught up in the swipe and knocked off their feet. Roaring in triumph, the tree monster, reached out with its other hand and its fingers, like snakes, slithered out towards the fallen soldiers, splitting, branching out and wrapping around their ankles to lift them into the air.

Watching them dangle helplessly, the creature born from a single pine cone laughed like a toddler as it shook them all as they screamed in fright and struggled against their bindings,

"Manfried, over here!" Mrs. Jotenheim called out with a whistle.

Like an obedient pet, the tree brought its prisoners over and held them up as Mrs. Joteneheim raised her mug. One by one, they were all pulled into the pocket dimension within and soon after, the witch went out with a staff in hand towards the chopper still waiting outside. Chanting a spell and waving her wooden staff, a sparkling trail of light made its way towards the helicopter.

Upon contact, the Chinook cargo carrier glowed for a second before shrinking down and falling into Mrs. Jotenheim's open palm as a toy. Placing it within the mug, the reclusive spellcaster made her way back into her home and ordered Manfried to return home to the woods, while she got a package ready. Placing the containment vessel inside a cardboard box, she closed it up, taped it shut, wrote down a mailing address along with a threatening note and with a single tap of her magic staff, the box sprouted a pair of white dove wings before taking flight.

Watching the box fly away back to the SC's headquarters, the tiny troll chuckled in amusement and wiped her hands clean,

"That oughta keep those chumps from showing their ugly mugs around here." she smiled with satisfaction before turning back to the kitchen,

"Now I should probably get started on some hot chocolate, bet those two would love that!" she said, hobbling her way to the kitchen.

Her showdown with the NEA did not go unnoticed however, as Molly had come up earlier to ask whether they had something to drink and instead watched as Hector's mom single handedly took down thirteen mysterious figures who looked very dangerous. While that was truly remarkable in its own right, she also heard everything the others had said and could not believe her own ears when she heard one of them mention Gumball and Teri being captured. She wanted so desperately to ask her what had happened and who were those guys, but something told her that Mrs. Jotenheim sent them downstairs to keep them from seeing this.

Remaining quiet, Molly slipped back downstairs, but not before spotting a book of magic on the floor nearby and grabbing it before disappearing.

 **(A/N) It's 1:23 in the morning guys, what the hell! Why am I doing this to myself- (slaps own face) Right, there's a reason Fantastic is in my name! Oh, my god this was a long one, but alas it's finally finished and I can rest easy.**

 **So yeah, this is the first time the defenders ever really lost a fight and actually, my original idea was to have the good guys barely squeak out a victory in the end, but saw some potentially good writing opportunities if I went this route instead. This chapter had a lot of fights and so many cool reveals, I can't even begin to talk about all of them right now and will keep this outro short.**

 **In terms of magical prowess, Mrs. Jotenheim** **is very OP and now Molly is joining in too, along with Tina, Jamie, Ocho, Bobert, Darwin, Carrie, Anais, Macey, and Chimera. We still have a while until Hector really starts showing off his stuff and I guarantee you that you will be impressed. There's also a lot antler talk in this chapter and while I won't get to far into it, I'll just tell you guys now that antlers have a significant meaning in this story. Also, Teri has a new power, I wonder what that's about and what it means for her?**

 **Oh yeah, then there's the reveal of Mrs. Jotenheim's first name, Grendella. It's a nod to the monster, Grendel, in the epic of Beowulf and I thought that would be a fitting name for her. Also, there's the subject of Hector's documents, while they actually exist in Elmore, Mrs. Jotenheim made sure that no information regarding her son ever left the city in order to prevent organizations like the NEA from finding out and she has multiple contingency plans if this fails.**

 **Find out more in the next chapter as we pick straight up with Rob and the others in the aftermath of their defeat, we'll also get a peek into Teri and Gumball's new lives in Jeruzalem (yes, it's spelled like that intentionally because it's not Jerusalem.) and how the NEA functions along with Rob's plan to liberate their allies and with all that being said, I'll see you guys for chapter 14: Malabranche.**

 **If you've enjoyed this chapter leave a like and also review if you want to post your criticism, have an excellent day all you wonderful readers!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14: Malabranche**

Teri x Gumball

 **(A/N): Woah-kay now! That was a really long wait and now we're back with the fourteenth installment of this story. Today we'll be looking at those left behind in Elmore following the events of chapter 13 and how they plan on moving forward. This is actually quite interesting because this is the first chapter in this entire story so far where Gumball and Teri don't make an actual appearance, only being mentioned by name or showing up in a flashback.**

 **Oh and on another note, I apologize to all the readers who read chapter 13 and realized the mistake I made regarding Brock Braunwhen. In chapter 10, I described him as having the head of an Ox and in the chapter previous to this one, I slipped up and said he was a Bison. He's actually an Ox and I'm sorry for that little mistake, it was extremely careless on my part. That's all that needs to be said and I will do my best to make sure the story remains consistent.**

 **Also, sorry for the absurd length of this chapter. I tried to keep it trim, but there's so much I need to cover here and lot's of this is a future setup for arc 2.**

 **Shifu = "master" in Chinese.**

 **(I do not own Cato Anderson and Amber Caesar, those characters are the creations of Fitroz777.)**

 **(I also do not own Hiro Moonson, credit for that character goes to OkamiSamurai.)**

 _-Torchwick avenue, October 24th, 2013, 12:04 PM-_

" _So this is what you guys do during missions? Color me unimpressed!"_ Jamie's voice grumbled to Carrie from the back of her head.

Sitting down on a bench facing towards the river that crossed through Elmore's lower business district with a pair of earbuds blasting death metal in her head, Carrie heard Jamie's gruff complaint and rolled her eyes in response. She wasn't exactly thrilled to be out here anyway, possessing Jamie's body and sitting quietly, but sadly neither one had much choice in the matter. After receiving a phone call from Rob during lunch, Carrie was alerted to the approach of another Nephilim (making this one the fourth attack in the two weeks following the NEA's arrival.) and pulled Jamie along, seeing as she was the only one willing to help out, though their partnership left something to be desired.

Quietly bouncing her stubby leg to the beat and keeping her eyes on the river, Carrie spoke as though she were talking to herself, but was actually answering Jamie's question,

"Normally the Nephilim would pop out of portals and start attacking right away, but nowadays they just come in from other areas." She said, feeling somewhat impatient with constantly having to answer the tomboy's questions,

"Rob thinks it's because President Nimrod is no longer receiving support from the senate to attack Elmore thanks to Enoch squad's decimation and is being forced to reroute his forces from other places in order to keep up the attacks." She added in, feeling as though that were accurate considering Teri and Gumball's earlier analysis regarding the Nephilim leader's shaky relationship with the rest of Babyloth's governing body.

Too bad they weren't here to enjoy this relative silence and another twinge of regret pierced the ghost's very being.

Hearing talk about politics already sent Jamie's mind spiraling with boredom and could feel her impatience starting to boil over,

" _This is stupid! Why do you have to be in control of my body anyway! I already know how to fight!"_ She whined.

"You can't see them, Jamie. I already told you this and if you keep on nagging me with pointless questions, I'll grant your wish by stuffing you into one of Rob's cannons and using you as artillery. If we're lucky, your thick head may cause some damage." She snapped back.

Within the dark confines of their shared consciousness, Carrie heard Jamie snort and paid no heed to her threat,

" _Kinda wished your boyfriend didn't wuss out like he did, at least he would've been here to act as your meat puppet and put up with your sass!"_ Her words stung as Carrie was reminded of Darwin's disappearance two days after they lost Teri and Gumball and a storm of negative emotions began to roil within, but hadn't the opportunity to launch a spiteful zinger back at her backseat passenger,

" _What's Rob's deal anyway? Why's he dressed like a spaceman? I thought we were fighting evil giants, not flying to Mars!"_ She grumbled.

Lifting her eyes until she could see the apartment sitting directly in front of her (if this even counted as "seeing" considering how often Jamie's bangs cover both eyes completely as opposed to just covering one.) across the river, Carrie got a good look at Rob's hiding place and spotted the marksman perched within a window on the third story. The young cyclops seemed to have taken extra precautions following his defeat at the hands of Azura squad, donning more armor engraved with protective spells and adding some more features to both his helmet's HUD and _Leviathan Book_ that improved targeting. Throughout the few times both Carrie and Rob protected the city themselves, the ghost found the young inventor to possess quite the logical approach to dealing with his enemies and with their combined knowledge, any Nephilim they encountered was quickly disposed of.

However, one thing that didn't quite sit well with her was how he was managing to develop such advanced weaponry in such short periods of time and while she understood that the cyclops was resourceful, his gear and armor seemed _too_ impressive for someone who's financial situation is on the teetering point.

Sadly, even with all the time that had passed, Rob still proved to be quite secluded and Carrie rarely bothered prying into his machinations,

"Who knows? Everyone's got a gimmick nowadays: Gumball has his scythe, Teri's got her origami, I have my dark spells, you've got Tina-oops! Did I say that out loud? I forgot that she wussed out and took up permanent residence at the junkyard!" She sneered, getting back at her for her offhanded insult directed at Darwin.

From within her head, Jamie exploded with such ferocity that she temporarily took hold of her body's functions and delivered a rabid slew of insults and death threats to the ghost that was sharing her body,

"You pasty, empty headed, emo freak! If you insult Tina again I'll find a way to make sure you die again and this time, _permanently!_ " She screamed.

Her temporary control was relinquished when Carrie took over again with a few twitches and countered the bully's insults with her own,

"Who are you calling empty headed, short stack! I've been in here for several minutes now and it still baffles me with how much vacant space there is! Tell me, do your thoughts leave an echo every time you think?" She gritted her teeth and clenched her fists as though preparing for a fight, even though her opponent was sharing the same space as her.

Before the actual shouting match could begin, Carrie's phone buzzed and whatever was happening was put on hold as she answered it to see that it was Rob,

"Okay you two, I need you to reel in that raw negativity because our target is almost- _click!_ " The call was cut short as the phone was abruptly shut off.

Soon all the power around them died and Carrie realized that she had been sensing a powerful presence heading this way, but was too wrapped up in her spitting contest with Jamie to notice. Banishing her phone and earbuds to the nether, Carrie readied herself for the invisible monster that was on its way and prepared a spell on her lips. Up in the dusty old apartment building, Rob had his arm raised with all his cannon barrels directed at the river and remembered what he saw in his dream. The Nephilim was aquatic based and was using the river as transportation, prompting the polygonal Nephilim fighter to set up an ambush in an area that was bought by a few local businesses to be reconstructed, so there were very few people to worry about.

Before he headed out, he checked several maps online and figured out the Nephilim's possible objective,

" _This river leads all the way to the dam. If they intend on wiping out all of Elmore and us too, then that is where it'll most likely go to."_ He speculated.

While he wouldn't have minded having Carrie possess him like she did every fight beforehand, he felt as though their odds of success would be greater if they could be in two different areas and invited Jamie along, seeing as she was the only one who volunteered. Whether or not this was a good decision on his part was to be decided once the Nephilim began attacking. After waiting an excruciatingly long forty-seven seconds, the river exploded to life and the battle began!

Neither of the two could see the monster in the dark waters below and the dense cloud cover wasn't helping either, but it's reveal came when a transparent tentacle shot out towards Carrie,

"Woah!" She shouted in surprise.

She cleared the area quickly and dodged the whip-like, translucent tendril before it could strike her. It happened very quickly and when Rob fired off three Ruby Sun runes, the tentacle had already retreated back into the water. Frustrated, Rob cursed and got up from his crouched position at the window, drawing with his guantlet a rune depicting four angel wings forming a square with their wingtips before leaping through the window itself.

"Wings of the rising dawn!" He shouted and the rune he drew began to glow a bright yellow.

From his back sprouted four fiery wings that shined like the sun and enabled the cyclops to safely descend to the ground before burning out like candles. He spotted the possessed hybrid on the sidewalk beyond the divide that was the river and saw that she was in prime condition, if not a little spooked. He waved to her and got her attention, prompting her to wave back once,

"I can sense that it's still here!" She called out to him.

Rob answered back with a raised voice,

"Keep your guard up! Visuals are poor here and this thing's fast!" He warned.

" _Kind of got that already from the first attack, idiot!"_ Jamie snarled in irritation and for once Carrie agreed with her.

As soon as Rob fired off that warning, the Nephilim exploded from the watery depths and bore down on them both. It was a menacing creature, thirty feet in height with an appearance that was crossed between a glass sculpture and an octopus. Standing on three tentacles that appeared sturdy enough to act as supports, its bulbous head consisted of a single orb surrounded by three swirling pylons that connected at the top and at the base where its arms connected, a ring of red eyes surveyed every conceivable direction. Also at its base, just below the three tentacles were three pipe-like structures that could possibly serve as weapons or a form of underwater propulsion.

The monster let out a gurgling hiss that sent a shiver down Rob's spine and from two of the hanging pipes, streams of highly pressurized water shot towards the two standing before it. Both were lucky enough to dodge the attacks and to their shock, the water cannons were far more powerful then they appeared, for they cut through just about anything: concrete, lampposts and buildings too. Running down the sidewalk while keeping track of the Nephilim's deadly water streams, Rob trained his weapon on its head while simultaneously readying a defensive spell and let loose several rounds of Mica Shatter Arrow runes he'd previously loaded in.

BRAKKA! BRAKKA! BRAKKA!

The bullets that tore through the air burst into a raining swarm of grey stone arrows that sailed towards their intended target, but a barrier consisting of blue interlocking hexagons manifested and the arrows smashed into the surface before bouncing off with no effect on the creature itself.

Seeing this with his own eye, the armored gunman bared his teeth and let out a snarl,

"Agh! Not another shielded opponent!" He shouted in frustration.

Not caring the least bit for his misfortune, the Tri-pus aimed its third cannon and fired another stream straight ahead of him, effectively trapping the lanky pre-teen between two lines of fire. Seeing his predicament, the polygonal defender of Elmore wasted no time in using the rune he drew with his gauntlet and poured his spiritual energy into it. The magic symbol, shaped like a seven pointed star with a dot placed in between each point, lit up in a brilliant flash of light and continued to grow in intensity.

Placing the visor's shade over the glass of his helm, Rob watched as the river and it's surrounded get washed away in a sea of blinding yellow,

"Radiant eye of Helios!" He remarked, sounding off the spell's name.

Blinded by the flash bomb, the Nephilim aborted its attack and slipped back beneath the waves with a screech. On the other side, Carrie saw what was happening and prevented eye injury by wrapping herself in a cloak of darkness thick enough to block out the light. Once Rob's disorienting spell subsided, the possessed Jamie re-emerged and upon seeing that the giant octopus was nowhere to be seen, the specter reached out with her senses to locate the monster.

It didn't take long to find the hidden entity and a toothy grin flashed on horned girl's face,

"Gotcha!" She exclaimed,

"Let's skewer this piece of calamari while it's still confused: _Turrim in testimonium mortis! (Tower of death's testimony!)_ " she chanted.

A black orb surging with red electricity appeared before her and with a simple wave of her hand, she sent the tennis ball-sized object sailing into the river with a splash. At first, the waters remained undisturbed, until a black stone monolith carved in glowing red runic letters shot up from beneath and carried with it a very confused and frightened Nephilim. The creature flailed about with its three tentacles, but could not find the water and Carrie took the opportunity to strike fast.

Crouching down, she leapt upwards, using Jamie's Herculean strength, plus the additional strength her powers provided to close the distance and grabbed onto a tentacle,

"HRAAUUGH!" She roared, combining both her and Jamie's rage as she pulled hard on the slippery appendage.

Using her momentum gained from the jump, the spirit inhabited child swung the tentacle, carrying the rest of the Tri-pus with it and flung the inter dimensional invader further into the city. Watching it go, Rob was surprised to see how easily the three story behemoth sailed overhead and continued down the narrow street. Once it collided, the first thing that happened was the barrier that protected the Nephilim shattered, overwhelmed with the constant ground contact and then the aquatic beast simply slid down the road, smashing several parked cars, street lamps, and storefronts before finally screeching to a halt.

Seeing this, Rob felt his jaw drop and his eye nearly pop: not even Gumball was capable of tossing a Nephilim that far!

Landing next to him, Carrie read the shock on his face and wiped her hands with smug satisfaction. This pleased attitude of hers melted away rather quickly though as she eyed the destruction caused by her throw and felt her hands dropped to her sides. When Rob turned to give her a strange look, Carrie quickly turn her head away and crossed her arms,

"I'm not paying for this!" She huffed in defense.

Rolling his eye, the space suit clad fighter pressed on to finish the job they started and beckoned her over,

"No one said you were, but we need to do this without leveling half of Elmore!" He shouted back to her.

" _Now where's the fun in that?"_ Came Jamie's reply, unheard by Rob, but managed to elicit a snicker from the emo herself, who relished in a little chaos if she was to admit anything.

She followed close behind him, noting how his black plastic armor made him stand out in the mundane environment and ironically making him look like the invader instead of the downed monster they were heading towards. Everything seemed quiet at first, but given that the Nephilim hadn't burst into flames yet, it was best for them to tread carefully. The authorities were probably on their way at this point, so they had to finish this quickly and the less evidence left behind, the better.

When Carrie studied the Nephilim's downed firm and then her partner's weapon, an idea came to her,

"Rob, it's shields are down! You can take it out from here!" She stated.

Hearing her at first, the inventor had completely forgotten that it's defense was neutralized and hopped to it when Carrie's statement became evident,

"You're right! Hang on a sec-!"

SPLSSSH!

Having waited patiently for them to approach, the Tri-pus unleashed all three streams straight at them and both of them barely had time to get out of the way before they were cut down the middle. Unfortunately, dodging did not help much, as the malevolent spirit was already moving by the time it attacked and one of its tentacles stretched incredibly far outwards. As soon as they landed, the elastic tendril whipped about, smacking Rob first and sending him crashing through an empty store's window, while it quickly reached out and snagged Jamie's petite body with a slippery coil.

"Auuugh! Let go of me, you creep!" Carrie screamed, trying to pry off the tightly wrapped appendage with her hands, but they kept slipping and Jamie's concerned cries could be heard from within her subconscious,

" _No good! Get it off before it wrecks my body!"_ She cried out in alarm.

Carrie wanted to tell the husky tomboy to shut up, but was plowed straight into a building, breaking through a layer of brick and sending her head into an agonizing spiral. She screamed as her ears began to ring and felt as though she had gone weightless, forcing her to forget which way was up or down. The torment was far from over though as the Tri-pus's tentacle was still wrapped around her torso and she was yanked out from the building before being sent straight into another one.

This repeated over and over again, with the evil giant seemingly toying with her as it repeatedly smashed Jamie's body through the solid surfaces that flanked either side. Despite the brutal punishment, Carrie seemed to be holding out and it was all thanks to the combined durability granted by both individuals, but each attack brought about more pain and the ghost was unable to free herself. Once the three story entity righted itself by reaching up with its other two arms and grabbing the rooftop of each building on either side, the Nephilim brought the tiny figure closer to its cluster of red eyes to finish them both off at point blank with a dark exorcism blast.

Meanwhile, Rob had managed to recover from his nasty fall, thanks to the enchanted armor's protective layer (which had melted after using up its only spell.) and stumbled out from the broken shop, a little dizzy, but fine nonetheless.

Shaking his head vigorously, the one eyed bizarro wondered if he should look into finding another means of breaking the Nephilim's magic barriers and preventing from having to engage them at such close range,

"This was so much easier when Teri and Gumball were here." He grumbled, hoping neither Carrie nor Jamie were around to catch that statement.

That however, became less of an issue when he saw how much trouble the two were in as soon as he left the store.

" _Oh crud, that's not good!"_ He realized.

Through his own eye, he saw the Nephilim hanging from both buildings while holding the girls up close and charging up an energy blast that was red mixed with black. He had only seconds before that attack was discharged and he needed to get it's attention. Luckily, he was quite literally armed with a solution and began drawing a rune in midair while aiming _Leviathan Book_ straight at them.

"HEY, MARTIAN WANNABE!" He shouted, desperately hoping his voice would reach it.

Fortunately, his taunt caught its attention and the colossal squid monster tossed the Carrie possessed Jamie aside like a sack of potatoes to instead concentrate it's beam on him.

Raising his cannons, Rob cocked a little smile and snorted,

"H.G. Wells called and he wants his tripod back!" he muttered the one-liner in the same fashion as a cheesy action hero before pulling the trigger.

From the shortest barrel in the gun cluster, a single copper pellet bearing the Burning Stars of Nyx shot outwards before glowing bright and splitting into a cluster of seven shooting stars that sailed straight at the surprised Nephilim. Discharging it's Dark Exorcism blast straight away and in a horizontal plane, the evil spirit managed to catch all seven flying projectiles in one shot. The collisions between the blasts of energy resulted in a series of violent explosions that sent anything that wasn't nailed down flying and this unfortunately included Rob as well.

Swept off his feet, the space suit wearing defender rode the shockwave like a leaf in the wind and crashed head-first into the concrete before tumbling to a stop.

"Ow! Ugh, that's... one way to get around the neighborhood!" Rob wheezed after managing to sit upright.

He coughed a few more times before pushing himself off the ground, back onto his feet, his glass visor/HUD had been smashed and was raining down shards of glass, he slowly turned to see what had become of the Nephilim,

"...By Jade!" He gasped.

The Nephilim, completely unhurt or phased by the explosion, was hovering right above him, its shiny glass skin catching the faint light of the sun breaking through the clouds as it just stared at the beetle-sized pest below. Moving before his mind told him too, Rob dove out of the way just as a tentacle came striking like a cobra and smashing the pavement where he once stood. However, one sudden move by that very appendage and Rob was tripped from behind, once again falling on his back.

Being placed in a vulnerable state now, Rob looked up and watched helplessly as the Tri-pus raised its tentacle to deliver the final blow.

With adrenaline coursing through his systems, demanding he take action, the boy tried to rearm his arm cannon, but remembered his visor being smashed and realized he would have to switch to his phone. There wasn't time though, he couldn't draw anything either and rolling out of the way wasn't an option either because he would still be too slow. He was trapped!

" _Ferrum ora umbra! (Razor edge shadow!)_ "

SHLKT!

The Nephilim froze in its attack, as though placed on pause and it's many red eyes widened all at once while a tiny child wielding a shadowy sickle gracefully landed in front with a flip. As time slowly passed, a line formed straight down the Tri-pus's middle and the colossal entity fell in two halves, catching fire as both remains blackened. Soon any trace of the monster had completely faded from this world and the power returned to the surrounding areas.

Catching the whole thing on a strange camera from one of the nearby empty buildings, both Macey and Anais watched as Carrie within Jamie's body collapsed to one knee and breathed heavily while holding her head as the pain caused by the earlier debacle had ceased to fade. Neither the bunny nor the Calico girl had actually seen the monster both Rob and Carrie successfully vanquished, but they did manage to catch the whole thing on the strange device they held in their possession. The strange recording device was a basketball-sized sphere with an EMP resistant metallic coating, a small screen on the back, several buttons on the side and halfway along the sphere's equator was a thick black line that served as a translucent covering for the five cameras stored within.

Pausing the video and playing it back, Macey was amazed to see that the camera they bought from the _Awesome Store_ actually worked,

"Holy crud, this thing wasn't a joke after all!" Macey happily exclaimed as Anais peered over her shoulder to see the footage herself.

"Excellent!" The pink bunny remarked before tugging her best friend back towards the entrance,

"Now let's head on back to school. We'll download the footage onto our computer after we make one quick trip to the mall and get the second item on our list!" She said.

The two highschoolers quietly made their way back onto the streets and began maneuvering through the alleys as police sirens began to wail in the distance.

Meanwhile, Rob had already opened a portal back to his duplex and was wishing Carrie and Jamie good luck on their trip back home,

"Hope you guys make it back without getting caught!" He said with a single wave of a hand,

"Thanks for the save by the way!" He added in appreciatively.

Nodding, the possessed teenager also waved and got ready to head out,

"Eh, it was no big deal, we're gonna need you later on tonight at Mrs. Jotenheim's cave and I hope you won't be too busy as per usual." She said, giving a slight nod towards his unusually packed schedule.

Rolling his eye, Rob shrugged off the subtle accusation and continued towards the portal,

"Pssh! Like hell I'm gonna waste time on my own when Gumball and Teri's lives are on the line." he said before stepping through the magical opening and turning around one last time to say his good-byes,

"I'll see you later at nine." He announced.

With a final wave, the portal closed and the two girls were left on their lonesome in a partially devastated sector of Elmore while the police were closing in. Taking to the rooftops in order to avoid detection, Carrie enabled Jamie's form to leap upwards and start running down the path she knew led to their school. Despite making rapid progress, Jamie was still agitated and didn't like being placed in the backseat any longer than she had to endure.

" _Why are you still driving? I can walk just fine, you know!"_ she growled internally.

Shaking her head, Carrie continued as she took a mighty leap and flew over several buildings before her feet crunched on some loose gravel found on another rooftop before she took off again at full speed,

"Not happening. Your body's still in tremendous pain and you'll just wind up slowing us down, plus, if you're seen in this condition by the other students, they'll get suspicious and might find out that something's up. We can't let that happen." She warned, feeling another sense of dread building up within.

While Jamie wanted to protest, Carrie had a point and the bull headed pre-teen was left to seethe in silence while she thought back to the events that led up to this point.

 _-Flashback, two weeks prior-_

 _-Russo residence, October 10th, 2013, 8:34 PM-_

Today had been a bad day for Jamie. Not only was she unable to lift Tina's spirits today, but when she learned there was an attack happening at the _Chanax_ building, she tried to hurry on over to help out and when she finally arrived, there was no one to be seen. After spending a lonely bus ride home trying to get in touch with anyone who knew anything about the battle that transpired, she made it home, quietly ate dinner with her folks and retired to her room.

Sitting at the edge of her bed, in a room that was plastered with posters of powerful athletes and rock bands and lifting a hundred pound dumb bell while her mind was elsewhere. She really wasn't sure where she could place her emotions right now and kept remembering the conversation she had with Gumball and the others yesterday,

" _Rrrgh! I hate this! Why would Gumball and Teri choose to fight these Nephilim guys alone, except with that creepy one eyed toothpick. There's no way those lightweights can handle something this large!"_ She thought bitterly to herself.

Yet, there was a lot of evidence to contradict this as she had witnessed, starting first with the two of them standing up to Tina in the pool room, Gumball working especially hard in the gym despite having never taken Phys. Ed or any form of exercise seriously, Gumball somehow managing to hold his own against her and then there was the way she saw those two flying about San Francisco when all those explosions were going off around them. They looked so determined and it was something Jamie recognized on both of their faces throughout the past month. There was also that Rob guy, both Tina and herself had severely underestimated him, but Jamie saw it as a one time fluke and was sure nothing would catch her off guard again.

While working on her third set of 200 reps, her mattress vibrated and the orange haired child saw her phone's screen light up. Still lifting with one hand, Jamie checked her messages and saw that it was from Bobert. It read:

 _Come outside, I have some urgent news for you regarding Carrie, Darwin, Ocho, Gumball, Teri, and the one eyed delinquent classified as Rob._

When she read the names listed in the message, it instantly clicked that these were the ones that were heading out to fight the Nephilim that showed up earlier today and a surprised expression crossed her features,

"Huh, urgent news?" She wondered out loud,

" _Did something happen? Are they in trouble? Do they really need my help?"_ She thought.

That had to be the case, was what her concluding thought was. She hadn't heard anything from them and she wasn't there when the battle happened, so something big must've happened. Realizing this was her time to shine, she got up from her bedside, let her weights drop with a heavy crash and rushed out the bedroom door while typing back:

 _I'll be right out!_

She rushed past her mom and dad, who were both sitting on a massive couch watching television together, without saying anything to them and hurried out the front door, running as fast as her little legs could carry her. Once outside, she was greeted with the fresh evening air, the sun had already set and the sky was littered with stars. She stopped at the front yard and began searching for any signs of the droid, but the only things out here were crickets, unseen, but heard, and a car that passed by once, it's brights almost blinding her.

After a minute of quietly waiting, she started to angrily type back a message when the roar of Jet thrusters caught her attention and she looked up to see a small flying object heading straight towards her,

"About time!" She angrily huffed, wanting to know what was happening.

Upon approach, Bobert began to slow down and once he was practically on top of her location, he swung his body until properly oriented before beginning a slow descent. At first, Jamie could barely contain her excitement and was about to start demanding the little robot to start spilling the beans, but stopped when she noticed something off about his appearance. At first, she thought there was an excess amount of smoke coming from his foot thrusters, but on closer inspection, she saw that it was in fact a shadowy aura of sorts and his single eye was glowing red with a strange insignia showing.

A capital "I" with an eye symbol cutting through the middle of the letter.

While she wasn't sure what a robot like Rob was capable of, she'd seen him do strange things before and heard stranger tales from her fellow students, but something about this didn't seem right.

She took a cautious step back and curled her hands into fists,

"Bobert?" She greeted him suspiciously, unsure how he would respond.

The robot said nothing in response, it just continued to stare at her with that unblinking red eye of his and Jamie could feel her discomfort starting to get to her. She felt like aggresively repeating herself and took a fearless step forward, ready to begin shouting at whoever, _whatever_ , this thing may be. She didn't get a chance to open her mouth however, as Bobert's eye began to shine with a purple light and high pitched noise began to sound within her ears.

There was no pain, but before the husky middle schooler knew it, her eyes rolled back and her body collapsed into the short grass with a soft _thud_!

Once she came to, she was laying on her side and on a concrete surface. Carefully lifting herself up, she was glad to know she wasn't in pain or feeling unusual, but when she glanced about she could see right away that she was in a warehouse of sorts. The room was mostly empty, save for a few crates and most likely had seen better days as it was very decrepit with lots of dust coating the floor. Running along the walls were thick power cables and windows caked with dirt and from the ceiling hung several bare bulbs, most nonfunctional with the only operating ones casting an eerie orange glow that illuminated the room.

None of it made sense to her, but she wasn't alone however, as there were seven other people here as well with faces both familiar and unfamiliar to her. Huddled close to her was Darwin, Carrie, Anais, and an older female blue cat who bore a striking resemblance to Gumball, whom Jamie recognized as Gumball's mother, though she looked like she'd been through the wringer. She could also see Rob in a tattered spacesuit pacing along the farthest wall, looking very impatient and frustrated and then there were two paper bears, whom Jamie had never met before but quickly made the assumption that they were Teri's parents.

She didn't see Gumball and Teri anywhere, Ocho was absent too, which was odd seeing as they were also mentioned to be heading out and Jamie couldn't help but wonder if something happened to them.

Her movements caught the attention of Carrie and her head shot back in order to get a better look at her,

"Guys, I think Jamie is awake now!" She stated, alerting the rest of them.

It wasn't long until the Wattersons had their eyes on the stirring middle schooler, even the Pepakumas casted a curious glance their way before going back to their hushed conversation, Rob, on the other hand, didn't appear to notice and kept pacing. Standing up on her own two feet, Jamie checked the faces of the four gathering around her and scratched her big head with a single finger,

"Where am I and why are all of you guys here too?" She asked in a gruff voice.

There was a somber moment as a look of defeat and regret formed on the already dreary faces of the four before Carrie spoke up,

"We... we encountered the Nephilim on the rooftop where Anais said they would, there were too many of them and we were nearly killed, but-!" Her melancholic voice was drowned out when a clearly distraught Darwin cut in,

"Then those guys Gumball and Teri ran into at San Francisco came, the NEA or something, (I remembered the big guy with the Ox head), they helped us destroy the giants, but then they turned on us and kidnapped Gumball and Teri!" He sobbed, breaking down in tears as he relived the events and Carrie rushed over to wrap her arms around him as well as Anais.

Nicole shook her head and seemed just as ready to lash out, as she teeth began to grind together,

"They came crashing into my office, both Gumball and one of their thugs. I tried to save him, but he just... I was so close... I just..." she tried so hard to speak, but the more she tried the more her despair and rage began to threaten to spill out in a hurricane of fury, so all she could do was clench her jaw and grab hold of her own arm to keep from losing control.

Seeing the depressing state everyone was in (Jamie peeked at the Pepakumas and saw that they too, held the same anguish Gumball's mom had, though they looked less dangerous.), it all began to sink in and Jamie found it all very hard to believe. Having been held back several times in middle school, she knew what it was like to watch people she knew move on and disappear from her life, but this was not like any of those times. She may have never liked Gumball or Teri that much or hardly knew them, but being kidnapped? Sure that sounded like something she would do, but she'd let them go when she was done having fun with them and she sure felt sorry for the poor sap who thought they could do it permanently.

Spinning on her heel, Jamie began stomping towards what she believed to be an exit located to her right and wore her game face while Carrie called out to her from behind,

"And where do you think you're going?" She questioned, shooting the lion-tailed hothead a suspicious look.

Spinning around with her meaty hands balled up, she shouted back in that raspy voice of hers while shaking a fist,

"Where do you think, grandma edge lord? I'm gonna go find the people responsible for this and knock some teeth out before forcing them to tell me where those two dweebs are! If you guys wanna sit there and mope, that's fine by me, but no one picks on my classmates except Tina and I!" She boldly declared, largely because she wanted to do something dangerous and inspire Tina to start acting like herself again.

Hearing this, Anais lifted her head away from Darwin's and called out to her friend,

"You can't leave, Jamie!" She warned.

Confused, Jamie simply stared at her and folded her arms across her chest,

"And why can't I?" She asked back.

"Because there's a magic barrier keeping us locked in here." This came from Rob, who had been listening in on their conversation.

Turning to the brown haired cyclops, she cocked her head to the side and before the tiny bully could demand clarification, Rob simply walked up to the wall he was pacing by and a gave it good rap of the knuckles, causing a shimmering red field to manifest on the surface before rapidly fading from sight. There was a thin space just above the floor where the barrier stopped, but it was only a few centimeters thick. Otherwise, the room was completely enclosed in this energy field and there was no way of breaking it either.

Placing his hands in his pockets, the former void dweller's head hung low and he kicked a few loose rocks away,

"They took my weapons away and Carrie can't teleport or phase through it. I suspect they brought us here for an interrogation, but I doubt there's much about us they could learn from." He regretfully explained, though he was lying about that last bit.

With her frustration already maxing out, Jamie threw her hands up and growled,

"Ugh! Just who are these guys and why are they doing this?" She shouted.

"I'm glad you asked." Came a voice from behind.

Jamie, as well as the others, turned in the direction of the voice and found two figures marching down the hall. One Jamie recognized as Bobert, though it was abundantly clear that he was not in control and the other that came the kids recognized as Remus Satyrn, the bowl headed, telepathic NEA soldier with red scales and a penchant for being defensive, that is with his magic shields. The tension in the air began to increase rapidly and everyone present could feel it.

The first to start asking questions was Yui Pepakuma, who rushed past the others along with her husband and got right up close to the possessed Bobert,

"Who are you bastards and where is Teri?!" She demanded, raising her voice to dangerous levels.

"If you're holding her for ransom then we'll give you anything, just don't hurt her!" Fukijima begged, his eyes wrought with worry as he held out his hands as a peaceful gesture.

Nicole was beyond fed up though and brushed past the two with a dead serious expression marking her middle aged features,

"Give me back my son right now and pay for all the damage you caused us!" She ordered and if weren't for the barrier that separated them, she would've grabbed the little robot by the neck, or at least where his head connected, to throttle him.

Having already sensed their fear and desperation, the mysterious figure raised a clamp hand and speaking up in a voice that did not belong to Bobert,

"I do apologize for the distress we've caused you and for having to meet like this." He stated apologetically before placing the raised pincer on his chest, above where his heart would theoretically be,

"I am Iris, head administrator of the Nephilim Expulsion Administration or NEA for short, and I am here to inform you that your children, Gumball Watterson and Teri Pepakuma, have been selected by Central Twelve to serve in the Grand Army of Earth." He stated after introducing himself.

While this wasn't news to Nicole, Darwin, Carrie or Rob, Teri's parents were stricken with horror, while Anais and Jamie's eyes widened in shock as their jaws dropped.

Rolling his eye, Rob stepped forward and raised a finger in accusation towards Iris,

"Yeah, "selected" my butt, your men straight up kidnapped two of our own!" He spat, narrowing his eye at him.

"If you wanted our help, you could've just asked in the first place, jerk wad!" Carrie snapped.

To her surprise, she could sense that Iris was a spirit himself, but far older, ancient even, and felt a tremendous power emanating from him, a power that scared her.

Nicole briefly turned her head away to look at her and Carrie was introduced to a pair of eyes that could burn holes through solid steel,

"None of you should be making decisions like that, heck, none of you should be involved in any of this in the first place!" She scolded, giving her other children the same dreaded stare before concentrating on the NEA leader again,

"And you! I want to know exactly what's going on here and how this involves my son?" She questioned.

"And what did you guys do with Ocho and Hector too?" Darwin threw in, also wandering about the whereabouts and conditions of his fellow classmates.

Having patiently waited through their questions, Iris made a sound that sounded eerily similar to a person taking a deep breath before lowering his head for a moment,

"In all honesty, I never agreed with C12's decision to begin mass conscriptions of the spiritually gifted, but tough times and the data we've uncovered in the past few years have made the council very desperate." He began, sounding genuinely guilty and stressed, like he had this conversation before,

"Five years ago, on the fifth of September, the city of Jerusalem, came under attack by an enemy the citizens couldn't see nor perceive. Over the span of three days 56 lives were lost along with 16 Israeli soldiers before the Supernatural Commission was called into action and when we came to their aid, we discovered the enemy force to be of five units called "Nephilim", the ancient giants of old that nearly destroyed the world 6,000 years ago. After a battle that lasted twelve minutes with three confirmed enemy kills, the leader of the scouting unit, General Gorothim, announced that the Babyloth Republic had declared a state of war on the people of Earth and that we'll all be dead before a decade passed."

"For two years, the Supernatural Commission fought them whenever and wherever they appeared and we eventually sent a scouting force of twelve shapeshifters into the enemy's homeland to gather intel on their forces. Of the twelve sent, only two returned and brought with them terrible news. The enemy we were facing wielded an invasion force of 100 million units with an extra 300 million in reserve and terrifying weapons we knew not of." He explained in a grim tone.

There was a shared gasp amongst the eleven occupants of the barrier and fear quickly spread amongst them.

" _400 million!_ " Carrie gasped.

"That… that can't be right! Just one of those things gives us enough trouble and you're saying that our enemies wield that kind of power?" Rob remarked, fear and dread carried heavily in his tone.

"Is there anything we have that can stop them? If they're that powerful then why haven't they invaded yet?" Anais questioned, knowing full well an army of that magnitude had enough strength to steamroll any opposing nation.

Shaking his head, Iris sighed once more and lifted his head to look them in the eyes,

"It was for this reason the NEA was formed and the secret order to begin recruitment of capable individuals was passed. As of now, we still lack sufficient numbers to repel an invasion of that magnitude, but we do know the reason why they are hesitant is because they fear Fjel and the other two divine regents. If we're lucky, the war will prove too costly and the Babyloth Republic will cease further military action." He replied optimistically, but was quickly replaced with doubt as his arms placed themselves behind his back,

"That is, if they aren't planning anything that would otherwise surpass these concerns of theirs. I pray that won't be the case..." he trailed off after remembering recent reports of greater aggressive attacks being carried out by the enemy and knowing that they're getting bolder.

After mentioning the three divine regents, Yui recalled some tales her mother told her about three powerful servants hand selected by the heavenly sovereign that ruled the cosmos to watch and protect those who peacefully dwelled on the Earth. They were each given a realm to govern, with the giant receiving dominion over the land, a serpent given rein over the seas, and a mighty dragon who ruled the air. The myth wasn't very well known and different religions had their own take on who ruled the heavens and the Earth, but hearing this slightly piqued her interest.

Fukijima on the other hand, cared not for the situation of the world or strange creatures, only in his child's safety and again demanded to know more about their missing child,

"And what happens if they do decide to attack in full force? Are you going to send Teri out to fight them? To die for you monsters?" The rectangular husband of Yui began to lose it as he already guessed what the next few words out of the possessed machine's mouth were going to be.

Keeping his hands out of sight, Iris continued to stare ahead as though looking straight through him and spoke as though he were reciting a passage,

"We all must do what is required of us to protect this world and its people. Teri will be fighting among millions of brave individuals and mind you, if the invasion does happen, then all of you will be swept up along with every innocent soul that happens to be in the way. As protectors we are giving you and your-!"

"YOU BASTARD!" Fukijima shouted, unable to stop his rage from boiling over.

Yui called out for him to stop, but the older paper bear charged forward, his drawn on shirt and tie suddenly shifting and sliding onto his paws, coating them with dripping ink as his fingers folded themselves into claws with sharp edges. He slid beneath the barrier with ease and with a thunderous roar erupting from his throat, he set his hateful gaze upon Iris before slashing away at his eye with his claws, hoping to blind him with his ink. Despite being caught off guard, Iris was easily able to avoid the initial flurry of strikes by taking a few steps back and behind him Remus stepped forward to offer assistance.

His superior officer denied his support by delivering an order straight to the telepath,

"Stand your ground, corporal! Concentrate on the barrier and leave him to me!" He snapped.

The soldier obeyed without protest and kept his focus on maintaining the barrier's integrity while Iris continued to deal with Fukijima's attacks. The seven trapped behind the invisible wall watched in stunned silence as the paper bear continued to slash away at the little robot, but his rapid strikes failed to connect with his adversary as he was simply too swift and difficult to hit. Most concerned of all of them was Yui, who knew what her husband had been trying to put behind him all these years and was tearing up at the sight of him in this state.

Fully confident in his capabilities, Iris was as slick as running water and continued to move in ways his new body shouldn't have, especially in such a confining space such as this hallway,

"So this is the power of the famous Ikari bloodline!" He exclaimed with excitement as a blackened hand came within inches of his optics,

"For generations the Ikari clan had served the mighty emperors of Japan as skilled assassins, possessing an unusual magic power that granted them complete control over the ink that covered their bodies and converted it into a lethal poison. Your late grandfather fought for the Japanese Empire of the Rising Moon during world war 2, correct?" He asked casually.

Fukijima lunged forward again, aiming low with the hopes of catching him before he could duck away, but was deflected by a single sideways swipe from the mysterious entity,

"I see you've done your homework!" He breathed, smirking a little,

"My grandfather died during the war and after it ended, my father sought to abandon that path completely. In order to honor my father's decision, I moved to America to become a doctor..." he set his sights on Remus before lunging straight at him with both claws extended, hoping that by injuring him, he'll set the others free,

"...and I won't let you drag my daughter into the life my father protected us from!" He declared.

He was a mere two feet away from his target when he felt Iris's claws clamp around his neck before pulling him back and sending him crashing face first into the dirty floor of the warehouse. Seizing both hands with his other manipulator, Iris uttered an incantation and two glowing blue rings formed around his wrists, acting as handcuffs. The male paper puppet struggled to free himself, but it was in vain and seconds later, he was encapsulated within a quantum lift field projected by the Bobert unit before being sent back through the barrier where he was dropped beside his awaiting wife.

While the others quickly gathered around to comfort him, Iris continued to inform them on the current situation and went about as though nothing happened,

"Unfortunately, we lost contact with Jormungandr squad shortly after dispatching them to apprehend the son of Jotenheim, so we may have to deploy a regiment in order to guarantee this town's protection and we'll also provide training to those who are spiritually gifted in order to aid in the city's defense." He then turned to Nicole and her children before extending a claw out in front of him,

"I do come with a proposal for the Watterson's and the Pepakumas. You are free to join us at Jeruzalem, you'll be provided suitable shelter there and the ability to see Gumball and Teri whenever they're not on missions. You'll have plenty of opportunities to find work and you'll be staying in one of the most secretive, well secured establishments developed by the UN's security administration. You'll be able to live together as a family!" He promised, showing no signs of secrecy.

Nicole did not take his proposal and only regarded the NEA's head administrator with scorn as she hissed at him,

"I already gave you people my answer: we're not leaving everything behind and I will not forsake one or any of my family member's safety for the promise of protection!" She stated in defiance before standing up and steadily making her way over until she was inches away from the magic barrier,

"I will get my son back and I assure you that once I have to fight every last one of you, you'll see that the Nephilim will be the least of your concerns!" She vowed, giving him the most frightening, bloodthirsty, violent glare anyone less than a god would be unfortunate enough to stare down.

There wasn't a response from the paper folk and Iris was still for a moment before shaking his head once again,

"Then I'm afraid there is nothing left to discuss." He answered remorsefully before spinning about face and heading down the darkened hallway,

"I'll be sure to send you my number tonight once I finish visiting the other citizens in this Bobert unit's memory banks who know of the truth and to answer your question Darwin, the spider is in the next room over with lieutenant Braunwhen. We're keeping him separate for his own safety because he regained consciousness early and acted out aggressively." He explained, still walking away.

This left a few concerned while Anais stood up to and called out after him,

"Once you leave, we'll expose all of you for your violations of humanoid rights, the public outcry will be tremendous and you'll have to answer for your transgressions!" The tiny bunny loudly proclaimed.

Showing no signs of concern, frustration or even slowing down for that matter, he simply answered back with a warning of his own,

"I would highly advise against such actions, the UN is closely monitoring the media and if it detects any mention of our activities then it will be blocked right away before a fire team is sent straight to the traitor's residence. You'll be apprehended within six hours of posting your report and will spend the rest of your lives in prison along with your family. Do make the right decision and try not to further complicate the issue, for your sake and your family's."

And with that he was gone.

After such a serious and intimidating gesture given by the spirit, no one said anything, just let the hopelessness of their new reality sink in along with all the other news that was force fed to them. For the first time, Jamie was left feeling scared and helpless, just like all her victims and even as everyone around her began to move at the commands of Remus, time seemed to stand still while her vision tunneled. It felt as though her entire world was falling apart and her simple reality that she felt was in her control began to slip further from her grasp.

Waving them along like a shepherd with his flock, the bowl headed barrier master barked out orders to the two families as well as the individuals present and kept his single eye on everyone that passed by,

"Come on everyone, I was ordered to escort you home and there are other places I need to be tonight, so let's not cause any trouble now, understood?" He said.

No one said anything and trudged along without resistance, with Jamie herself being the last one to leave.

 _-Elmore Junior High, October 24th, 2013, 12:17 PM-_

The cafeteria was abuzz with people chatting about the recent power outage happening over the business sector of Elmore as well as the mysterious helicopters showing up and supposedly fighting an invisible enemy. None of the students were there obviously, but there were speculations regarding secret military weapons to possible terrorist attacks like the ones in San Francisco nearly a week ago. Sitting at a table by himself, Tobias had already blocked out these numerous discussions happening around him and instead was completely absorbed in his phone, which was playing a video showing a particular human in the middle of a rant.

" _This is outrageous! Not only have we suffered at the hands of the radicals who attacked San Francisco, but multiple human businesses have been destroyed as well! Thousands are unemployed thanks to those animals!"_ Came the aggressive cry of a human dressed in a tuxedo with short, spiky, red hair, blue eyes, and a seemingly permanent scowl on his features.

This human in question was Nero Hamilton, leader of the _Human Front_ , and the video Tobias was viewing was a recent interview between the faction's leader and another human politician, senator Selma Martinez of California, who also happened to have a few family members present during the attacks.

" _I agree. The attacks were cowardly and unprovoked. Law enforcement is doing everything it can to catch those responsible for taking the lives of over four hundred citizens and according to my sources, the nation of Persepolis claims to have nothing to do with the attacks."_ replied the Latin-American senator, feeling sympathetic towards the people of her home state.

Shaking his head, Nero merely scoffed at her response, placing no effort into hiding his disdain for her and the individuals who potentially caused so much damage and mayhem,

" _Whether it was the Persians or some other radical sect, the real problem lies within magic and those who use it. The nature of the attacks has left most investigators baffled because it resembles nothing like conventional warfare: Electric anomalies, spontaneous organ failure among the dead, attackers left unseen and San Francisco is not the only place hit, there have been reports of other places within Western civilization being struck. I think it's quite clear the cause of these incursions is supernatural."_ he stated.

This caused Tobias to raise an eyebrow in interest, though he already detested the man for his ideals regarding Bizarro treatment and had a sneaking suspicion where this was going, so he remained in his seat with his eyes glued to the screen.

Up next, senator Martinez seemed to be in agreement as she was slowly nodding, though a lingering question was present in her eyes,

" _It is hard to deny that the nature of the attacks is anything, but natural. However, if that is the case, then surely the American's Supernatural Commission is already handling it and yet, you seem quite adamant that we take greater action, according to your early meetings with interviewers and US officials. What do you believe is really happening here?"_ she asked, folding her hands in her lap and leaning in a little.

Easing back into his chair with his shoulders still squared and hands clasped tightly together, a hissing sound like air leaving a tire came from his nose as he exhaled deeply,

" _Studies have shown that the non-human populations are far more capable of practicing magic than humans themselves. I suspect some of these magic users are attempting to rid the Western world of human control by targeting our businesses and our people in order to terrorize us into submission. Our population is shrinking all around the globe and as a species, we've always been vulnerable to those creatures who wield power, yet lack the intellect and wisdom to wield such power. As representative to not just the humans in America, but to all of humanity, I advise we take greater measures to restrict the non-humans who pose a great danger not just to us, but to all of society."_ he advised, keeping his blue eyes fixed on the camera.

Tobias scoffed at this and shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose as he groaned in frustration,

"What a load of crap! What about the few humans who are capable of magic or the ones who are an actual threat to our freedom?" he questioned in disgust with no one around to answer his question.

His question was partially answered by the dark skinned senator from his own state, who seemed just as baffled, if not as disgusted as Tobias was, and she immediately retaliated with a few questions of her own,

" _You say that we should restrain the Bizarros who wield magic and power, yet throughout history humanity has proven many times to be just as unworthy of power. During the classic times, humans have led crusades against the monsters populating the wilderness as well as their non-human neighbors, the constant wars with the east, the settlements of America, the first three American civil wars, the world wars and all the civil disputes following all the way up to today, all the products of power abused by multiple human beings throughout history."_ she listed carefully, making sure not to blame all of humanity for past transgressions.

This seemed to cause Nero great discomfort, as he appeared red in the face, his jaw locking up, and his legs uncrossed themselves before doing so again as he looked back once then back at her with slight embarrassment as he wasn't sure how to counter that,

" _But, that doesn't cover the real issue here! Stopping the perpetrators and future evil-doers from committing terrible acts is what we should be focusing on. Magic is growing exponentially, far greater than we ever thought possible and it could be possible we may wind up facing something that none of us are prepared for."_ he quickly countered, hoping to jump off from the previous topic brought up by the senator.

Seemingly unphased by the difficult question asked by the human dominated political faction's leader, Selma shrugged and threw her hands up,

" _You may be right about magic, it's an unpredictable phenomenon that's recently popped up in our society and our understanding of it is limited, but that's why I advise we study it wherever and whenever it appears. The United Nations possesses numerous brilliant minds and researchers and I have full confidence that they can collect as much data as possible to help create better responses to these uncertain variables. My home state is doing it's best to apprehend the ones responsible for the attacks and in meantime, we need to focus on rebuilding the businesses destroyed by-"_

"Hey dude, whatcha watching?" came the raspy voice Banana Joe as it cut through the jock's focus and left him startled.

Jumping in his seat and accidentally dropping his phone as a result, Tobias whipped around to see the talking banana staring at him with his googly eyes,

"Uh, nothing really. Just some more bullcrap from Nero about recent events." he answered.

Upon hearing the name of the red haired human supremacist, Banana Joe's eyebrows knitted themselves together and a crossed expression slowly replaced his happy-go-lucky one. He'd already heard enough of him after getting back from the field trip and after that terrible fiasco, having people like himself getting blamed was like rubbing salt into the open wound. He didn't need to hear anymore from that moron and just mentioning his name was enough to upset him, so Banana Joe told his best friend,

"Don't listen to that garbage! My dad says that people like him are the reason none of us can get along and that listening to those airheads flap their gums is just an easy way to grow more resentful!" he barked, pointing at the phone as though accusing it.

Putting his phone away and sitting up straight, Tobias sighed,

"Yeah, you're right. I don't have any idea why someone so vile could spout off such nonsense. I mean, for crying out loud I was there and whatever was attacking us didn't seem to care whether we were human or not!" he shuddered, still remembering the building he was at collapsing in on itself.

With a small shrug, the yellow jokester took a seat next to his best friend and clasped his stick-like hands together,

"Beats me. My dad says most of the humans are okay with the bizarros, but there's always a few that are gonna be scared of us. Some hate us because they don't understand us and others are worried because they think we're superior to them." he said.

"Aren't we though?" Tobias questioned, not that he thought himself better than their homo-sapien counterparts.

Another small shrug from the animated banana and he pursed his lips,

"Hmm, maybe? I don't like to think of it that way though. I like to think we all have different talents that can help each other out. For example-!" he pulls one of his googly eyes off and sticks it on Tobias's shoulder,

"I can always keep my eye on you, get it!" he laughed.

Laughing along with him, Tobias plucks the eye off his shoulder and hands it back to him,

"That's unbelievably good advice coming from the guy who voted Gumball as leader because he was worried about "the other people" who wanted to invade and cause us harm." he chuckled teasingly.

Sticking his eye back on his head, Banana Joe chuckled nervously while a blush formed on his cheeks and he rubbed the back of his head with unease,

"Yeeaaahhh… that was a bad time in my life. My dad helped me on a history assignment once and when he saw the notes I was taking as well as the sources I was getting them from, he helped clear a few things up for me after a long talk. I really need to spend less time on the internet." he mumbled sheepishly.

"Eh, whatevs man! Let's head outside and go hit on Masami! I could use a good wingman after all, eh?" he remarked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively and nudging him with an elbow.

Having only sat down for less than a minute, Joe was back up again and Tobias was following suit while the class clown was laughing up a storm as another joke came to mind,

"Why don't you get William? He's the best wingman in the world!" he joked, referencing the flying eyeball that made his way across the cafeteria and towards a table full of kids from the eighth grade.

Slapping himself on the forehead and groaning as though in pain, the sporty lad muttered a response out to Banana Joe's quip,

"You said that last time, bud." he complained.

After dumping his cafeteria issued slop into the waste bin, the two boys shuffled on out of the lunch room and made a hasty run towards the exit. While moving down the main hallway Tobias and Banana Joe saw ordinary students walking to and fro, having their normal discussions and going about their everyday business. Frankly it was quite astonishing for the two that things were moving on like normal despite the number of unusual changes that had recently happened.

Turning to his best friend, Banana Joe was curious about something and knew only Tobias could answer his question,

"Hey, Tobias?" He started, giving the rainbow lad's shoulder a quick poke.

"Hm?" He replied, casting a sideways glance.

Seeing that as his cue, the class clown cleared his throat,

"Do you know what's going on with Tina? She hasn't been showing up to school as of late and come to think of it, neither has Ocho and Darwin." He rambled off.

Upon mentioning of his newest best friend, Tobias's lips quickly sank into a frown and he took a sudden interest in his shoes,

"I don't know, man. She's been holed up in her old man's home for weeks now and I've tried contacting her, but she won't respond. I've invited her to play football, grab a bite to eat at her favorite restaurant, terrorize some kindergarteners, catch a movie at the drive-in theater and I even asked her to join me at Masami's birthday party! Nothing works!" He exclaimed, throwing his hands up to the sides,

"As for Ocho and Darwin, I have no clue what they've been doing, although it's kind of weird that all three of them have disappeared at the same time. Heck, it practically happened on the same day Gumball and Teri were transferred overseas to that charter academy!" He then proceeded to grumble beneath his breath, something about Gumball being a lucky dog.

Thinking it over as well, this all did seem very strange to Banana Joe and the fruity boy also noted that all this occurred all around the same time period as the strange events that occurred in downtown Elmore. According to Charles Ferrier, Elmore's mayor, the U.S. military was doing some practice runs and testing out some new equipment that had some serious malfunctions, but promised that there was nothing to worry about. A bit fishy if you were to ask the banana, but that wasn't his main worry.

"Huh? That is strange, but you wanna know what's really strange? My mom's paintings have been really bizarre as of late!" He commented, his arms moving about all over the place and his voice was riddled with anxiety.

Tobias came to an abrupt stop and looked at him in a partially disturbed manner,

"Um, do I wanna know what kind of artist your mom is? Not to be offensive or anything, but you're mom's kind of loopy." He asked rather cautiously, ready to veer off this topic if it became too much for him.

Shaking his body like a humanoid would their head, Banana Joe displayed no signs of hurt or offense to his bud's inquiry,

"Nah, man, I know she's a little bananas, but that's not the main issue here. Actually, wait, that _is_ usually the issue, but not this time. Normally she paints pictures of events that are yet to come and what she's been painting recently has me really worried!" He explained.

This had nabbed Tobias's interest and the fluffy humanoid appeared visually distraught by this,

"What is it, man? Is a meteorite going to strike? Is the sun going to explode? Will the first bizarro ever to be elected U.S. President cause an outrage and spark a devastating civil war? _Will Masami turn me down when I ask her out to her own birthday dance?_ " He was practically shaking the animated fruit by the shoulders as his anxiety climbed to intolerable levels.

After pushing the frantic, multi-colored jock wannabe away and allowing his googly eyes to stop spinning, he shook his head as to dismiss all those questions,

"Um, E.) none of the above, except for that last one, you really need to take a hint bud. No, all her paintings are painted black!" He finally stated.

A long pause was born as Tobias just stared at his friend with a blank expression, like as if he just told a joke he wasn't sure if it was funny or was deserving of a slap,

"So, is that a good thing or a bad thing?" He questioned with a high level of uncertainty in his voice.

Shrugging, the second member of the _Elmore Duck_ 's benchwarmers didn't have a clear answer for him,

"That's the thing, I don't know! It could be something very serious or it could simply be that Mr. Brown is planning an indoor school festival with the lights turned off. Who knows?" He responded.

"What's your mom's take on these paintings?" Tobias asked, placing his chin within the crook of his pointer finger and thumb.

"Eh, I never asked her. She's always either too cryptic or just won't talk about it at all." He explained, having done so before.

This was enough evidence for Tobias to consider the case closed and went back to walking down the hallway,

"Then it's clearly nothing to worry about. Come on, dude, wanna bet I can defy fate and get Masami to go out with me?" He said with that upbeat, arrogant personality of his.

Banana Joe chuckled a little bit, the ordeal of the paintings still fresh on his mind, but was willing to worry about it later if it meant seeing which ridiculous way his friend's plan will inevitably go wrong,

"I'll bet you ten dollars she'll insult you right before slapping you in front of everyone." He wagered.

"Tsch!" Was all he said in return as he swung his arms by his sides like he always did when he was overconfident.

They reached the doors soon after and entered the school courtyard where a large number of students had already gathered for recess related activities. With the exception of a few people, every one of Tobias's classmates was outside and playing. He spotted Anton hanging out by the wall with Idaho and Sarah as they exchanged conspiracy theories, Hector was seated on the school's playground equipment shed with Molly perched on his shoulder, Sussie was on the bench, staring off into space with her mouth agape and Juke was trying to communicate with Bobert.

It didn't take him long to spot Masami and Leslie engaging Carmen and Alan in a conversation of sorts.

With an eager grin stretching from ear to ear, Tobias's eyes practically lit up as he began bouncing up and down,

"Target spotted, dude!" He squealed before taking the banana by the hand and dashing straight towards the group,

"Time to go for the kill!" He declared, sounding much like a hungry beast aiming to snag its prey.

As they closed in on them, Tobias could hear all four members clearly and found that it wasn't a quiet conversation they were having, rather it was a heated debate between the cloud and the cactus. Slowing to a walk, Tobias crept forward with the jokester still in tow and tried to gauge the argument so he could step in as a mediator, possibly score a few sympathy points with either girls for playing in carefully. However, as time dragged on, it became abundantly clear that this wasn't a light subject being discussed and the two sides were locked in a serious row with one another.

"Masami, it's alright if you miss them and feel guilty for not having interacted with them in the way you wanted, but there's no need to dish out blame!" Carmen stated, trying to get the other one to calm down.

Fuming enough to have already darkened into a storm cloud, Masami was not having it and shouted back in respite,

"That's not it! Don't you two understand! Teri's been toying with Gumball's feelings from the start! Doesn't it feel kind of odd that as soon as they're confirmed to be dating, they wind up being shipped off to some fancy academy overseas? She obviously took advantage of his depression and manipulated him into leaving with her so she wouldn't have to be alone in this new place, wherever that may be." She spat.

Standing right behind her as her backup, Leslie let out a huff and folded his leaves in disapproval,

"Yeah, and Gumball never told anyone about it because she probably forced him to keep his mouth shut. She's a clingy, obnoxious, attention seeker is what she is!" The flower boy indicted rather harshly.

This came as quite a shock to both the opposing party and the two newcomers. Ever since Gumball and Teri began hanging out, Leslie seemed all for the two possibly getting together, ecstatic even. How and why he was throwing Teri beneath the bus all of the sudden was a complete mystery to everyone. Even to Tobias, while initially jealous of Gumball for scoring a hot babe like Teri with what seemed like relative ease, he didn't see anything that stood out as bad in their relationship and found it rather pleasant to see those two getting along.

He even appreciated the two of them for helping him make amends with Tina and was surprisingly happy with the friendship they shared.

Seeing two people stomp on what was considered by some a pretty decent relationship felt downright unfair and bitter, petty even. Luckily, both Alan and Carmen were patient people and slow to anger. They tried to get a good grasp on the situation themselves and Alan thought it through both logically and emotionally,

"I find your description of Teri to be somewhat inaccurate, sure she can be a little obsessive with hygiene, but she does it only with everyone's health in mind and she's never shown to be manipulative from what I've witnessed." He replied with that charming level-headed charisma of his.

Following up on his lead, Carmen laid it out for the rich cloud and her sassy flower friend,

"Besides, I think we should be happy that those two were able to find love within one another. To be honest, Teri has always been rather lonely and Gumball's been through a lot himself, having each other for support is a serious benefit for the two. I mean look at what happened to them, Gumball's back to his usual self and even though it's kind of hard to spot, Teri's been really relaxed whenever she's around him." said Alan's prickly girlfriend.

"And while it saddens me that they left without informing us beforehand, the fact that they were accepted to an academy of their choosing to pursue a higher education is something we should be happy for because it means our two friends are getting a better foot hold in life." Alan chimed in.

All good points, but it wasn't enough to wipe the scowl off of Masami's face and she continued to give the two a detestable glare,

"Uh-Huh, yeah, we'll see about that once he realizes just how terrible it really is to be stuck with her." She scoffed before turning and heading towards the school building,

"Come on Leslie, let's head back inside and see if there's anyone else who isn't completely brain dead." She beckoned.

Not even skipping a beat, the potted daisy boy tagged along with her and the two left the playground while Carmen, Alan, Tobias and Banana Joe looked on with shock. Once inside and out of earshot, Leslie spoke to Masami in regards of their plans. It's been two weeks since Gumball and Teri left and this was not looking well for them,

"Any luck on finding out where they went?" Leslie hissed.

Having returned to her colorless state, the floating cloud was calm, but her current progress in tracking the two down was still upsetting,

"I've had my butler working double time in procuring any sources that may lead to their location, but whatever school they went to is really stingy with releasing records in regards to their student's admittance." She sighed.

Allowing his petals to droop and his shoulders to slump, Leslie shared her sigh of defeat,

"What are we going to do when Penny gets back? She's gonna be here this upcoming winter and if Gumball's not here, then there goes our plan to get them back together." He whimpered.

That was starting to feel like a very real possibility and despite her best attempts to keep the news from reaching Penny, she knew it was only a matter of time before she would find out. If she could just find the school they're at, then it was possible she could pull some strings and have Gumball transferred back to Elmore, leaving Teri behind. It was a perfect plan and Masami could feel as though she was close enough to seeing fulfilled.

Right now she needed a better lead and after dwelling on it for a bit, the young Yoshida came up with something,

"Okay, so Darwin's not here anymore either, his little sister's in high school and Carrie's not very cooperative, so I can't get anything out of them, but maybe if I can convince my mom to contact the mayor and find out anything from him." She suggested, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.

Straightening himself out, Leslie snapped his head towards her and wore a hopeful expression,

"You think that will work?" He wondered out loud, feeling as though were too simple.

"Who knows? I would think that of all the people who've documented people leaving Elmore, the people at city hall would know and if that doesn't work, then maybe we should try asking Gumball's mom." she said, her pensive expression showing that she was deep in thought.

With no way of knowing for sure, the only thing Leslie could do for now was simply trust in Masami's resourcefulness and pray that she was able to find something in the upcoming weeks. He really wanted Penny to be happy once she got back and while it seemed as though no one had told her yet about Gumball's absence, there was no doubt the truth will soon be revealed to her. Last time they communicated with one another, Penny seemed to have improved with her attitude, but it was obvious she was still upset about her loved one's situation and Leslie didn't even want to imagine what her reaction would be once she finally learned the truth.

He prayed that would never be the case.

 _-Back out to the school courtyard-_

Molly was never one to let something like lousy weather affect her outlook on any given day and was feeling just as positive as ever, even more so. Sitting close to Hector's head with her nose in a book, she was waiting for Carrie and Jamie to return from their mission and found herself slightly concerned when a considerable amount of time had passed. She even saved a sandwich for them in case they were hungry when they got back and was even willing to cover for them in class if they didn't show up in time.

Flipping the page while humming a little tune, the black sauropod was completely content while Hector was busy watching a family of birds nestled together in a nest made of twigs with a mother bird feeding her young hatchling while Hector wondered where the father could be.

"Hector?"

There was a delayed reaction as the giant continued to watch the birds before he jumped a little and turned his head a bit towards his quiet shoulder companion,

"Oh, sorry Molly. I was lost in thought for a moment there." He mumbled apologetically while scratching the back of his head.

Craning her long neck over to see what he'd been watching, Molly's eyes searched until they landed on the bird's nest and then it came to her,

"Ooh! You like bird watching!" She guessed.

Hector's gaze shifted from her to the animals she was referring to and then back to her again while he sat up a little,

"Sometimes." He answered in a neutral tone, though there was something more to it.

This gave leeway to a certain topic in which the tiny dinosaur was eager to hop into, a feat not hard for anyone to accomplish as she had lots to talk about,

"My grandpa's fishing buddy, Harry Portman, has a special spot in the park where he likes to watch birds! He likes to bring a big set of binoculars and would still for hours just to watch them fly by. Some people have mistaken him for a rock before and there was even a family that tried to use him as a table for their picnic once." She mentioned with a chuckle.

Hearing this, Hector laughed a little and his body shook, causing a mini-earthquake on his shoulder that caused Molly to bounce around a bit. While Molly and Hector appeared pretty much the same as they always did, there had been slight changes in their behaviors and it was more or less due to their time spent together. She still let her mouth run whenever a subject caught her interests, but she tried to keep it short and funny, fearing that she may one day bore him with her extensive blithering. Hector however, was far more talkative than usual, not in public per say, but whenever they met online, there was much he had to say.

"What was your question by the way?" Hector finally asked.

"Questi- Oh, right! Does your mom mind if other people read her magic books?" She asked with caution.

A good question, the colorful giant needed a moment to think about that and he wondered how his mom felt about others learning magic,

"Hm, I'm not so sure. She helped that one-eyed stranger with some spells a while back, but she didn't want to take Gumball and Darwin as apprentices. So you may have to ask her yourself." He stopped and then raised an eyebrow,

"Do you also intend to tell her about that book you "borrowed" two weeks ago?" He was clearly referring to the one magic book she took a while back.

The shy cheerleader seemed to shrink back a little as she adopted a look of shame and regret,

"I-I will, eventually. I've memorized all the potions in there and I have a real knack for making them. I just think that I want to learn more about magic is all." She explained bashfully.

Another chuckle and the ground Molly sat on shook, causing her to feel slightly confused, but Hector was already talking,

"Then you definitely have more of an interest than I ever did!" He jokingly proclaimed,

"Both my mom and my dad are powerful magic wielders, so it was only natural that they tried teaching me a few things in the realm of the magic arts. I never really picked up much from their lessons to be honest, mom tried to get me to read her books and my dad... I'm sure he visited me in my dreams, but I can't remember what we did exactly." He rubbed his chin as his thoughts began to center around his mostly absent father,

"Regardless, studying isn't really my thing and I prefer being active, but I know you have a great talent when it comes to reading, so maybe there is a chance mom will accept you as an apprentice." He said.

Molly's face lit up with a hopeful expression and she beamed at him appreciatively. Feeling more confident, she wondered if it would be a good idea to ask her tonight at the summoning, but was prevented from doing so when a figure jumped out of nowhere and landed right next to her on Hector's shoulder. To her surprise, it was Jamie and Carrie, though the former was in rough shape.

Waving a trunk at them, the blocky sauropod was excited to see them again and approached the two,

"Hi guys!" She greeted them cheerfully.

Beside her, Hector spotted them and waved with the hand opposite,

"Hey." Was all he said before setting his sights on the birds again.

Carrie, still in control of Jamie's body, waved to them both and gave the bangs that covered both eyes a toss,

"And how is our quiet couple doing these days?" She greeted the two with a teasing question.

Hearing the ghostly prankster say that, Molly's face quickly turned red and even Hector seemed to stiffen up,

"Um, uh, t-that's not... uh, HOW DID THE MISSION GO?!" She stammered before practically shouting out the question, though she was still blushing.

The possessed middle schooler's head shot backwards towards the other kids on the school courtyard and was relieved to see that no one heard Molly's little outburst. She glared at the dinosaur, who looked flustered and muttered an apology while gently tapping her her stump-like hands together. Sighing, Carrie got down to it and dug her hands into her pockets,

"You can say it was a smashing success, but Jamie's in need of a healing potion." She said.

" _Am not!"_ An offended Jamie retorted from within her body's dark space.

Carrie ignored her and waited patiently as Molly grabbed her bag before fishing out a glass vial containing a sparkly, pink, transparent liquid to give to the battle damaged kid. Popping the cork, Carrie tilted her head back and downed the magic material which tasted like raspberries. The effects were immediate and all the cuts and bruises covering her body vanished completely, although the headache remained. It was an effective potion, but it had its limitations.

Handing the vial back to her, Carrie made sure that she thanked her before sliding out of Jamie's body.

Feeling better already, the bully stretched her limbs and shook her tiny hands as though she were making sure she could still feel them,

"I still feel pain." She replied spitefully, causing Carrie to shoot her a nasty look, to which she easily shrugged off.

Retrieving the wrapped sandwich she saved in her bag, Molly held it out for Jamie to take and politely thanked her,

"You guys missed lunch today, so I saved this for you as appreciation for keeping us safe from the Nephilim!" She said, flashing Jamie, a small, grateful smile.

Frowning in disgust, Jamie pushed the food away and turned with her back facing towards her before storming off,

"No thanks, I catch my own food, dweeb!" She replied, not sparing Molly's feelings at all before reaching the edge and surveying the playground before spotting what she was looking for,

"HEY, ANTON! I NEED YOU FOR SOMETHING!" She roared before leaping off the giant's shoulder and landing hard on the pavement, cracking it slightly.

"Aaah!" Anton screamed as he was chased back into the school building with a ravenous Jamie in hot pursuit.

As soon as she was gone, Carrie saw Molly pouting and felt a pang of sympathy for the shy girl,

"I'm terribly sorry for her rude behavior. She's been acting really bad ever since Tina shut herself away from everyone." She told her, feeling slightly responsible for the tyrannosaur's downed condition.

Shrugging it off, Elmore's resident quiet girl plopped down on her seat and just stared at her feet,

"It seems as though a lot of people are doing that as of late." She grumbled.

Setting down next to her, the ghost also seemed to take an interest in the living, orange, furry mat that was the ground and propped her head on her hands,

"I know what you mean." She said, her thoughts drifting towards a certain someone that was currently missing from her life.

 _-Flashback-_

 _-Cerith Beach, 3 miles southwest of Elmore, Oct. 12th, 2013, 5:23 AM-_

"What do you mean you're leaving?!" Carrie's shocked reaction echoed across the empty shoreline of Elmore's most popular vacation spot.

Standing at the water's edge, trying to hide the pain that kept threatening to spill onto his features, Darwin was at his lowest now and what he was about to do now terrified him.

But he had to do it, he had to make things right and he summoned Carrie here so that he could tell her,

"I have to. It was my fault Gumball and Teri were taken from us because I didn't have faith in their abilities to keep us safe." He said, his voice already cracking as his eyes brimmed with tears.

Shaking her head and reaching out to grab him by the shoulders, she held on tight as she tried to talk some sense into him,

"Darwin, none of that was your fault! They showed up two days ago and they attacked us! They knew about Gumball and Teri for weeks, so they were going to show up regardless." She said, looking him in the eyes, trying to make sense of what he was feeling,

"You were right to worry about him, about them! I know you were just trying to keep everyone safe and we will! I just talked with your mom, Teri's parents and Mrs. Jotenheim yesterday and she said she's gonna help locate the supplies needed for summoning Malabranche! I can have the ritual ready in twelve days and we'll be able to find out where they are!" She hoped this explanation would be enough to convince him to stay.

With a shake of his head, Darwin gently pushed his girlfriend's hands off his shoulders and took a step back,

"That's not it." He started, taking a deep breath,

"I'm a coward. As soon as you told me what was actually happening, all I could think of was _"why is this happening to us and why is Gumball involved?"_ and then I wanted someone else to take the responsibility." He was shouting now, not at her, but rather at himself and he needed to take another deep breath,

"After the Nephilim showed up and nearly wiped us all out, that feeling grew and when we lost them, I realized what I truly was. I want to be better than that!" He exclaimed, kicking at the sand with his bare foot.

Hearing Darwin reveal himself to her like this, it wasn't surprising that he would think of himself in such a manner, he couldn't even make it through a horror film without crying, but it was still heartbreaking for her to have to hear it from him. She never thought little of him for being a softie, it was one of his major characteristics that she found admirable and she understood how passionate he was when it came to family. She wanted to let him know that it was okay and the ghost found herself drifting closer to him.

Reaching out with both hands to grab both fins and hold them up in between them, she caught his saddened gaze before whispering softly to him,

"You're not though. You still went after him after finding out, stood by his side even when our deaths seemed imminent and even now you're still pushing to overcome your flaws. You don't need to run away, just stay by my side and we'll save them, together." She promised, forming a weak grin on her soft features.

For what felt like the longest two minutes, the walking fish seemed to be riddled with indecision as he continuously looked from her to the sea and back again before his head sunk low while a light groan escaped his pursed lips.

Carrie blinked and saw that there was something more to this,

"What? There's something else driving your decision, is there?" She asked, trying to get him to look at her.

After avoiding her gaze for a minute, the floating specter released his fins and backed up a bit,

"Darwin?" She asked again, further encouraging a response from her boyfriend.

Knowing full well that he couldn't keep this up forever, the fish caved and huffed,

"Last night, I... I don't know, it's really strange!" He remarked, trying to derail the conversation.

However, Carrie was not going to give up so easily and pressed her arms to her sides while her face twisted into a more serious one,

"DARWIN!" She shouted, baring her fangs.

Jumping in fright while raising his flippers protectively over his face, he quickly spat it out before his girlfriend's wrathful gaze could set him ablaze,

"Alright! Alright! I had a dream last night where I met Gumball, except he wasn't Gumball, he was some powerful being called Fjel and he told me to go to the ocean! Please don't yell at me again!" He begged in that squeaky voice of his.

Having no intention of harming a single scale on his head, Carrie quickly settled down and raised an eyebrow in suspicion,

"You met Fjel?" She inquired.

Caught off guard, Darwin was speechless at first, but was more confused when he realized that she knew about him too,

"Wait, you know him too?" He replied, no longer trembling in fear and lowering his guard as a result.

Nodding, Carrie wasted no time explaining herself,

"Not in person. Mrs. Jotenheim told us about him yesterday at the cafe, Fjel is her husband and the reason the Nephilim are attacking Elmore is because they want to capture him. It's also why the NEA were after him too." She said.

"Really? I wonder what makes him so special?" Darwin wondered to himself as he rubbed the top of his head in a puzzling fashion.

He didn't think Hector would be such an important person to a group of hostile invaders, sure he was big, but that was really all Darwin could definitively state about him because there wasn't much else to him.

Carrie had a surprise for him though and she jumped right into it,

"He's far more powerful than you think. He saved my life and crushed two Nephilim at San Francisco." She replied honestly, remembering that moment with mixed emotions.

A look of surprise replaced Darwin's baffled one and he seemed to understand what she told him,

"I didn't know... wow! Two of them?" He uttered in amazement before getting back on track,

"Anyway, he spoke to me last night. He told me to go to the ocean and to follow Scylla's voice, that I will discover my true power when I find her and-!" He explained.

Now it was Carrie's turn to be confused and she threw her hands up in front of her,

"Woah, woah! Who's Scylla and how do you know this will work?" She cut in, wanting to know who this mystery figure was and why Hector's father was instructing him to traverse the ocean on a seemingly dangerous quest to find her.

Being familiar to the supernatural herself, the undead oddity had her reasons to worry, but Darwin seemed fine with it.

In fact, he seemed far more calm than he was minutes earlier,

"I don't know, he was awfully cryptic when he spoke (why is that always the case with ancient wise folk?), but he told me that I will also find out where I came from too." He claimed,

"If this works out, I can probably do more to help you guys out!" He was practically hopping with excitement and his flippers were furiously flapping as though he were trying to fly.

It was hard for her to accept that this was the path he wanted to go on, there was so much that could go wrong and she wanted him to stay here with her,

"Are you... are you sure this is what you want because you don't have to do this. I can get stronger and keep us safe." She said, gently pleading with him.

Sensing her distress, the two-legged fished walked over to her and wrapped his fins around her shoulders, pulling her in for a hug,

"I want to keep you and everyone else safe too." He whispered, letting this be his deciding statement.

Carrie held him close, not wanting to let him go, her eyes starting to water and she sniffled,

"I love you." She whispered.

"I love you too." Darwin responded softly.

The ocean's waves crashed again and again on the sandy shores, creating a rhythmic sound that soothed both of the kids as they enjoyed the final moments in each other's arms and watched as the sun began to rise, marking a new dawn.

Eventually they broke the hug, though it was a very reluctant action and Darwin shared the sadness that was in Carrie's eyes,

"I promise I'll hurry back as soon as I can!" He vowed.

She leaned forward and kissed him gently on the lips before giving him a stern, yet loving look,

"You'd better! I'll look after Elmore in the meantime and if... _when_ we do save your brother and his girlfriend, I'll keep them safe too!" She promised back to him.

Smiling appreciatively, Darwin nodded and wiped the tears gathering in his eyes,

"Thank you... I'll be careful." He said.

"I'll miss you." Carrie replied.

"I'll miss you too." Darwin said.

They shared another kiss, this one longer and more passionate than the first as they leaned into each other. Then as soon as they were finished, Darwin turned to the crashing waves that seemingly beckoned to him and set foot into the cold, dark water. He waded far out until his feet could no longer keep in contact with the sandy banks and he was forced to begin swimming, using his tail to push him forward while his fins guided his movements.

He took one last look behind him, watching as his home, the family he lived with, the life he knew and the girl he loved start to drift away. He waved to Carrie one last time, who tearfully waved back and then he dipped his head below the waves, sinking further into the depths. And just like that, he was gone, leaving his ghostly girlfriend on the beach along with a green pair of shoes.

 _-present-_

The memory of his departure still rang fresh in her mind and even though she had faith in his words, it wasn't enough to keep her from worrying about him. She missed him dearly and so did Nicole and Anais, whom he left them a note explaining everything. Another thing she worried about was how Gumball was going to take the news once they got him back, surely he would be just as upset as she was and after everything he must be going through right now, this would probably be the last he would ever want to hear after getting back.

Still sitting next to Molly with her tail pressed up against her chest while her head rested upon her folded arms, she wondered what Fjel had in store for Darwin and whether or not he'll return as something or _someone_ different. It was terrifying to think about, having someone she cared about so deeply changed so much that neither of them could recognize each other and she lived long enough to see this happen in many living individuals. For ghosts it wasn't quite the same, they lived longer and most seldom changed their ways, like how before she met Darwin all she could ever focus on was misery and pain.

Sometimes she worried if she ever changed at all.

After a few minutes of stewing in her solemn thoughts, Carrie's visible eye set itself on Molly's sandwich and how the girl still seemed upset over Jamie's brash actions,

"Hey, Molly?" She slowly started, getting the dinosaur's attention.

"Huh? Oh, is something wrong, Carrie?" Molly replied questioningly.

Waving her hands in front of her and shaking her head, Carrie dejected the idea,

"No, not at all, but I was just wondering if you were going to eat that sandwich or not?" She wondered, pointing at the object in her grasp.

Swiveling her head until her vision panned on the food she was holding, Molly gasped a little in realization and turned back to Carrie,

"Oh no, not really. I was just saving it in case one of you two wanted it. Do you want it?" She cocked her head to side as she asked.

Flashing her a small smile and lifting herself up, Carrie nodded with great enthusiasm,

"Of course I would!" She exclaimed.

Feeling herself brighten up a little, Molly shared her smile and hopped up to her feet,

"Great! Here you go!" She responded, holding out the sandwich for Carrie to take.

She didn't take it however and just simply stared at the food being offered to her, then back at Molly with a puzzled expression. Remembering that she couldn't eat, the cheerleader blushed in embarrassment and drew her hand back. She felt pretty silly for somehow forgetting that piece of information despite her amazing memory,

"Eh-heh-heh, sorry I forgot. Here..." she paused as she opened her mouth and stretched her arms out in a welcoming gesture.

Seeing her opportunity, Carrie quickly dove into her maw and took her over, devouring the sandwich in a single bite before exiting soon after savoring the taste,

"That was pretty good!" She commented, still smiling.

Having never been possessed before, Molly shook her head before stumbling about in a dizzying manner. Despite having seen Carrie eat, she was surprised to find the after taste of bread, mayo and spinach leaves fresh on her tongue. It was a very odd sensation for the black sauropod and she wasn't sure if she was interested in repeating such an experience.

Having just eaten something, Carrie was feeling slightly better now and decided to head off to go spook some sixth graders before the bell rang,

"See ya Molly! Thanks for all your help and bye Hector!" She said, giving them both a courteous wave.

They bid her farewell before the ghost vanished into thin air and reappeared in the school main hallway. After confronting Carrie about what she heard and saw two weeks ago in Hector's cave, Molly was more than glad to know what was really happening and that she could help them out in her own way. When she heard about what really happened to Gumball and Teri, it inspired her to start learning all she could about magic so that way she could be of better use to the group and hopefully help Elmore survive this crazy mess.

However, if she was going to be helpful then she was going to need to be taught and there was only one person in Elmore who she could turn to.

Sitting back down again and watching the birds with Hector, Molly spoke to her best friend while they enjoyed the scenery,

"So, Hector, would it be alright if I came over to your place sometime in the near future?" She politely asked.

 _-Elmore Dynamics research and development facility, Oct. 24th, 2013, 12:45 PM-_

Pulling into the parking lot, Rob, now wearing a blue company work tee and black pants, took a moment to eye the concrete structure before killing the engine. Scooping up his damaged armor and weapons, the boy dispatched from the vehicle and headed in through the sliding glass doors. Inside the main lobby, a room painted white with sets of comfy couches, chairs and desks lining the walls along with a decorative water fountain at the center of the room. The place was filled with workers, animate clipboards and humanoids wearing uniforms like his, walking two and fro or just stopping to make small talk.

This is where Rob worked for some ten days now and he still couldn't get used to how amazing this place truly was.

Walking up to the main receptionist, he flashed his ID card and the lady granted him permission to enter the facility. Carrying his armor under one arm and reaching into his pocket to grab his phone, the cyclops proceeded straight down the wide hallways, passing even more technicians and engineers as he did. He dialed a number and got in touch with the company's new CEO, hearing a familiar voice on the speaker greet him,

"Good afternoon, Rob." The deep voice spoke.

"Likewise, Iris." He responded.

"I take it your mission was a success?" Iris questioned lightly, though there was a slight hint in his tone that he already knew.

Nodding once before reaching a room marked B-12, Rob slid his keycard through the magnetic slot above the door handle and waited patiently before the display lit up green, causing the automatic locking mechanism to unlatch,

"Affirmative, though I had to take a few detours. I ran into seven police cruisers on the way here and saw three helicopters too. Security's getting real tight around here." He replied after pushing past the door and entering his small, private office.

"I'm afraid that can't be helped, but I would advise that you use that teleportation rune to come in if driving gets too risky." Iris suggested, having complete knowledge on all of Rob's spells.

Setting his gear down on the workbench and taking a seat in his swivel chair, Rob kept the phone pressed against his ear while he booted up his computer,

"Can't. If I show up in a portal, then that would arouse suspicion and besides, I need it to pick up Rachel once school gets out." He answered, tapping his fingers on the desk as he continued to wait.

A snicker was heard on the other end and it immediately dawned upon the cyclops that his boss was making fun of him,

"You'd make an excellent older brother, you know!" He laughed.

The brown haired worker slapped his head hard and the noise was heard by the one listening,

"You know she's three years older than me, right?" He groaned, finding his sense of humor just as deplorable as Gumball's.

"I know, but you fuss about her so much!" He teased with another snicker.

Finally seeing his computer light up, Rob logged in and pulled up several 3-D schematics detailing his battle armor,

"Yeah, you try living with a teenager who now has no after school job, who also has school work and needs to constantly do something before her boredom drives both of us insane! Don't forget that I also have to be on constant alert for Nephilim surprise attacks too!" He snapped while making some adjustments on the armor design,

"By the way, how's convincing Central Twelve to relocate Gumball and Teri working out for you?" He included, his shrill voice dropping to a serious tone.

Nothing but static at first before a heavy breath was taken and Iris's voice returned while carrying a heavy somberness,

"I've been working on that. The problem is, they're still being trained and with preparations being made to repel the Nephilim's invasion of Los Angeles, Central Twelve doesn't deem it appropriate to relocate military assets in the midst of a major engagement. Trust me, I'm doing all I can, but everyone's busy right now." His explanation was genuine and Rob already had a feeling it wasn't going to be that easy.

Placing a hand on his blocky forehead and giving it a good massage, the grey skinned pre-teen could feel his stress starting to slowly build again and his massaging hand clenched into a fist,

"I understand, but remember our deal: I work with you here and you give us back Gumball and Teri while leaving us be!" He reminded him.

There was a steady shuffling noise as though he were nodding and again, Iris replied,

"I am aware of that. Your innovations in electromagnetic propulsion weaponry is truly astonishing, not to mention the magic you've uncovered, and I'd hate to lose you. I'll continue to seek the council's approval and see to it Private Watterson and Private Pepakuma are transferred to Elmore as soon as possible, though I am uncertain I can give them much autonomy." He sounded optimistic, but careful scrutiny showed that much of what he said is doubtful.

Still, there was a shining ray of hope that Rob held onto and the boy held his tongue. He knew from Carrie that there was a plan tonight to locate their missing comrades by contacting Malabranche and that Mrs. Jotenheim was getting involved, a fact he found somewhat surprising seeing as she seemed hesitant to join in on the fight, last time he knew. However, while the plan showed promise of success, there were many uncertainties and after a recent encounter with the NEA's leader, he found another way to get them back.

Though, while this plan of his offered many benefits to himself and the others, the alliance he had forged with an otherwise sketchy organization was an uneasy one.

Once he had finished uploading the new schematics for his improved armor set as well as a new helmet visor, Rob unplugged the hard drive and scooped up the plastic protection gear,

"I'm on my way to the lab, I need to recycle this armor and build something with more flexibility." He stated before heading out the door.

On the phone Iris acknowledged his intentions and replied positively,

"I'll meet you there and might I suggest making a vest with plastic plating that can be swapped out once depleted. Whenever a rune is used on such materials, the surface it is embedded in tends to disintegrate after usage and this is especially the case with defensive spells." He advised.

Looking at the hole that melted through the armored chest piece, Rob noted this issue and figured that wouldn't be such a bad idea,

"Kind of like ceramic armor modern soldiers wear, that makes sense!" He said, picking up his pace.

He continued to meander his way through the facility's winding corridors until he reached the testing grounds where dozens of isolated chambers stood and within each one, scientists were experimenting with developing technologies. This place always amazed him whenever he came back here and he couldn't help, but smile every time he did. For someone who was so interested in tech, this was his dream job and after hanging up the phone his mind began to drift back to the fateful day when Iris contacted him.

 _-Don Luciano's pizzeria, Oct. 12th, 2013, 4:28 PM-_

"Welcome to _Don Luciano's_ , how may I take your order, sir?" Came the energetic voice of Larry Needlemeyer as he spoke to Rob, who was cleverly disguised as a human male who appeared in his sixties dressed in a sharp business suit and with a head that was rapidly balding.

Standing tall and narrowing his vision at the menu posted behind the rock headed clerk, Rob was quick to make up his mind,

"I'd like two New York slices, thank you very much!" He stated, even changing his voice to make it sound gravely and aged.

Nodding once, Larry typed his order in, casting one curious glance to the old man in front of him (perhaps he was curious as to who this sharply-dressed, old business fellow was or was just trying to figure out why such an orderly figure would care to visit such a sloppy, dilapidated establishment.) and was ready to ring up the price, but stopped to ask for one last thing,

"And would like a drink with that, sir?" He raised a curious eyebrow while remaining attentive.

Pursing his lips and glancing up at the ceiling, he pondered getting a soda, but went for a water instead,

"Just a medium sized cup of water, if you will." He replied.

With an affirmative bob of his head, the hardworking individual rang up the price and took the cash Rob handed out.

After catching his forced happy expression, Rob was taken back to a few weeks ago and a frown made itself present on his thin lips as he recalled a particular encounter with the register,

"You know, I think I've seen you before, on TV once." He proclaimed, playing it casual.

Surprised, Larry paused while counting his change and raised his rocky head up towards the stranger,

"Huh? Oh right, yeah, I've starred in a lot of commercials before. I'm surprised you noticed, I usually only get a few seconds and normally I'm just there to stand beside the store owner while he talks. I rarely get interviewed." He said rather sheepishly, clearly not used to being recognized or noticed despite working multiple jobs.

Rob stood still for a moment, feeling his fingers curl a bit as the corners of his lips seem to sag further and a small grunt slipped past them,

"Of course, of course... I remember seeing you in a police interview a few weeks back and heard that you were caught in the middle of some "incident" at a _Joyful Burger_ restaurant a couple streets down the block. Something about an armed assailant?" He questioned through gritted teeth, as he flashed back to the fight with Tartarforas and how he had barely got him out in time.

There was a notable change in Larry's attitude the moment the aforementioned incident was brought up, going first from happy to shocked to downtrodden in moments as it all came back to him,

"Yeah..." he sighed, air hissing through his nostrils,

"That was not too long ago and honestly, I still have no idea what to make of it. First a blackout, then some crazy, one eyed maniac forces everyone out at gunpoint and as I ran, I heard glass shattering behind me. I come back hours later and the whole place is wrecked, like a bunch of animals were set loose or something..." he pauses once he realizes how long he'd been going on when there was work to be done and sighs again,

"I'm sorry, sir, I didn't mean to waste your time. I mean, I'm okay now, no one's hurt and the restaurant's being rebuilt anyway, so there's that. I'll have your order right out, Mr...?" He waited patiently for a response from the masked cyclops.

"I'm glad to see you're doing well, Mr. Needlemeyer, that had to be quite the terrifying experience and the name's Evil." He simply stated, feeling grateful that he was okay.

Handing him his change and entering his name into the system, the fast food worker raised an eyebrow as he read out the name,

"Eh-vil. Huh, okay." He muttered before shrugging and promising that the customer's order would be up soon before courtly waving him to the dining area.

Finding a relatively secluded area to sit, Rob made himself comfortable and took in the atmosphere of the place. Like many Pizza establishments, this one was brightly lit with a colorful interior (though there were a couple rough patches here and there) and the warm, strong smell of roasting dough was pleasant to the senses. He never visited this place as often as he would have liked to, but whenever he did, the discounts you could get from being a frequent customer or from solving the posted trivia questions were fantastic!

However, the bright and cheery nature of this place was not enough to lift his spirits.

It's been two days since their disastrous battle with the Azura squad and he was devastated. He'd spent most of his time locked away in his room, fixing his broken suit while coming out only to feed, perform bodily functions, drop Rachel off at school, patrol for a bit and then drive her to work. Today was Saturday though, so he was only required to drop her off to work and after finally discussing what happened to Teri and Gumball with her during the drive, her dreadful reaction made him want to stop by someplace to think for a bit.

Rubbing his forehead with his hand, Rob kept his gaze down at the table and tried to focus on the positives,

" _At least Carrie and Mrs. Jotenheim have something planned out."_ He thought hopefully after receiving a text from the ghost yesterday describing her meeting with the troll witch, Gumball's mom and Teri's parents _._

He'd planned on visiting Hector's mom yesterday, mainly just to see if Hector was okay and to seek out aid in bringing them back, but it would appear that she was in the dark too. This worried him significantly, if Mrs. Jotenheim needs help from a demon summoned by a ghost to locate their missing members, then surely the NEA is far more clever and resourceful than they thought. As much as he wanted to put his faith in this plan of theirs, he worried something could possibly go wrong or they wouldn't be able to gain the answers they needed and two of Elmore's mightiest defenders would be lost for who knows how long.

He had a plan though and he was pondering the possible outcomes while he awaited his order,

" _It's gonna be a few hours until Rachel's shift ends, I should go to the archive of magic and contact Fjel. Perhaps he'll have a solution and a means of getting them back or he could just give me their coordinates along with a clear picture of where they're being held and I can just teleport to them."_ He mused while lacing his fingers together and using them as a cradle for his chin while leaned forward on the table.

The lone figure remained occupied in his thoughts while the sounds of the restaurant and the various milling customers went about unnoticed. He hadn't told Rachel about Carrie's plan yet, but he was confident that if things worked well with Fjel, then maybe he could assure her that everything will be fine and that he could do something. Maybe he could be the hero for once and save them.

That would be nice.

His thoughts are interrupted by the vibrations his phone set off, indicating a caller, and after stirring a little, Rob checks to see who it is. He figured it must've been Carrie or Rachel calling, but one look at the phone screen brought an abrupt halt to those thoughts. On the display, in clear view, was a logo shaped like a capital "i" with an eye symbol cutting straight through the middle and the cyclops was already familiar with this symbol.

Before he could so much as react, the cellular device surged with red electricity, causing the boy to drop it on the table and jump back in surprise, knocking over his stool in the process,

"What the-!" He paused mid-exclamation when he noticed how time seemed to slow down around him.

No, it didn't slow down, it completely stopped! Everything and everyone was stuck in a frozen animation and an eerie quiet began to fill the air. When he looked outside, he was curious to spot a notable barrier around the restaurant, a wall of broken glass, still held together by some unseen force and time seemed to be going on like normal on the other side.

It didn't take a genius to understand that this was some kind of separate space that froze everything within it (except him of course.) and Rob didn't hesitate to return his attention to the phone that was still cackling with red electricity. Soon, the image flickered several times and from the screen, a shadow sprang upwards, taking the form of a humanoid creature. This being, which now hovered before Rob, matched him in height, but was far more intimidating and spectral in appearance.

The frightening newcomer wore a set of armor that covered his upper torso, but left his arms bare and on his left shoulder, a pauldron resembling a bird's head. There were other avian themed aspects of his appearance, covering the portion where his waist should have been was a military kilt formed from four feathery wings coming together at the front, small black feathers sprouted from his elbows in contrast to his pale skin, his black, spiky hair also resembled a bird's crest in some ways and then there was his beaked white mask which was rather cold looking. From the left eyehole, a single red eye peered out at him and watched the startled individual with an animalistic curiosity.

If it weren't for the logo preceding his entrance, Rob would've assumed this was another random inhabitant of Elmore, most likely from the far outskirts, and the seasoned Nephilim fighter curled his hands into fists while gritting his teeth in anticipation,

"Iris." He hissed, glaring straight into his one eye with his own.

The specter continued to observe him for a brief bit before bringing both hands behind his back and straightening his back,

"Hmm, I'm impressed. Not only are you one talented weapons engineer, but a master of disguise too!" He commented, his voice matching the one that spoke through Rob's two nights prior, but with a bit more charm this time.

Crossing his arms, Rob turned his nose up at him and continued to look unimpressed with his human guise,

"If you came here to win me over with flattery, then you're wasting your time!" He shot back venomously.

Another pause, but this time Iris eyed him in a different way and seemed to take on a serious aura. With an unseen force, Iris pulled a stool out for him to sit on, even though his tail was still connected to the phone, before grabbing the one Rob knocked over and standing it up for him to sit on. This made Rob wonder if what he was looking at was a spirit of sorts, but he wasn't entirely sure.

"Time is the one resource I cannot afford to waste right now, Rob. Now have a seat, there's the matter of your friends that we need to discuss." He responded, gesturing with a single clawed hand towards the awaiting stool.

He had his attention at the mentioning of his friends and the polygonal figure was gripped with shock,

"Wait, what? You're the one who kidnapped them! I'm not discussing anything until you hand over Gumball and Teri!" He snapped, refusing to take a seat.

There was no change in Iris's posture and the avian-esque entity patiently waited for him to sit, but went on after a minute had passed with no change in the boy's position,

"Most of my superiors, Central Twelve that is, are fearful of what's to come and they have every right to be, but I believe now is not the time to be taking from our own people. We need allies, not more enemies and I came here on my own accord to seek out your cooperation." He gestured to the frozen space around them and the raven haired specter gazed up at him a red eye filled with optimism,

"I am head administrator of the NEA, if I can assure Central Twelve that I have a contact within Elmore, they may grant me permission to transfer Private Watterson and Private Pepakuma back to Elmore where they can remain as active sentries." He stated, offering him a positive possibility that Rob simply couldn't ignore.

Now Rob was leaning more towards his side, though there was still some doubt lingering within his mental scape and with a more relaxed expression, he loosened his arms a bit before asking,

"So why come to me of all people? Wouldn't somebody like Anais be a more reasonable approach to gain an ally, I mean how much do you know about me anyway?" His voice cracked a little, but he ignored it.

Iris remained still and studied him once before the avian-esque entity answered,

"If I told you that it's not because of your talents with magic and technology, then I would be lying, but that's not the only reason why I sought you out. I know you've been fighting alongside Gumball and Teri and that you want to protect Elmore. I can help you with that." He offered.

Now Rob finally sat down, willing to listen to whatever this stranger had in mind and started off with a basic question,

"So what do you have in mind?" His masked face allowing him to raise a single eyebrow in suspicion.

Pleased to see his cooperation, Iris wasted know time in getting right to it and with a wave of his hand, produced a holographic image of a company building Rob was somewhat familiar with,

"Recognize this company?" Iris asked.

Rob nodded,

" _Elmore Dynamics_. It's a research and development center for experimental technologies. I've acquired some discarded parts from them in the past and used them to power some of my tools." He explained.

With a wave of his hand, the image faded and Iris clasped his claws together as he discussed his plan,

"With my wealth and resources, I can buy the company and set up a few testing facilities reserved for NEA personnel. If you'd like, I can give you a job there and you can develop better weapons and equipment for yourself. You'll be given fine payment, your own private workplace, plenty of resources to work with and a flexible schedule, seeing as you're still a child. I believe such an offer would be beneficial to you due to your current living arrangements." He stated, casting a knowing glance in his direction.

Hearing all the benefits being listed from Iris himself, the ambitious inventor and fighter found himself in a state of awe. While he knew very little of what happened within the labs of Elmore's highly revered engineering corporation, he knew that their tech and funding was top of the notch and more than exceptional, he even managed to snag a few discarded Lithium type-3 batteries that he modified to provide power for his electronic weapons. There was no way he was eligible for employment in any job sector located within Elmore, but if he managed to land a job there and gained access to only a portion of their resources, he could bolster Elmore's defenses against the Nephilim to a level that was strides ahead of what he was currently capable of.

As good as all this sounded though, he knew very well that things never came without a cost and Rob was suspicious as to what Iris's price tag on such an opportunity would be,

"And what do you get out of it?" He asked, folding his lanky arms across his chest, his business suit and elderly disguise granting him a very powerful visage when he did.

If the armored specter was capable of smiling beneath that mask, then Rob was more than certain he was doing so and it seemed he was expecting this,

"For starters, I gain an ally, but cooperation goes both ways. I give you a job, money, resources, and most importantly, your friends, but in return, all I ask is you share your weapon designs for the sake of the world's defense and the new spells you've acquired, as well as any intel regarding the void, Hector and Fjel." He simply replied, before quickly adding one last thing,

"Oh and constant communication will need to be established, I would prefer to be in the know of all the events surrounding Elmore, to keep from getting caught off guard and to be able to intervene when necessary. Those are my terms and conditions." He said all this with the elegance of a salesman offering a pitch to a client.

Rob's eye widened in surprise and he felt his draw drop as well as a shiver crawling down his spine,

"How did-!"

"How did I know about the void and Fjel as well as Hector's connection with all of it?" Iris interrupted, his voice cool and self-assured,

"I am far older than you think, Rob. I know very well how the void works, what it contains and its effects on people. I was there when Fjel and the other two divine regents were appointed by Jade himself as the new protectors of Earth shortly after the Nephilim fell. I created the original Supernatural Commission and helped monitor the world of magic to keep dangerous individuals from using it to cause harm while also preparing the nations of Earth for the war that was coming."

He paused before producing another hologram, this one showing all the runes Rob used in the battle against Enoch squad and eventually Azura squad and Rob was left utterly baffled at how much he saw,

"I observed the battle through the eyes of Argus and the video cameras mounted on the helicopters I sent. I have met many individuals who've been lost within the void, your corrupted form was easy to recognize and these magic runes you've used do not show up in any of the SC's official records, meaning you've obviously retrieved them from somewhere." He finished drawing his conclusions without having to state the final verdict, for it was obvious the extent of what he knew.

Waving the images away, Iris leaned forward and placed a hand beneath his chin, resting it their while something flashed within his red eye,

"The importance of the void's location and Hector himself is paramount to winning this war, so Elmore's protection is on top of my list of priorities. Accept my offer and I guarantee you that you and your cohorts will have the best chances of surviving." He finished by holding out his hand, waiting for Rob to take it.

So that was it, accept his offer and not only does he get a chance to upgrade his tech, but he'll also be getting their missing comrades back too. That is, if Iris could persuade his superiors to do so and he wasn't so sure if Carrie and the others would be so comfortable knowing that he was working with the same people who attacked them in the first place. With all these facts spinning about in his head it was hard for him to weigh the pros and cons of each decision and Rob felt as though a great weight were being thrusted upon his shoulders.

The objective was to get Gumball back, but the question was should he attempt to follow through with a plan that was already plagued with uncertainties or should he trust the words of someone who had already caused so much trouble, but was willing to offer him so much?

Shaking his head and standing back up, Rob towered over the sitting specter, who eyed him curiously as he gave him his reply,

"You drive a tempting bargain, Iris, and though you provide a convincing argument, I'm afraid I'll need some time to make up my mind." He stated conclusively, placing his hands behind his back as he squared his jaw.

"Worried about your allies and what they would think if they found out you were working with the very people who already took from them?" Iris followed up, as if he saw right through him.

Rob merely stared at the raven haired avian figure, but his steady gaze already gave the sitting individual the answer he needed and with a slow nod of acknowledgement, he stood,

"I wouldn't concern yourself with such matters, should you accept my offer, I'll work under a different alias and remain out of Elmore's affairs unless an intervention is deemed necessary. Take your time to decide, I've already left my number in your list of contacts, but I advise you make your decision soon because after all..." he seems to take on a serious visage causing the very room to darken and his voice to deadpan,

"...there is a war going on and after the attack on Los Angeles, I assure you the Nephilim will continue to spread their destruction across the planet. We're running out of time to prepare for the worst, but it's up to you whether or not the people you care about are safe."

Feeling a lump in his throat, Rob audibly gulped and fixed his collar, which felt very tight for some reason. His mind returned to Iris's first warning about the Nephilim's strength and suddenly the weight felt much heavier. He was right, if they were going to stand a chance against Nimrod's army, then they were going to need better preparations along with their two strongest members and maybe some powerful allies too.

The cyclops watched as Iris hovered over the table where his phone lay, ghostly tail still attached to the screen and turned around one last time to face Rob,

"Even as we speak, Gumball and Teri are training hard. They are both very extraordinary and I can see why this strange city has survived so long. If I can transfer them back to Elmore, I am more than certain that all of you will keep Elmore safe." He said with a softer tone this time and Rob detected a bit of admiration in voice, not just at Gumball and Teri, but towards him too.

Once done, the armored entity melted back into a shadow that slithered back into the cellphone and with another burst of red electricity, the world around him resumed. The sounds of the restaurant and the people within seemed deafening in comparison to the unnatural quiet Iris's spell created, but none of it really bothered the disguised pre-teen. He was too fixated on the conversation he had with the NEA's head administrator and pondered his choices.

Not too soon after the exchange that took place beyond the scope of ordinary people, Larry came to his table carrying a tray with his order, greeting the supposed elderly gentleman with a simple call and Rob decided to put his problems aside to enjoy a nice meal.

 _-Present-_

Two days after his meeting with Iris, Rachel quit her job at the gas station and in desperate need of cash to pay the upcoming rent, Rob called Iris to reconsider his offer. Now here he was, ten days later, working a job that he actually enjoyed and with resources the early likes of which he only dreamed of obtaining. So far, the only one who knew about this was Rachel, but she didn't know who was running the place and he intended to let her know once Gumball and Teri had been returned to them.

He hoped that he was making the right choice.

With a single swipe of his keycard, the door to his private workplace swung open with a hiss and before him stood a mostly vacant room with a few crafting tables, several drawers containing tools, a ranged testing area for his weapons that took up more than two thirds of the room and a single helper droid. The droid itself was practically a flying camera, a white, spherical device as big as a basketball, covered in multiple hatches that concealed various manipulators and tools with a single hole that ran from top to bottom containing a spinning rotor that kept the machine airborne. At the center of the floating ball's "face" was a single optical lens that glowed red and bore the logo of Iris.

"Pleased to see that you're alright!" The droid said through a speaker located directly beneath its eye in Iris's voice,

"I trust that you'll be delivering a full report on the battle sometime soon?" He asked in reference to Rob's clash with the Tri-pus.

Placing his armor and weapons on the table, Rob removed the damaged chest piece from the suit itself before disposing it into the recycling bin and making his way to a panel on the wall with his hard-drive in hand,

"I'll type up a report before I leave, Mr. Smithers." He replied, calling him by his new alias.

He wasn't sure if Iris was rolling his eye within Jeruzalem, wherever that may be, but the snarky cyclops liked to imagine he was. With the press of a button, the massive panel flipped over, revealing a 3-D printer and a built-in computer to input commands. Sticking the hard-drive into the socket, Rob uploaded the improved armor design within the device and watched as the printer's mechanical arm hummed to life before positioning itself over the slab to begin the creative process.

While that worked, Rob then turned his attention towards the _Leviathan Book_ and started fiddling with the gauntlet. Behind him, Iris hovered towards another wall panel and from the droid's metallic body, an arm popped out, pressing a button. The panel slid open, revealing a tray full of freshly printed multi-colored blocks with strange symbols on them and Iris brought them over to Rob's table.

The young worker eyed the strange symbols, but continued to tinker away with his handy weapon while the possessed machine explained himself,

"During the Second World War, magic finally saw widespread use amongst the armies of the Triaxial alliance, consisting of the German Holy Light Empire, the Neo Roman Empire, and the Japanese Rising Moon Empire and following their defeat, the usage and study of magic began to grow, with many cases appearing in the sixties."

He gestured towards the symbols in front of him and said,

"Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, magic has risen to all new levels and many different types have been discovered." He sounded very excited to be explaining this and given what Rob had seen him do, it was quite obvious Iris was a master of sorts in the magic arts.

Lifting up his gauntlet for closer inspection, the polygonal being spoke his opinion on the matter,

"Well, I suppose that's a good thing considering what we're going up against is weak against magic, but it does seem rather coincidental." He replied.

Holding a metallic finger up to emphasize the point, Iris shifted himself closer to the boy,

"An astute observation! The Nephilim have indeed launched their attacks as the world's awareness of magic grew, but sadly we still understand merely a teaspoon of what could potentially be out there and has left quite a gap between us and our enemies, who know far more than we do. Which is why I have decided to initiate the first stage of your training!" He announced.

Setting the glove down, Rob twisted his head towards the metallic sphere and wore a look of confusion,

"Training?" He questioned, feeling as though he was already effective as far as combat and magic went.

Moving his spherical body up and down in a nodding motion, Iris again motioned with his manipulators,

"Indeed. In the five years we've fought against the forces of Babyloth, we've tried a number of ways to counter our enemies and while many lives were lost during the conflict, we eventually discovered certain techniques that are most effective against the giants." He then gestures towards the blocks and starts describing the different symbols,

"What we have here are all the known elements rune magic covers: Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Deep Earth, Celestial, Ice, Lightning, and Sound. We'll have you choose one of them and start training so that you'll become more proficient in the usage of one particular element." He stated, knowing there were other forms of magic that were quite effective against the Nephilim like Alchemy, light and dark magic and non-Runic magic too, but this is what Rob most commonly used in battle.

Curious Rob studied the elemental symbols and wondered why he would need to practice only one of them,

"But I've already got tons of runes I can use! Wouldn't limiting myself only to one be less effective in combat?" He asked, feeling as though that were a little obvious.

However, Iris, as self-confident as he always was, answered right away,

"Using different elements is always preferable in combat, especially since the enemy always comes in different shapes and with different abilities. However, while this is good on its own, if a single soldier only uses different spells, they'll gain very little mastery over all of them and will be less powerful than one who has trained with a single type of magic." He said.

He then showed a holographic diagram of a human silhouette surrounded by numerous symbols with thin arrows pointing outwards to each one, while another showed the silhouette standing next to one symbol, the fire elements, with a bigger arrow to show a greater connection. Rob was quick to understand and suddenly it made sense as to why Gumball and Teri were so powerful. They trained every chance they got and while Teri utilized five different runes, she still mastered them well, though one could argue an individual spell paled in comparison to the Moonfire rune Gumball relies heavily on.

Leaning over the tray, Rob began considering his options and weighed the pros and cons of each element carefully, meanwhile Iris was watching over his shoulder,

"You can take your time to evaluate which one compliments your style best, but do keep in mind that you can switch to a different element to master if you feel as though you need to." He whispered.

With that in mind, Rob felt himself relax a bit and he thought more about what he preferred to use. He used a lot of Deep Earth based elements in his earlier battle because of the raw strength each one packed, but simple brute force wasn't something he was particularly well suited for, especially on his own. He needed something that was powerful, yet allowed him to keep fighting at a distance and eventually his eye landed on the yellow block with the Big Dipper constellation inscribed onto it: the Celestial magic.

"What are the capabilities of this one?" He asked, pointing directly at the element that caught his attention.

Iris's glowing red eye studied the symbol for a moment before a small hum passed through his speaker,

"Ah, I believe Celestial magic possesses advanced space oriented abilities. If mastered, one could travel instantaneously to certain areas on a battlefield, utilize cosmic energy for long ranged attacks and can even expand one's view of the world, but do bear in mind that this kind of magic is very unstable and can drain spiritual energy very quickly the more advanced spells you use." He explained while being sure to inform him on its setbacks,

"Very few have mastered this type, but those who do become extraordinarily effective on the battlefield." He quipped.

Sounds like everything Rob needed and while the cons were certainly intimidating, something drew him towards this mystical power. Reaching into his pocket, Rob felt his hand brush against the teleportation rune and his mind drifted back to what he first encountered in the archive magic, a bedroom filled with models of spaceships and star charts. Even after the void claimed his memory, the brown haired child still held onto his fascination with outer space, he was even jealous when he heard about Teri and Gumball and their brief voyage at the edge of the universe and considered it a dream of his to eventually touch the stars.

Call it fate or destiny, but he knew what he wanted the moment he laid eye on that element,

" _Per aspera ad astra._ " He stated.

Iris watched him select the Celestial magic block and from his quarters in Jeruzalem, he smiled at the Latin phrase he used.

 _Through hardship and to the stars._

This boy was gonna be something alright.

 _-Elmore mall parking garage, October 24th, 2013, 5:32 PM-_

"You uploaded the footage into our files, right Anais?" Macey asked as she matched her best friend's rapid pace.

With a single bob of her big head, Anais kept her focus solely on the red van awaiting them in the middle of the parking garage and delivered a basic answer to the Calico girl,

"Of course." She said, voice ripe with determination.

After realizing her mistake in believing that they could trust government officials to handle the Nephilim situation, Anais was determined to do something about it and had been planning something with both Macey and Chimera for some two weeks now.

Reaching the _Awesome Store_ , the little bunny's knuckles rapped the driver side door and from within a pair of eyes appeared,

"Ah! Anais and Macey, such a pleasure to see you two again! I trust that the Spectral-O-meter has been helpful in documenting the Nephilim?" He inquired, hoping they weren't here for a refund.

"It has and we're here for something else too." Anais replied, getting straight to the point.

Relieved and surprised, the _Awesome Store_ owner breathed a sigh of ease and a shadowy hand popped out from the window,

"What can I provide you with?" He questioned, waving his hand around in a circle.

Stepping up to the window, Macey started off by pulling out her cellphone and showing the shadowy figure a video of Elmore's mayor, Charles Ferrier, at a press conference going over the appearance of military helicopters over downtown Elmore two weeks ago.

" _-And I assure you that there is nothing to fear. The U.S. Army was conducting a test with an experimental weapon and there was a slight malfunction. Everything is alright, we have things under control and any damages caused will be properly dealt with. On that note, our local law enforcement is still investigating the strange anomalies and our new security sentinels are still currently undergoing rigorous tests-"_

With a single press of Macey's thumb, the video was paused and the blonde haired, big headed mayor of Elmore's voice was cut off, before placing it back into her pocket. The van's owner/driver stared at the two for a moment before shrugging and raising an eyebrow,

"Yeah, so? I've seen the news plenty of times kid, what's your point here?" He asked with slight disinterest.

Stomping her foot, Anais furrowed her eyebrows and scrunched her face up in anger,

"The _point_ is that mayor Ferrier is clearly working with the NEA and keeping things covered up! My brother and another middle schooler were just kidnapped, my mom and several others were attacked and threatened by the very same individuals who are responsible for all of this! My other brother ran away because he was scared and to make matters worse, the mayor and the police have no idea what they're up against and are chasing _literal_ ghosts here!" The infuriated high schooler stomped her foot again and let out a fearsome growl.

Nodding in agreement, Macey turned to the _Awesome Store_ owner and wore the same determined expression,

"Yeah, so we aim to do something about it and fix our city so that everyone will be safe!" She declared.

Reaching up and rubbing a chin neither kid could see, the magic salesman raised an eyebrow at the two,

"Aren't you two a little too young to be involving yourself in politics?" He pointed out, knowing full well that Anais was five and the bearded one to be at least fifteen, despite her abnormally petite form.

"Yes, yes we are!" Macey answered, putting it rather bluntly.

"Which is why we were wondering if you had something that could alter our appearances and make us appear older and preferably different too. We want to start a political campaign against Ferrier and run him out of office during the upcoming mayoral elections in April!" Anais remarked.

His eyes widen in surprise and a hint of intrigue was present,

"Sounds rather ambitious, but I believe I have just the thing! It'll be a bit, but if you two would like to climb in and have a look around, feel free to do so." He insisted and without further ado, he slipped out of sight before opening the sliding door for them.

Climbing in, both Anais and Macey were greeted with the familiar sight of the shop keeper's cluttered and disorganized, yet fascinating storage. They heard the sound of footsteps making their way upstairs and while the scientifically inclined toddler was unable to wrap her mind around the physics that allowed for such a space to exist within a van, she'd already accepted that there were already forces in this world that were beyond anyone's mental grasp. Such was the case with magic and it made the brilliant young member of the Wattersons reconsider looking into those strange tales from history class that accounted for the unnatural.

Checking out a mysterious vase that held a seemingly inconspicuous umbrella, Macey grabbed it and popped open the umbrella's canopy before immediately being drenched by a rain storm pouring out from _within_ the umbrella,

"Ugh!" She groaned before closing it up and setting it back where she found it.

Anais giggled while her tomboy friend stood there, sopping wet and shot her a cheeky grin,

"Didn't anyone ever tell you that it's bad luck to open an umbrella indoors!" She snickered.

Macey returned her little quip with a glare and the bearded high schooler shook off all the water,

"I thought you didn't believe in superstition!" She retorted.

Shrugging, Anais eyed a pair of leather shoes sitting on a shelf and picked them up,

"I don't, but I never believed my older brother could win a fight against a bigger opponent either." She chuckled, hiding her depression and wishing that he was back.

She wanted both of her siblings back and while she heard from mom that they had a plan to bring Gumball home, there was still Darwin to worry about, plus the NEA too. It's why she felt as though she needed to fix things, expose her brother's kidnappers and make them pay for their crimes. She blamed herself for not seeing this sooner, but she still believed that Gumball, Teri and Rob were not suited for handling this threat on their own and better preparations needed to be made.

Macey knew her friend well and made her way over to console her,

"Hey, don't you worry now. Your mom's gonna get him back and I'm sure Darwin's gonna come back too!" She said reassuringly, even giving her head a friendly rub.

She managed a weak smile before putting the shoes back and searching about the room with her hands on her hips,

"Yeah, but if they succeed, the NEA are gonna come after us again and Darwin may not have a family to return to." She replied, gritting her teeth and running a paw down her scalp, pushing her ears back,

"This is why we have to expose them and let the people know what's happening. That way we can do a better job at looking out for each other and find a way to stop the Nephilim." She stated in a matter of fact tone.

Macey stood still, admiring the pink haired bunny's resolve and was glad to see her taking action,

"Well, if this works out and we manage to secure ourselves a position in the elective campaign, I can tell my dad about the Nephilim too. Both he and my mom know a lot of people within Elmore's monster hunter guild and I'm certain they'll support us too!" She said, having already been led to believe that the Nephilim were no different from the monsters her own folks hunted and was eager to get back at the very monsters that took her uncle's life.

"Exactly, but for now, we'll just have to keep recording the battles that take place here." Anais explained.

Macey hummed in affirmation and the red haired girl turned as though she were searching for something,

"Right. Do you think we can find something here that'll replace Chimera's missing parts?" She asked in general.

While Anais was certain the _Awesome Store_ contained something that could revive the plastic blocks Chimera lost in his skirmish with Bobert, she was very wary of this place's reputation for selling sinister items and tried to keep their list of requirements short when it came to shopping here,

"Um, that's okay, I already figured out what we needed and made an order online, so he should have them replaced in less than a week." She replied, giving the van's cluttered interior one look and shuddering.

Macey's eyes seemed to bulge out of their sockets and her jaw slowly hung open,

"Wait, you can purchase things online?" She gasped in exasperation.

It came back to her that Macey's family didn't own a computer (they were somewhat superstitious folk and worried that one's mind could get corrupted by the internet, so Macey had very limited phone privileges.) and while Anais was more than happy to enlighten her to the wonders of online shopping, such an explanation was put aside when the store's owner returned with a pair of necklaces in hand.

He held them up for the two to see and both saw that each one consisted of a chain from which dangled a half stone colored blue with a glossy sheen to it,

"Right here, I have what you would call a shroud stone. You put the two halves together and you'll be veiled with an illusion that makes people see what you want them to see. The effects can last twelve hours and require the same amount of time to recharge. It's the best one I have and it'll be most useful for your plans." He said before handing each one to the girls standing before him,

"What do you think? You can try it out here if you want, but you can't leave the store with them without paying!" He strictly mentioned.

Looking at one another before deciding to give it a shot, both the bunny and the Calico girl placed the chains around their necks before placing both halves of the stones together. Upon contact, the two rocks made a solid sphere and glowed blue, causing both Anais and Macey to glow as well. Soon, standing before one another, we're no longer two high school students, but instead two middle aged human females wearing full business attire with one having red hair and the other with pink hair.

The two gasped in surprise as they observed each other, completely captivated by this transformation and Anais's hands found their way to her cheeks,

"Oh my Jade, Macey! You look so different!" She exclaimed in surprise.

"You too!" Macey followed, completely awestruck.

Stepping in, the _Awesome Store_ owner cleared his throat and gained their undivided attention,

"Sounds like you two are quite impressed. If you wish to reverse the spell's effects, you need simply place the stones together again and the illusion will fade." He further clarified.

They did just that and with a glow, the facade faded, leaving the two looking like themselves.

With no arguments being made, Macey and Anais were already set on purchasing the stones and turned to the shadowy figure,

"What's your price?" Anais eagerly demanded.

"Twenty five dollars." He said.

"Huh, that's quite a deal." Macey replied feeling rather pleased.

"Each." The store owner added with a scummy tone and a greedy look in his eyes.

Angered by the ridiculous price, Anais exploded and nearly hurled the necklace back at him,

"WHAT?! But it's a set! Why would you have a price set for each o- oh never mind, here!" She grumbled, forking over half the cash she "borrowed" from mom's bank account after already figuring out her PIN number.

Counting the wad of bills, he seemed pleased after seeing it all there and shoved the money in a suitcase before turning to them once more with something else to offer,

"You know, I can locate your brothers, if you wish?" He suggested.

"Let me guess, twenty five for each sibling?" Anais sarcastically responded.

Shaking his shadow cloaked head, the _Awesome Store_ owner required no funds for this service,

"No fee required. Just give me their names and I'll find them with this all seeing orb." He replied, producing a magic glass ball from thin air with a few waves of his hands.

Now Anais's interests were piqued and her doubt was instantly replaced with hope. Was this real? Could he actually find her brothers? If that was the case, then getting Gumball back will be so much easier and at least they'll know how Darwin is doing!

She so desperately wanted to know and without waiting a single moment longer, she accepted,

"Yes, of course! Their names are Gumball Tristopher Watterson and Darwin Raglan Caspian Ahab Poseidon Nicodemius Watterson III." She said, listing off their full names in case she needed to be specific.

Both the driver and Macey were blown away by the second's unusually long name, but got over it quickly as the former began to wave his hands over the orb.

Then he stopped and looked up at Anais with a faint recognition in his eyes,

"Wait, Gumball Watterson? He's your brother?" He asks, utterly dumbstruck.

Anais was used to comments like this considering, both she and her siblings were completely different species and only nodded in response,

"Yep, my mom's a cat and my dad's a bunny, you can obviously see which traits we inherited." She explained for what felt like the millionth time to another stranger and was slightly tired of it, plus anxious because she needed to know where Gumball and Darwin were.

"Hmm, that makes sense. You're trying to capture videos of the Nephilim and a little while ago, a strange fellow named Rob came by along with this rainbow haired girl, both were looking for Gumball and Teri. Said that they were fighting the same evil spirits you guys are after." He recalled, rubbing his chin in thought,

"Such a strange team." He muttered.

Rolling her eyes, Anais felt that was the best way to describe all her eldest brother's relationships and allowed her body to slump forward,

"Ugh, you got that right! I mean, how the heck have they been beating these things for so long? Rob's a madman with too many toys to play with, Teri's a fragile hypochondriac with some impressive origami skills and don't get me started on how Gumball somehow managed to start wielding a scythe without managing to hurt himsel-!" She was about to let out a rant, but stopped when she saw the shopkeeper's head suddenly shoot up in alarm.

"A scythe!?" He suddenly started, his voice coming out as a snarl.

Unsure as to why a single word would set him off like that, both Anais and Macey were quickly consumed by fear and began to back up slowly. The shadow man however, was filled with rage and he stood up quickly, his towering form far more menacing then it was seconds ago. With an intense glare that bore straight through them like a flashlight shining through nylon, his voice bellowed as he demanded more answers,

"Was it silver? With a collapsible handle and folding blade? Three strange symbols etched into its surface? Tell me NOW!" His voice thundered on the last word and the whole van shook, sending multiple items crashing to the floor.

Now the high school duo was completely encompassed with fright and both were fully aware that escape was not an option, they wouldn't make it to the door in time and their feet refused to move. Suddenly, the van's walls seemed to close in all around them and the _Awesome Store_ 's enigmatic owner's eyes glowed like brilliant white stars in the midst of the darkness. Feeling trapped and vulnerable to his gaze, Anais crumpled to her knees and spilled everything she knew,

"Yes, that's exactly what it looks like! Carrie told us it had unusual abilities, but I don't know what it does or what connection it has to Carrie or Gumball. I swear that's all I know!" She pleaded, worried that somehow he will not accept her explanation and will unleash whatever horrifying wrath he had upon them.

But no such wrath came and the dark stranger looked upwards, towards the back door as if focusing on a single point. From his lips he uttered a single name,

"Kassius!"

Suddenly the back doors flew open and before the bunny and her patchy friend could scream in fright, a powerful gust of wind sent the two tumbling backwards and out the back door. They scraped against the pavement as the parking garage interior was suddenly brought to their view and Anais's elbow screamed in pain as the skin was torn after skidding some two feet to a halt. Ignoring the pain, the tiny toddler and teen snapped to their feet just as the doors belonging to the red van slammed shut before the van took off with a screech of its tires.

The _Awesome Store_ and its driver soon disappeared through the access tunnel, leaving behind only the fading roar of the engine and the rancid odor of burnt rubber.

With that nightmarish episode now over with, Anais was glad to come out of it alive and relatively unscathed. She still had her shroud stone and Macey carried with her its other half, so they still had their plan. However, despite the positives, Anais developed a sense of dread for her brother as the mysterious store owner's rage played through her mind over and over again and she realized that Gumball may be in even more danger.

Right next to her, Macey grabbed her by the shoulder and shook her a bit, trying to get her attention,

"What was that about? Who's Kassius?" She asked, her eyes wild with fear.

Anais tried to piece it together, but all she could come up with was that Kassius may have had something to do with the scythe and perhaps had a negative encounter with the _Awesome Store_ owner,

"I-I can't say for sure, but we need to get back home and tell Carrie!" She stammered, her heart still beating like a jackhammer and her mind still surging with her fight or flight instincts.

Without another word being uttered between them, they raced towards the garage's exit, checking the open window to see if they could spot the large vehicle and see where it was headed, but it was already long gone.

 _-Northern mountain range, Oct. 24th, 2013, 7:57 PM-_

Nicole shivered as the cold mountain air seeped in through her jacket, causing her to adjust it in a futile attempt to stay warm and rubbing her numb paws together as well. Behind her, Dr. Yui and Fukijima Pepakuma remained close to one another holding hands and wearing heavy coats to prevent from being blown back down the mountain they spent twenty minutes hiking upwards. It was very dark out, even the night sky was blocked out by the never ending blanket of clouds and even with her exceptional eyesight, she nearly tripped over a root and bumped into several trees on the way up.

Having gotten very little sleep in the past few weeks, Nicole was tired and seeing as her boss was too busy making repairs to the _Rainbow Factory_ she had to stay home until the work was finished. The lack of productivity and the loss of her life's basic structure was slowly driving her mad, but none of that compared to the sadness she still felt. She missed Gumball dearly and after Darwin took off while leaving a note behind explaining that he'll be back someday, she felt as though pieces of her were missing.

Were they okay? Are they both in pain from being separated from their loved ones for so long? Would they ever see each other once again?

So many uneasy questions her mind could not find the answer to and every time her grief reared its ugly head, she could feel it pulling her down.

She turned back to the Pepakumas, both of whom were in the same state as she was and like her, were trying to appear brave despite the pain. Unlike her, who still had one child to take care of, they lost their only one, the center to their universe and Nicole couldn't even imagine how horrified they must be. She prayed that Gumball and Teri were still together and keeping each other strong through this mess and that Darwin was still pulling through, wherever he may be.

" _I hope Carrie and Grendela's plan works..."_ she thought to herself as her mind began to drift.

 _-Siren's Allure, Oct. 11th, 2013, 4:13 PM-_

As far as cafes went, the _Siren's Allure_ was pretty cozy in terms of atmosphere, but then again Nicole had only ever been to one cafe and that was with Yuki during their lunch breaks, so how was she able to judge these kinds of places? Sitting by herself in a lone booth, with a cup of warm coffee in her paws resting on the table, Nicole found it strange to have a whole day practically to herself and watching the customers bustling about in a very calm fashion somehow made everything seem like it was slower than normal. Though it goes without saying that she would've enjoyed this day better if things didn't happen the way they did yesterday and Nicole was still a wreck at this point despite her otherwise pleasant appearance.

After watching everything pass by for a while, Nicole was soon joined by two paper bears, who walked in through the front door and made a beeline straight to her table. Seeing them for the first time since last night, Nicole was shocked to see both of them in a state worse off then she was and felt her heart sank. For starters, while their faces were drawn on, they weren't done well and looked rather sloppy, even Yui's hair was messily scribbled onto her head and Fukijima didn't even bother to draw on a pair of spectacles.

What was more horrid was their expressions, clearly they had been crying for some time and there wasn't a single spark of positivity in their lifeless eyes.

Regardless, Nicole was relieved to see them here and smiled a little at them,

"I'm glad you two could make it." She greeted in a warm soothing tone, but her eyes were also looking a little dull too, which was heavily accented by the bags and the red that tinged them.

The only response from Fukijima was a slight tilt from his head and Yui closed brought her hands up on the table, lacing and unlacing her fingers together in an anxious manner,

"Because we're medical professionals, we're normally booked in advance, but we were able to cancel today after telling our boss that there was a family emergency. You should've seen the way he rolled his eyes because back then Teri would always wind up in the school infirmary and they would call us several times a month, even when she wasn't sick." She tried to laugh, but the sound resembled nothing like it and came out hollow before it melted into another fit of sobs,

"I don't know what she did to get herself caught up in all of this! I just want her back and I want answers too!" She cried, leaning into her husband's shoulder while he pulled her in for a hug and rested his chin on her head, looking down at the table as if wishing something would happen.

Unfortunately, while Nicole had already found out the mystery behind her son's strange behavior and how Teri suddenly became more involved with his life from her kids, it was too late now. After sending the kids off to bed, she called the Pepakumas last night and after a desperate Yui picked up, she told her to meet up at this very cafe with her husband. She wanted to tell them what she learned from her kids last night, but kept this meeting to herself, neither Richard nor her kids knew she was coming here today, especially Richard.

Last night she told him that Gumball was going to another school as part of a student exchange program and though it broke her heart to lie to him, she couldn't risk him panicking and spreading the news of the NEA, possibly getting them all arrested.

Staring down into her cup for a moment, Nicole thought about how rattled she was when she found out and knew it wasn't going to be easy telling them either.

Steeling her nerves, she got started and continued to stare downwards,

"Unfortunately, I already know the truth..." she said, in a low tone that barely registered to the adult paper puppets,

"... the one who visited us last night, the one named Iris, he was right about our kids, they've been caught in the middle of something big and we didn't even notice." Her fingers tightened around the paper cup's edge, causing it to crumple a little.

Startled, Yui's head shot and she slammed her hands on the table, but did nothing to make a commotion,

"Bullshit!" She growled, her eyes fierce and her fingers curling inwards,

"Whoever those monsters are, they're nothing more than a crazy cult of terrorists and I don't know why they're abducting children, but they have to be stopped!" She continued to silently pound the table as she began to shrink back down into her seat and despair took her rage's place.

Fukijima was still left in a bitter state and he shook his flimsy head in denial,

"There is no way our Teri-bear has been fighting some invisible threat this whole time! The only thing she's ever killed is germs and the only reason she's been sneaking off with Gumball is because they were taking care of a baby bird. She even said so herself!" He cried out in disbelief.

Hearing their accusations in defense of their daughter, Nicole came to understand that they were no doubt very protective and tried to keep their child close, which made sense given how frail they were, but given the reality of the situation, they still needed to know,

"I understand your confusion and trust me, I didn't want to believe it the first time I heard it either, but there's too much that adds up. You two have been hearing it all over the news right? The random power outages, the mysterious acts of destruction plaguing the city like the southern bridge explosion and the devastation at the airport and all the panic it's causing. It's because our home is under constant attack by an unseen force and our kids have been dealing with it as well as another person too." She sounded surprised, even as she explained it and before the two listeners could push this off as mere nonsense, Nicole continued,

"Iris said this had all started five years ago, during the September attacks in Jerusalem, so I did a little digging of my own and found that it all checks out. From 2008 to the present, there have been similar incidents occurring all over the globe and our governments have been covering it up with fabricated explanations. If you really look into it, you'll see that most of them don't actually make sense and I've fought one of the NEA's members last night. The power and skill they possess is clearly meant for something far deadlier." She concluded, still feeling the pain from her brief skirmish with Hei and realizing how outmatched she was.

Despite the evidence that was being told, both the circular bear and the rectangular bear remained skeptical,

"But that still doesn't add up. If these "Nephilim" are so deadly, then how are two kids able to beat them?" Yui questioned.

"Magic, of course."

The three parents turned, the realization that their conversation was in public and in clear earshot of those around filling them with dread. Six eyes found their way to a rather hideous troll carrying a wooden staff and wearing a purple dress, golden bangles, white/grey hair all tied up in a bun, and green wizened face upon which a pair of mismatching blue eyes sat as well as a bulbous pink nose and a single tusk protruding from the corner of her lip. She was short too, only half the height of Nicole and it didn't take long for Nicole to realize this was Hector's mother, the troll witch named Mrs. Jotenheim.

Before anyone could say something, the little lady hobbled her way over before taking a seat next to the female cat, not even bothering to introduce herself and started talking,

"The Nephilim are weak to magic and after watching Gumball and Teri for some time, they've seemed to become quite skilled at using it." She grunted, her raspy voice cutting through the air like a jagged knife.

Shocked to see this stranger show up out of nowhere and talking about the Nephilim, magic and also the kids, both the doctors had no idea what to think.

So Yui was the first to ask,

"Um, I'm sorry, but who are you exactly?" She was highly suspicious.

"And what do you mean you've been watching our kids? Are you some kind of stalker?" Fukijima asked, sharing his wife's skepticism and feeling awfully concerned.

Placing a few coffee beans she swiped on the table, Mrs. Jotenheim seemed hardly offended by the paper man's accusation and started to arrange the beans in a particular pattern,

"Name's Grendela Jotenheim and for the record, I've only watched them whenever certain visitors would show up to start causing trouble. Anything they do outside of fighting is honestly just boring and not worth my time." She replied in a casual manner, as though she were discussing a television series she held only mild interest for.

Watching her closely, Nicole was amazed that she already knew so much and started forming more questions in her head,

"You're Hector's mom, right? You're a witch that can cast spells and makes potions and more hocus-pocus, can you bring my son back?" She desperately pleaded, already willing to go whatever lengths to save Gumball, even if it meant trusting a mysterious witch.

"Hector? You mean that hairy giant that goes to the same school as Teri?" Fukijima asked abruptly, having only seen him while driving through town every now and then.

"Now that you mention it, I've never seen him admitted to the hospital and there's no records on him whatsoever?" Yui chimed in, though there was a bit of uncertainty because she'd never checked all the hospital files.

Growing impatient, the tiny troll slammed her staff into the floor and the sharp crack it made was enough to get the adults' attention,

"Number one: I'm a cleaning lady, not a witch, but I am a practitioner of magic. Number two: Yes, my son is enrolled in Elmore Junior High and finally, no Hector doesn't have any official medical records because if he did, then people like the ones who took your kids would've shown up earlier to take mine." She simmered down after giving them quite an earful and got to the point,

"So last night, my home was visited by some very rambunctious ruffians looking for Hector, so I _gently_ sent them off to their main headquarters in DC with a note and suffice to say, I'm sure we're never going to have to deal with those hooligans ever again." She said, cracking a twisted grin while the jaws of the adults surrounding her dropped in unison and she carried on,

"Before I sent them packing, I heard one of the soldiers mention something about the capturing of two particular children and after checking my glass ball, my worst fears were confirmed so I decided to come pay you guys a visit."

Surprised at this revelation, both the Pepakuma parents and Watterson met each other's concerned gaze before turning back to the haggardly spell caster,

"But why would the NEA be after your son as well?" Nicole asked, despite having a suspicious feeling that there was already more to this woman's family than she wanted to know.

Placing a pair of beady eyes on the blue cat's face, Grendela cocked a small smile and chuckled a little,

"I'm glad you asked, but there's a long story behind this and we're gonna need some privacy." She proclaimed.

Before anyone presently at the table could offer to move elsewhere, the mother of Hector slammed her staff once more to the ground and from the top of the wooden pole, pollen began to fly all about the restaurant. All around them, people noticed the strange spectacle, but before anyone could really say something or react, the pollen inhaled caused them to quickly drift in a deep slumber and everyone, customers and staff was soon sprawled about the place, snoring away. Nicole, Yui and Fukijima were utterly amazed, yet stunned by this strange spell and with another tap of her staff, the lights went out, the doors locked themselves, and the blinds were drawn, making the cafe appear closed to outsiders.

Once everything was quiet, Grendela set her wooden shaft aside and placed both hands above the circle of coffee beans,

"Temporary sleeping spell. They'll be awake in half an hour and won't remember a thing, though I hope no one in here is a bed wetter." She chuckled mischievously after answering the question already written on their faces.

Under her breath, she chanted a spell and the beans that sat in front of her began to shake, moving about on their own. Soon, the paper bears and the cat lady bore witness to the amazing sight as the seeds began to sprout green, vine like tendrils that wove themselves together before rising upwards and growing into a small tree with a wreath of branches and leaves forming a circle at the top. Once the plant was finished growing, the troll witch pulled her hands away and took a deep breath before exhaling.

"For over a billion years, there was a war being waged over this planet between the imprisoned king of Tartarus, Mephistopheles, and the divine ruler of the seven heavens, the Jade Emperor." She started.

Within the circle of leaves, an image formed, displaying two humanoid figures: one clad in green royal garb with a pair of antlers and a halo behind his head and another cloaked in shadow with many arms and faces. The one in green was situated above the one in shadow, who was inverted in standing position and in between them both was the Earth. The half that fell beneath the Jade Emperor was green and lively while the half that fell below Mephistopheles was desolate and lifeless.

Despite the amazing display, all everyone else more or less heard this story before, especially Nicole who attended Elmore's Jadite church when she was little, but no one dared to interrupt the troll witch while she spoke,

"For countless eons, the Jade Emperor has driven the king of rot and his demons back to the abyss, but whenever he would re-emerge, mass extinction would follow and the ruler of the seven heavens needed someone to look after his precious garden world. So he formed the moon and with it, the first Nephilim."

The image shifted to show the hand of the divine creator hovering over the newly formed moon and on its surface the Nephilim stood, fiery spirits with antlers and wispy wings on their back that seemed massive on the moon's surface. Another thing that stood out was the fact that the moon was also covered in forests, rivers, and oceans. A curious detail to note for sure.

"Fiery spirits they were, whose power they received from the sun and with their newly appointed king leading the charge, they descended upon the Earth. To fight Mephistopheles and his demons, they would inhabit the bodies of Earth's creatures, for as spirits their powers were too great for this world and became mighty beasts capable of crushing the forces of Tartarus. For a million years, the Nephilim reigned over the Earth and Mephistopheles's rise was halted." She said.

The image that followed showed the Nephilim on the Earth, in the forms of terrifying monsters that crushed and burned the shadowy spirits that dwelled within the forests.

Then the story began to take its dark turn and Grendela's tone shifted to one of grimness,

"Everything was as Jade desired it to be, but his enemy was clever and while his forces remained at bay, his shadow spread itself to the Nephilim's king. For millennia, the Nephilim have been confined to their tiny kingdom on the moon, if they stayed on Earth for too long then they would become more like the simple creatures they possessed and if they ventured too far out into the heavens, their lack of sunlight would cause them to freeze to death. While the Nephilim's king was happy to serve the heavenly sovereign, he longed to touch the stars and after patiently waiting for a million years, Mephistopheles made his move."

With the next image came the burning form of a lone Nephilim spirit standing on the moon, looking longingly at the stars and behind him, shadowy hands reached out as if to claim the king. Both Nicole and Yui felt a shiver travel down their spines while Fukijima curled his trembling hands into fists. The next part everyone knew was coming and the green skinned troll continued the story's darkest chapter,

"Confronted by the voice in his head, the Nephilim king learned of a possible way to escape his meager existence tied to this planet and Mephistopheles taught him how to harness the elements through the use of symbols. Curious to know more, he continued to study while his subjects remained unaware and when the king of the abyss suggested that the animals could be used to help them escape, he turned his attention to the creatures he swore to protect to begin experimenting on. My husband, Fjel was one of those poor creatures." She explained with a hint of sadness.

What came next showed the spirit creating elements through the use of strange symbols while also changing the forms of many creatures into something unlike anything ever perceived by nature.

"However, the other Nephilim stumbled upon the king's experiments and after promising them a new life among the stars along with an empire that rivaled the kingdoms of Heaven, many were convinced and soon began their own tempering with nature."

The pictures began shifting at a faster rate, showing image after image of the curious spirits performing acts that were considered sacrilege, Landscapes were changed from the usage of powerful spells, new species were created while others deemed as failures were wiped out, beasts that were long extinct were brought back from the dead and even the veil between the world of the living and the underworld was torn open allowing more spirits into the world for them to stick into other objects. It was utter chaos and many innocent creatures were harmed because of it. Soon the Jade Emperor was shown overseeing the Earth and its abysmal state.

"It didn't take long for Jade to discover the mess his appointed caretakers had caused and so he confronted the Nephilim king, demanding he stop, but he refused."

The Nephilim king, now possessing a shadowy aura much like Mephistopheles, turned his back on the hand that was being offered to him and in front of the selfish ruler was a small city inhabited by several creatures Nicole, Yui, and Fukijima recognizes as humans,

"He then turned his attention to a new race his kind once experimented on and realized their capacity to learn, to create. With his followers fully drunk on power, they quickly enslaved these creatures known as humans, forcing them to build temples dedicated to their glory and experimenting on them too, creating the race humanity has labeled the bizarros." Grendela narrated.

This city, recognized as Sumer, was filled with idols and statues dedicated to the human's supernatural overlords and in the streets crowds of humans bearing animalistic traits attacked their brethren. This event was covered in the Jadite holy texts as a means to explain how the human race became divided into two separate species, but while Nicole took it as early man trying to rationalize the strange phenomenon, it suddenly made too much sense. For centuries the human race has often hated their inhuman counterparts and with how things were shown here, it was clear why this may have been.

"Jade pleaded with the king many times and when he kept his back turned, the cries of those being harmed as well as the prayers of those still loyal to him was too much for him to bear, so finally he took action against the very children he created."

With the righteous wrath of the divine ruler being brought down upon the Earth and the moon that continued to enslave it, everyone watched as the celestial bodies were engulfed with silver flames that shot from his open palm. The Nephilim's bodies, as mighty as they were, vanished amongst the sea of silver and everything else was miraculously spared. A truly awesome, gruesome sight to behold and it was a wonder if this was done for better or worse.

With a wave of her hand, the image vanished and the tree shriveled up before disintegrating completely, leaving the coffee shop dark once more. After witnessing such a tragic story, the darkness that covered the room carried an eerie tone to it and left the Pepakumas along with Nicole feeling uncomfortable. Clasping her hands together, Mrs. Jotenheim smiled once more and leaned back a little in her seat.

She seemed oddly pleased for someone who knew about such terrible things and reached the conclusive chapter of the story being told,

"Now I'm sure you all were led to believe that the Nephilim were killed by the Emperor's hand, but that's sadly not the case and as I had learned from Fjel, they were imprisoned within their own kingdom on the moon, in a space separate from our own called Babyloth. In order to keep the world safe, Jade appointed three powerful guardians known as the divine regents, one to govern each of the three realms of Earth: the sky, the land and the sea. For over 6,000 years, they've kept Mephistopheles sealed away, but his shadow still swells over the land and the children of Earth have become corrupted as well. War, greed, exploitation and pollution, the king of Tartarus has been whispering in our ear for as long as civilization existed and the world is once again placed in danger."

"But Jade always has a plan and when the world of man was to undergo a new era of magic, the Nephilim were to be released from their prison and a new war was to begin. That time is now I'm afraid and your children are a part of it now." She said, looking each and every one of them in the eye as she bore the news.

Shaking her head in disbelief, Yui, having heard everything now still demanded to know what her daughter had to do with this,

"But if war between Earth and the Nephilim was inevitable, why can only a select few see them?" She asked.

Picking up her staff and gently tapping the foreheads of each parent, she spoke softly,

"When the first Nephilim began possessing the humans all those many years ago, they left their mark on all of them, but there was something else they left behind, something they did not foresee. A seed within those they inhabited, it grew and spread throughout the generations and while only a few possess this trait today, it enhanced them spiritually, allowing them to perceive the Nephilim as they exist in between worlds. The greatest miracle was that our ancestors were allowed to thrive and in doing so, they've advanced in ways that have prepared them for the upcoming conflict. All of you carry this trait and when you passed it on to your children, it became stronger."

And so it was said. As unbelievable as it may have sounded, it turns out through thousands of years of development, their ancestors carried a trait completely unknown to the world and possibly to themselves as well, that they inherited before passing on to their children. Gumball, Teri, and maybe Anais too, could see the evil spirits because they themselves were spiritually strong enough to do so. Such was the way of fate and the fact that this strength was targeted by government made it terrifyingly clear how cruel fate could be.

Feeling his rage start to take hold again, Fukijima's clothes started to move again on their own and the ink snaked its way down his arms to his claws again as he shot up from his seat,

"If that's the case then why weren't we chosen instead?! Surely you can't expect children to fight in a war, if anyone it should've been us!" He screamed, steeping ever closer to lashing out with those poisonous claws of his.

Nicole too joined the angry and distraught paper puppet with her own angered stance and glared down upon the witch next to her,

"He's right! I've trained my whole life and have worked hard to keep my family safe, I will not stand by and wait for my son to get killed!" She roared, clenching her fists tight enough to make them crack.

Mrs. Jotenheim remained unshaded by their aggressive advances and didn't even brandish her staff, instead opting to talk it out,

"You wanna keep them safe? Pray to Jade, he's the one who selects his defenders and Fjel is the one who carries out his orders. He can open your eyes to the world unseen, but the reason Teri and Gumball were chosen was because they outshine all of you in terms of spiritual power. Teri is the combination of two powerful lineages, the Ikari clan and the Pepakuma clan and Gumball is... something else entirely." She calmly stated as though it were simple knowledge.

This didn't sit well with either the cat mother and the paper bear father as they seemed poised for an attack. They've spent nearly an entire day suffering at the loss of their loved ones and after finally figuring out why this was all happening, this woman had the audacity to tell them to just _sit and pray_ for strength? To hell with that!

Luckily before they could act out, Yui, the voice of reason interjected after clearing her throat and maintaining focus on her true goal,

"I don't care about who has to fight who, can you help us get them back?" She pleaded, placing her hands together.

Stopping to stare first at the motherly paper puppet and then back at Mrs. Jotenheim, the two backed off while she simply shrugged,

"Of course I will. After all, your daughter and her boyfriend have been doing a pretty good job keeping the Nephilim from coming after my son." She responded with a some morbid chortling.

Nicole's anger flared again and she stepped forward with a fist raised to deck her jaw with,

"Why you little-!" She growled.

"However!" Grendela interrupted, raising a finger in the overprotective feline's direction and stopping her completely,

"I can track them down, but I don't have the means of getting to them and breaking them out of Jeruzalem will be rather difficult if I were to say so myself. Years of working with the SC, I know for a fact that their facilities are well guarded and I can't seem to get a hold of Erebus either, he must be off on another one of his trips. Before I spend the next few weeks trying to track him down, I'm open to suggestions. Do any of you know anyone who's supernatural and perhaps knows a thing or two about infiltrating magically guarded military installations?" She pointed out, wondering if there was a chance to make this easier.

A good question and if the situation weren't so serious, they probably would've laughed it off as some kind of joke. Sitting back down in their seats, Nicole, Yui, and Fukijima all pondered for a few minutes while drawing blanks. To Nicole, who was once led to believe she was capable of handling any conundrum life tossed her way, found herself frustrated and her pointed ears dropped while her tail swished in agitation. She wasn't used to dealing with supernatural stuff and only heard about things like this from Gumball and Darwin when they went on adventures with...

Then it clicked in her head and she suddenly shot up in her seat,

"That's it!" She happily proclaimed, much to the others' surprise before clearing her throat,

"Carrie, Carrie, Carrie, Carrie, Carrie!" She repeatedly called out.

Suddenly, within a flash of light and a pop, the ghostly form of Darwin's girlfriend materialized before their very eyes. Nicole was very proud to have learned this trick from her adopted son and was thankful for it to have worked. The odd thing was though, while Carrie had appeared, she was holding under her nostrils what appeared to be a shoe of some kind and to the mother's shock, it was Darwin's.

Upon witnessing the sudden change of scenery and seeing the odd assortment of people before her, Carrie froze up in embarrassment before dropping the shoe,

"...uhh..." was all she said as her pale, transparent face began to burn red in mortification.

Everyone, including Grendela, just looked at her with expressions that seemed unable to find a point between disgust and morbid fascination and things got awkward real quick.

Then after what felt like the longest forty-five seconds, Nicole finally built up the courage to wave and ask,

"Hey, Carrie, um, mind telling me what you're doing sniffing Darwin's shoe?" She tried to sound polite, but it was very hard not to be disturbed by this.

Not sure how this was possible for a ghost, but Carrie's face became a deeper shade of scarlet as her one visible eye shifted from one face to another, before she was finally able to formulate a sentence, kind of,

"Um, he was, uh, just taking a shower at, um, m-my place a-and-!" She picked up and tossed the shoe across the room where it struck the face of an obese, yellow rodent-like creature in a pink track suit, who was still asleep and sucking his thumb, before the flustered punk-rock chick shouted,

"-JUST FORGET YOU SAW ANYTHING! Now what do you want and why is everyone knocked out?" She questioned after seeing the state of the cafe.

Ignoring that, Nicole stepped forward and gave it to her straight,

"We're trying to figure out how to break Gumball and Teri out of Jeruzalem, but the place is heavily fortified. Is there anything you can do to help us?" She pleaded with her eyes and waited eagerly for her response.

Shaking her head and tossing her bangs a little, the little ghost resumed her cool mask of apathy before replying honestly,

"Unfortunately there's nothing I can do to break them out, but I do know someone who can!" She said.

"Who?" All four in unison asked.

A small smile formed on her thin lips and she crossed her arms,

"A powerful archdemon named Malabranche." She replied.

 _-Present-_

 _-Jotenheim cave, Oct. 24th, 2013, 8:05 PM-_

It was slightly warmer in the Jotenheim's mountain dwelling, but Rachel was still freezing as the cold air blew in through the mouth of the cave and the rainbow lass shivered as a result, hugging herself tightly in order to retain her warmth. She had arrived through Rob's portal along with said magic user and found the cavern to be occupied by three strangers, two of which she knew. Standing around a pile of assorted items that looked like it could've been gathered from a landfill that sat at the center of a ten-pointed star drawn onto the stone floor with red chalk encircled with red wax candles, was Jamie and Carrie, who seemed either really bored or anxious and then there was Mrs. Jotenheim, whom she heard of from Rob himself, but never actually met.

She knew they were here because they were attempting to gain information on the whereabouts of Gumball and Teri, which she hoped would succeed because things were starting to get rather dire and she was worried about them.

"I read on the news that the state of California is in the middle of evacuating Los Angeles because one of their oracles had predicted an earthquake the likes of which will be most devastating to the city and unlike anything the west coast has ever dealt with before." Rachel told Rob after listening to a discussion covering it in Geography class today and thought better of the situation (there was also talk of a massive party being thrown at Masami's mansion and while she didn't quite know her, she was pretty stoked about it.),

"I'm guessing this is really in preparation for the Nephilim's invasion?" She remarked.

Rob nodded, the cold having no effect on him as he just stared with a neutral expression at the candles in front of him and fidgeted with his fingers,

"There's no questioning it. If an attack was coming in the near future, then the evacuations would have to take place right away and it could be a while until everyone's safely relocated." he said before muttering to himself,

"I pray that this isn't the beginning of their invasion or else they'll most likely spread and come here too." he hoped this would not be the case and he wasn't alone in his troubles either, as Rachel also didn't want to lose her home as well as everyone she cared about.

Meanwhile, Jamie eyed the massive pile of items Carrie and Grendela spent a considerable amount of time locating and bringing here before twisting her head towards the class goth while scratching her noggin with perplexity,

"What's all this junk for?" She inquired curiously, amazed by some of the things found within the pile, including a black chain with an eyeball attached to one end, some golden drachma and an idol with many hands.

Going over the chant in her head for the seventieth time now, Carrie stopped and regarded the school bully with a single black eye,

"Tributes for the archdemon of greed and fatigue. Among the six other archdemons and Mephistopheles himself, Malabranche has been around since the very beginning, when Earth and the first living creatures were in their infancy. He knows so much about that were and things that are yet to come, but his knowledge comes at a cost and he requires all his summoners to toil away at finding him certain gifts as tribute." she explained before going over the ritual again in her mind.

Snorting in contempt, the half cow, half troglodyte folded her arms and gave her head a toss in the other direction,

"Sounds like Malabranche is just as high maintenance as that rainbow colored dirt wad Tina's so fond of." She muttered before spitting on the floor.

Seeing the orange haired kid's disgusting act done on her well swept floor, Mrs. Jotenheim growled like a wild animal and proceeded to hobble over with her staff to give the knucklehead a good whack with her staff, but noticed three figures approaching the cave's entrance. It was a very exhausted Nicole and two equally worn out Pepakumas who were also shivering and muttering complaints beneath their breaths. Glad to see them showing up, Mrs. Jotenheim walked straight up to the three with a big, warm, friendly smile (that just looked creepy altogether.) and clasped her hands together before rubbing them in anticipation,

"Glad to see you three could make it tonight. Please join the others around the circle and we can get started." she states invitingly while they obediently walked past without saying anything, although she did score a glare from Nicole as she passed her by and the troll witch knew exactly what that look implied, which meant nothing to her.

Observing the items required for the circle, the people present and then turning to Carrie, Mrs. Jotenheim asked her,

"Do you have the verse memorized, Krueger?" She raised a bushy eyebrow as her beady eyes never strayed from hers.

Nodding once, Carrie sighed and flipped her hair,

"It took me a while to memorize it, but more or less I've got it down or else we might wind up getting warped to another dimension or worse, nothing happens and I'll have to start all over." She explained with a warning.

Both Rob and Rachel shot her a nasty glare and stomped their feet in unison,

"Then get it right the first time!" They both screamed.

After sticking her tongue out at them, the spirit raised her arms up and ordered everyone to do the same. They did and so Carrie began the ritual, closing her eyes before her lips began to move, quietly chanting the long spell. While she did this, the wind began to pick up and Rachel felt something off about the atmosphere.

The only reason she came was because Rob mentioned and since she didn't have a job anymore, she'd always feel guilty if she just lounged about their house, but she was still too stubborn to do the chores. After promising to be supportive of Rob during his ordeal with the Nephilim, she wanted to be by his side more often, especially now with everything that's happened to him two weeks ago. Casting a sideways glance in his direction, the rainbow lass admired how strong he had become, he was here now among comrades trying to save his friends and even if he didn't see himself as close to them, Rachel knew he admired their companionship.

Several minutes went by and Carrie continued to chant, never ceasing the Latin sermon that continuously flowed from her lips. Everyone's arms were getting tired and some were very cold, but they all stood as they were, braving the elements in order to make this work. Soon the wind began to pick up speed and outside the cave, storm clouds began to gather in the skies above.

While the freaky weather caught the attention of those gathered, it failed to grab their attention as the Decastar which began to glow red and the candles around it burned green. Melting like wax, the assortment of acquired materials vanished and from the center of the symbol, a single pillar of blinding light emerged that widened dramatically until it reached the edge of the circle. Carrie's chant was drowned out by a cacophony of shrieks and roars that caused the other seven to cover their ears, now deafened and blinded by the demon's emergence.

Frightened to her core, Rachel screamed and crouched down until she was in a tight ball, her fluffy yellow/magenta hair tossing about in the wind like a fire. Pressing her hands tightly on her head, images of static and a lonely bedroom came to mind. She recognized this and if she wasn't already screaming as loud as her lungs would allow her, she certainly was now.

It seemed as though everyone else was having a similar episode as horrible past images flooded their minds with livid clarity and every soul brought to the whims of Malabranche's effect.

Then the light faded and the sound was replaced by a single booming voice,

"Who dares summon Malabranche, fourth Archdemon of the lord of rot, king of greed and fatigue?" His voice was so powerful, the cave itself shook with every word uttered.

Opening their eyes and slowly turning their heads, a few seconds was needed in order for them to adjust to the darkness before they got their first look at the demon. Once their vision was restored, there was notable confusion sewn into the seven living members as they first saw nothing, but a black shroud of smoke and at first, they believed they had gone blind. However, when it came to everyone's attention that the circle of candles were still lit, it was soon discovered that the black smoke _is_ Malabranche and that his true form wasn't solid.

It left a very mysterious, yet disturbing effect on the motley crew of parents and children.

Being the only one who hadn't been effected by Malabranche's presence, Carrie greeted him in a welcoming manner and bowed,

"It is I, Carrie Krueger and I welcome you to the world of the living, O Malabranche, lord of greed! It is truly an honor to be in your presence!" She said with high praise and reverence while twirling a hand as a subtle indicator for the others to bow as well, which they did and Carrie continued,

"I bring you here so that I may humbly ask your vileness a single question in hopes that you would kindly answer!" She claimed, still bowing out of respect.

The shifting cloud of darkness that sat quietly inside the circle slowly began to change and form a visible body. A living mass of black arms adorned with glittering jewels and golden chains emerged from this smoke, hands and fingers that curled continuously as though trying to grab anything nearby and upon which this disturbing mass sat, two sickly legs that wobbled upon badly scarred/scraped feet that were in serious need of treatment. Both Yui and Fukijima regarded this repugnant creature with disgusted looks while Nicole, Rob, Rachel, Jamie, Grendela and Carrie were more surprised than anything.

With two pairs of hands on Malabranche's "front" forming a mouth and eyes with just their fingers, like weird hand puppets, the demon showed curiosity in Carrie,

"So, a specter seeks knowledge from the mighty Malabranche?" He barked in that thunderous voice of his before laughing up a storm,

"I have walked this Earth for billions of years, during the age of which the Anivas and their king Chakravartin first ruled this land, before our lord Mephistopheles brought about the great schism and throughout the war of the five suns! My existence is one of procurement, as is all creatures that live and once lived. Your hunger for knowledge has left me touched and I shall grant you what you seek, specter. Ask away, there is no question in which I cannot answer!" He loudly proclaimed.

Hearing his grandiose, self-centered gabbling, Rachel mentally rolled her eyes and let out a whistle through her nostrils,

" _I hope his answer isn't as long winded as his first one, I could really do without the cryptic backstory, thank you very much!"_ The teen pursed her lips as her gaze shifted to Rob instead to get a read on what he was thinking and saw that he wasn't impressed either.

Keeping up with her formalities, Carrie went on ahead and asked,

"If your vileness so wishes it, I long to know how I can save Gumball Watterson and Teri Pepakuma, two dear friends of mine who had been wrongfully taken from the loving embrace of their friends and family!" She graciously asked the vile spirit.

There was no pause in the archdemon's answer and he simply spat forth,

"Ah, yes! To find and rescue the ones you seek your best chance will be to journey over to the city of Los Angeles on the sixteenth of November, but be warned: a terrible strife will bring the city to ruin by the clashing forces of the Earth and the moon. Death, devastation and treachery will spread and one small misstep could spell your demise!" His answer was followed up with a wicked cackle before something else crossed his lips,

"But, do not trouble yourselves into thinking this little mission will be the end of it. More fights are to come and Elmore, your precious home, will be brought to ruin by the ancient giants whose deathly parade can be heard even from the darkest pits of Tartarus!" He laughed ominously.

His warning sewed fear into the hearts of those listening and as they dwelled upon his words, Malabranche's form dissipated into smoke before fading away into nothing. With a gust of wind, the candles were blown out and the cave was cast into an unsettling darkness. Despite the fact that Malabranche had vanished, his laugh could still be heard within the ears of those gathered and slowly faded into a dull ringing noise.

For the longest bout of time, nobody moved nor said anything and then, once Yui couldn't take it anymore, she turn to Carrie, armed with the obvious question,

"What did he mean that Elmore was going to be destroyed?" She demanded, her light, airy voice was caught between a whisper and a scream.

Shaking her head and screwing her eyes shut to block out her own distracting thoughts, Carrie responded with uncertainty,

"I don't know! He's a demon, he could have just thrown that last part in to scare us. The spirits that dwell within Tartarus thrive on negative emotions and stirring up fear is one of the best ways for them to create chaos!" She explained, though her words failed to soothe the round-faced paper puppet or anyone else who was frightened.

Jamie, however, was far from frightened and showed an eagerness that heavily contrasted the group's main outlook,

"Who cares! If there's gonna be a battle in Los Angeles, then I'm all in! I get to visit another city, trash the place with no repercussions and bust some heads too!" She screamed with ravenous bloodlust and pounded her chest like a gorilla.

This earned her many strange looks from her companions and Grendela dismissively shakes her head,

"As much as I enjoy your enthusiasm, Ms. Russo, I'm afraid you'll have to stay here along with Carrie to defend the city. Rob and I will head on down to Los Angeles and rescue the other two who are missing." She explained.

This caused Jamie's expression to tighten into one of rage and she blew up at the tusked troll,

"WHAT?! Why on Earth would you wanna take that one eyed dweeb with you and leave me here instead? He's practically a walking golf club!" She bellowed, her beefy arms already raised to her sides with her meaty hands balled up into fists.

Clearing her throat, Mrs. Jotenheim raised a gnarly hand and a single finger popped up,

"For one, Rob's had more experience in dealing with the Nephilim and I have personally seen that myself. Two, I need someone who's gonna watch my back and _not_ dash off into the first conflict they find. Finally, Carrie needs a partner to help defend Elmore while we're gone and you'll be less likely to get in my way if you remain here." She said, listing off all the reasons with her fingers.

This did not process well with the impulsive, bull headed pre-teen brawler, as she began scraping the dirt with her foot and lowered her upper body for a charge,

"I'll show you what twelve years of Gymnastics, competitive sports and boxing have made me, old crone! I've been a beast since the day I was born!" She proclaimed as a challenge.

With another roar, she charged straight at Grendela and raised her arms to both sides in an attempt to tackle the hunched figure. However, the witch was not having it and with an irritated sigh, she tapped the ground with her staff. Suddenly, a blue manifested around Jamie and the tiny powerhouse smacked headfirst straight into the wall before flying backwards.

With a single motion of her hand, she pointed upwards and the sphere began to levitate, much to everyone's surprise,

"For one, kid, I'm only 28 and secondly, I think you need to take a hike... down the mountain." She said.

And with a single point in the direction of the cave's opening, the sphere holding Jamie prisoner was sent flying out of the Jotenheim's home and straight down the mountain with the orange haired middle schooler screaming profanities the whole trip down. Everyone's attention was directed towards where she vanished and several seconds later, the sound of tree branches breaking interrupted the silence. The thing was, the crashing sounds never ceased and it was quite clear that Jamie's ride was not a smooth one.

Turning back to Mrs. Jotenheim with a look of concern and a thumb hiked over her shoulder, she asked,

"Is she gonna be okay?"

Shrugging her shoulders, the impish cleaning lady turned about and began casually hobbling over to the stove,

"She'll be fine. The bubble will pop only when it completely stops." She casually elucidated as though Jamie had been sent on a simple car ride through the countryside.

Fukijima still had his objections and raised a finger to voice his opinion on the matter,

"Um, but she's still bouncing around in the-!" The medical professional was cut off by Nicole as she rushed past him in order to talk to Grendela herself.

"What do you mean only you and Rob are going? Do you honestly expect me to just sit here and do nothing while my son is caught up in an urban war zone?" The baffled mother cat questioned.

Starting stove with intentions to make her son dinner once he got back, Grendela kept her back turned to the blue cat while she spoke,

"Have you been experiencing nightmares as of late? Strange monsters that have been dropping out of holes in the sky?" She asked rhetorically, for she already knew the answer to that one.

Nicole tried to speak, but she already knew it was pointless and after uttering a few soundless phrases, a defeated sigh escaped her that was heard by the grey haired woman,

"Fjel will grant sight to those the Jade Emperor chooses, he's given the others the ability to see because he knew that they had the best chance of keeping us safe and while you are physically capable, it's your spirit that needs strengthening."

She grabs several boxes of uncooked lasagna as well as a few jars of marinara sauce before setting them on the dirty counter and casted a glance over her shoulder so that her beady blue eye was focused directly on the highly capable _Rainbow factory_ worker,

"You have quite a lot of time to spare and I'm certain there's a kind of training you would find beneficial to your cause." She said, shooting her a knowing smile.

Nicole knew what she was talking about and as much as she hated to admit it, she was definitely ill prepared for this conflict. Her humiliating loss with Hei was a painful reminder of that. Luckily she knew where to go, but she was going to need some time to get ready for the trip and she didn't want to leave without saying goodbye to Gumball, so she wasn't going anywhere for the next few weeks.

Seeing the Pepakumas starting to leave after thanking Mrs. Jotenheim for everything as well as Rob and Rachel, the latter of which promised to drop by every once and a while to discuss certain things, Nicole took this as her cue to leave and turned one last time to Mrs. Jotenheim,

"Thank you for your help." She said earnestly with a hint of a smile.

Grunting and waving a hand while she prepared supper, the withered troll called back to her in a gruff voice,

"Don't thank me until after Rob and I get your troublesome sprogglet back." She stated, not even caring to look her in the eye this time.

Again, Nicole questioned herself as to why she was putting her faith in such a rude person's hands, but unfortunately that was about as much as she could afford right now and she twisted on her heel to proceed outwards. For many years, she considered herself a follower of the Jadite faith, but not as strictly as her parents and rarely prayed to him for anything. In these trying times however, prayer may literally be the only thing she had left and so she made a mental note to try tonight before she rushed off into the frigid night air to catch up with the Pepakumas.

 _-Lhasa, Tibet, Oct. 25th, 2013, 7:21 AM-_

Sanda Yoshida was never one to keep the windows to the temple closed, the old cloud loved the fresh air that flowed from the Tibetan plateau as it helped keep his mind clear and he wasn't afraid of being attacked, for any who dared to do so would be foolish.

Sitting cross-legged on the velvet cushion, lost in meditation, the kung-fu master felt the breeze flowing through the open window, gently pushing his beard and the cloud breathed in heavily. It wasn't long until a series of footsteps were heard, heavy, yet swift and nimble. They got louder and louder until a young wolf wearing a red bandana, a vest and loose fitting pants along with leather sandals approached the door of the temple and entered the master's meditation chamber.

"Shifu Yoshida!" He called out in greeting before placing a fist in his open palm and bowing respectfully.

Startled, the old cloud screamed and fell off his cushion, landing hard on his back,

"Gack!" He cried as he reached up and rubbed the back of his bald head whilst sitting,

"There's no need to shout, Hiro Moonson! There's no one else here and it's been a quiet day, sheesh!" He grumbled, hopping to his feet.

Looking abashed, Hiro bowed again and apologized,

"My deepest apologies, Shifu Yoshida! You summoned me and I came as fast as I could!" His amber eyes never left the floor as he continued to bow.

Dusting off his orange gi, Hiro's greatest mentor approached his student, his aging features showing no hostility and his his hollow eyes were full of kindness,

"That is quite alright, my pupil, and yes, I have indeed summoned you here. Have I ever told you about my former student, Nicole Senicourt?" He asked, lifting a curious eyebrow.

Shaking his head, the silver wolf was one of one hundred students being taught by the ancient martial artists and while he had seen many of his fellow students come and go, the name had never crossed his mind,

"You have not, Shifu." He replied honestly.

Stroking his beard with two fingers, Sanda began to pace the wooden floors of the temple building and began to retell the tale of one of his star pupils,

"Of course I haven't, that was over thirty years ago, back when I taught in a small city in California known as Elmore, and she's now grown up, settled down with a family while taking up the name Nicole Watterson. She was one of my greatest students and trained along with my granddaughter, Yuki. She was even champion of Elmore's kumite!" He chuckled in a nostalgic manner,

"Such a fiery young spirit, she was." He commented.

Rubbing his furry chin in thought, the eighteen year old wolf tried to remember if he ever heard of such a place, but seeing as the ancient leader of the Roaming Cloud school of martial arts talked of many adventures, it was near impossible for Hiro to figure out if he remembered,

"I see, but why did you call for me, Shifu?" Hiro questioned, his hands already reaching back to fiddle with his bandana.

Pivoting, the bald teacher raised a single finger and cleared his throat,

"Right, right, the reason I called for you is because I am sending you off on your first overseas assignment." He started, his calm tone laced with urgency.

Feeling his ears perk up and his bushy tail start to wag, a bright eyed Hiro was baffled, yet excited to be given such an important assignment,

" _Overseas? This must be very serious! I wonder why he would send me though, I'm not even his star student, but I best not look a gift horse in the mouth."_ He wondered before turning on his ears to listen to what his teacher had to say next.

Placing his hands behind him, Sanda began pacing again while he delved into the mission's details,

"Now you see, while I teach young individuals to excel in the ways of unarmed combat, I also teach them to heighten their sense of mind and spirit!" He explained.

Having heard this at the start of every lesson, Hiro acknowledged this by placing his fist into his hand again and repeating the lesson he knew,

"Because the mind, body, and spirit are all connected! In order to master one's self, one must train to master all three!" He bowed again before standing up straight.

Smiling with delight, Sanda nodded and continued to pace across the room,

"Very good! Now Nicole had finished her physical and mental training, but left before she could complete the final test. However, an unfortunate event that concerns the likes of the Nephilim and those who fight them has caused her to reconsider finishing what she had started many years ago and will be arriving in a month's time." He explained.

The young wolf's excitement quickly melted into seriousness at the mention of Earth's deadliest enemy and his posture tightened a little. He'd been fighting on the behalf of the Yoshida order for many years now and has helped save countless lives from the terrible giants. The fact that another member was coming in order to train and help deal with the Nephilim threat was a relief as new fighters were always welcomed in his mind, but the thought of the Nephilim hurting more innocent people always left a bad taste in his mouth.

Still he no clue why he needed to travel so far if this supposed newcomer was coming here instead,

"And what would you require me to do, Shifu Yoshida?" He questioned, hoping he wasn't stepping out of bounds, though he knew the elderly master to be a gentle soul.

Stopping just in front of the young lad, the cloud pointed a finger and spoke clearly,

"While Nicole journeys here in search of knowledge, she leaves behind a son who is also in need of a teacher, one who has been awoken to the threat of the Nephilim and that is why I am sending you to America. I need you to teach this young fellow the ways of mastering the body, mind and soul!" He finally stated with full confidence.

Shocked beyond belief, Hiro almost lost his footing, but managed to stand firm and his brilliant eyes widened with disbelief,

" _Wait, what?! He wants me to teach some greenhorn the ways of combat and help fight against the greatest monsters the world has ever faced?"_ His mind began to spiral as he shook his head and took a step back,

"Master Yoshida, while I am honored that you've selected me for this mission, I fear that I may not be ready for such a task and with all due respect, I'll have to decline." He replied respectfully while waving his hands about.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Sanda figured the silver wolf would lack confidence and feel ill prepared to begin teaching another, but the old mentor was not about to give up on him.

Placing a comforting hand on his shoulder and looking the young adult dead in the eyes, he spoke softly,

"Hiro, for twelve years you have trained under my tutelage and fulfilled every task I've ever asked of you, no matter how impossible or ridiculous it may have seemed. You're an exceptional fighter and possess a compassion for others that makes you a suitable defender. I have raised you for a very long time, but you are no longer a child, you are an incredible young man, one that I am very proud of and it's time you learned your greatest lesson yet: responsibility." He complimented, giving his shoulder a hard pat and a gentle look from his dark eyes.

Feeling Sanda's heartfelt praise slamming into his soul like a high speed freight train, Hiro's doubtful expression wavered a bit and a smile slowly formed while his gaze was elsewhere. He always saw Sanda as a father figure, from the moment he was brought in from the streets and through all the tribulations he faced while learning by his side. He never turned down a task from the master and he knew he wanted to impress him by going off on his own to show that he was responsible.

But he still doubted that he could train someone who knew nothing of the martial arts nor has even met him before.

Sighing, the silver canine scratched his head and looked back at the orange gi wearing elder as another thought crossed his mind,

"But what if I mess up real bad and he winds up not learning or gets killed or becomes irresponsible with his new skills? What if he ends up like Titania the tigress?" This was just the tip of the iceberg as there were so many things that could go wrong and the disastrous consequences that could follow would leave him feeling utterly terrible.

Suddenly, he felt a pair of fingers pinch the bridge of his muzzle and the young wolf yelped before seeing a pair of hollow eyes looking at him with mild frustration,

"How many times must I tell you this? You're only guaranteed to fail if you've already assumed the worst and for the record, Titania was not your fault. She was my student and I taught her everything I could, but alas, she had her own ideas as to how she could better serve others, so her leaving wasn't anyone's fault. Though, I refuse to dwell on the past, I do sometimes wish things could've worked out better and we could've seen a more positive outcome." He lowered his head while stroking his misty beard, before ridding his thoughts of those negative times and returning his attention to the matter at hand,

"I have complete and utter faith in you, my pupil. Your compassion for others combined with your knowledge are all the tools you need for this mission, but if you still feel overwhelmed or uncertain as to what to do, don't forget, there are always others to turn to who can give you a helping hand." He said.

While the teenage fighter still felt as though he were being thrusted into a situation too grand for his undertaking, he'd already been through quite a lot in his life and knew that if Shifu Yoshida could trust him with this assignment, then he had nothing to fear.

Putting on his brave face, Hiro squared up his shoulders while fixing his vest and bowing once more out of respect for his teacher's wishes,

"I'll do my best, Shifu Yoshida!" He declared.

Granting him an approving nod, the bald martial artist dismissed the upright Canine and headed back to his cushion so as he could continue his meditation, but stopped when he heard Hiro ask one last thing,

"What's his name?"

Twisting his head while casting a glance over his shoulder, the bearded individual spoke only one name,

"Gumball." He said.

With a silent confirmation, Hiro wished his mentor a good afternoon and proceeded to head straight out while thinking about his future student,

" _Gumball? That's a rather funny name. I hope this guy's just as funny and odd."_ He wondered.

His concentration was broken when he began to sense something in the capital city, some twenty miles away and after realizing that it was indeed a Nephilim, he unlatched his staff from his back before taking off on foot to challenge the invader.

 _-Krueger manor, Oct. 31st, 2013, 10:58 PM-_

" _Domus autem ossium! (House of bones!)_ "

With her concentration and maximum spiritual output, Carrie initialized the spell through the conclusion of the verse. From the ground beneath her, black rib-like bones burst upwards and enclosed the spirit within a cocoon that served as a magical barrier. Keeping her arms raised in front of her, the dark spell caster started her phone's timer with her telekinesis and concentrated on maintaining the barrier through sheer willpower.

" _Four minutes is the longest I can hold it, but limits are meant to be broken."_ She thought with heavy resolve as she poured energy outwards.

For over nearly three weeks now, Carrie has trained hard to master the collection of dark magic spells within the family manor and every night within her own backyard, under the moonlight, she put in the time to improve. With Rob and Grendela leaving in the next two weeks, it was going to be up to her and Jamie to keep this city safe, so she had to be prepared for anything that could come. Should their mission succeed, Carrie also wanted to further help out Gumball, Teri, and Rob by being a better fighter and sought to be on their level.

When Hei explained how all three of them were stronger than her, the powerful ghost was stunned at first, but then came to accept it after remembering her first two engagements with the Nephilim.

With the timer hitting its two minute mark, Carrie could feel her power faltering a bit and pushed harder to maintaining the barrier's structure,

" _It's funny how the Nephilim themselves are spirits, yet alone, I can't see them, but if I possess another person, the power of their soul amplifies my own and allows me to challenge them. Perhaps getting stronger will help solve this issue."_ This line of thinking helped further fuel her resolve and her effect on the house of bones doubled.

Then it was shattered by a single person calling out to her,

"Carrie, are you out here?" The voice, definitely female, drifted through the barrier's shell to the secluded emo's ears.

With her eyes snapping open, the ghost relinquished control over the spell and watched as her backyard slowly crumbled back into view as the barrier disintegrated. Spinning around towards the house, Carrie saw someone hovering within the arch of the back door and a gasp escaped her lips. There stood a female ghost, wearing a loose, long sleeved gown with a belt tied at the waist and a cloth veil upon her head (a style typically worn by women during the 1200's), her long white hair flowed out and over her left shoulder in a ponytail while her body glowed with an ethereal beauty.

This was Elizabeth Krueger, her mother and she seemed very pleased to see her.

Forgetting her training, Carrie shot straight towards her with arms outstretched and a smile upon her face,

"Mom!" She shouted with glee.

"There's my little angel!" Elizabeth greeted joyfully before catching the speeding ghost in her arms and hugging her tight.

Planting a kiss on the top of her daughter's head, the gentle spirit ruffled her hair a bit and Carrie laughed while trying to escape as her mother continued to play around with her,

"I can't believe it's Halloween night already! I was so busy, I completely lost track of time!" She exclaimed, completely flabbergasted by her mother's arrival.

Tilting her head up to survey the backyard, Elizabeth noticed all the craters and scars that pockmarked the area. There was also a distinct aura that filled the air and it was heavy, like smoke. With her senses sending all kinds of alarms to her head, Elizabeth's youthful features twisted into one of apprehension as she realized it was dark magic she felt and her attention shifted towards her daughter still caught in her embrace,

"Carrie, this aura I'm sensing, were you practicing powerful dark magic?" She interrogated.

Stiffening up, Carrie quickly pushed herself away and looked to see her mother's concerned black eyes burrowing into her own, before she immediately tried covering it up,

"No, mom, it's nothing like that! I mean I practice a little bit, but not with anything harmful!" Her mouth was working like a motor and her hands were waving frantically in her face.

Slowly shaking her head and placing a hand on her creased brow, the deceased medieval English woman was already beyond agitated,

"You know that practicing dark magic attracts all sorts of malevolent spirits, Carrie! Yes, some are relatively easy to deal with, but there are others that can cause serious trouble, even among the dead!" Then came another subject that she wanted to discuss with her,

"Just a few days before, I felt a powerful presence somewhere near here and I know for certain it was demonic in nature. Were you summoning demons, young lady?" She said, rather crossed and already had her hands on her hips.

Carrie's mouth opened and closed several times, but failed to produce an answer. She already knew about her mother's past with demons and how she strongly opposed dark magic of any sorts. How was she going to explain to her that she needed to practice because her friends were in danger and she needed to protect the city?

Lucky for her, she was spared from having to answer that question once her dad popped his head through the door before passing through and throwing his arms around both his wife and daughter,

"And how are my two darlings doing tonight?" He greeted them with a lighthearted question and laughed while picking them both up before swinging them back and forth a bit.

Laughing along with him, the side of Carrie's face was mashed up against Vlad's bosom (he smelled of sea water?) and her mother was completely caught off guard by her husband's aggressive affection,

"I am quite well, Vlad, my wandering sailor, but could you put me down please? I may be dead, but I can still get dizzy!" She protested, giggling uncontrollably.

Placing them both back, the bearded ghost smiled that same goofy grin of his and he took a moment to readjust his trench coat,

"Hee-hee! Second time now and that's never gonna get old!" He chuckled teasingly to himself before finishing up on fiddling with his coat and leaning in to peck his Elizabeth on the cheek,

"You're as beautiful as ever, my mirror mistress!" He said in a flirty tone, referring to the first time they met.

With a passion burning in her eyes, Elizabeth leaned forward until she was inches from his face and exchanged his flirty line with one of her own,

"I missed you, my wondering sailor man." She whispered before softly planting her lips on his.

While they kissed, Carrie flinched as images of Darwin came to mind and a feeling of loneliness settled in once more. She missed him dearly and seeing as he obviously couldn't bring his cell phone with him, there was no way for her to know if he was alright. She prayed that he found his way to Scylla and is safe wherever he may be.

With all this in mind, the sad spirit shook off her misery and watched her parents continue their make out session with disinterest,

"Gross." Was all she said as she narrowed her eyes in disgust.

While quiet as it was, it was enough to get their attention and the two lovers broke the kiss. Drifting a foot apart from one another with Elizabeth placing her hands behind her back and Vlad lifting his cap to comb his hair with his fingers, both blushed slightly. Then as if remembering something, the old sailor snapped his fingers and cleared his throat,

"Oh, right! Dear, you wanna tell Carrie the good news?" He suggested while tilting his head in her direction.

Cocking her head to the side a little, Carrie was intrigued and she floated up closer to the two,

"News? What good news?" She questioned, seeing the excited look that split her father's face with a grin and wondered what could be so important.

Waving her hands dismissively, the ethereal spirit shrugged her delicate shoulders and sighed,

"I'm not sure whether it counts as news, but it's just something I've noticed while drifting from one mirror to the next." She replied before meeting Carrie's curious gaze with her own,

"Roughly two weeks ago, I was summoned in a gas station's bathroom mirror by some careless woman and after she ran away screaming, I was about to depart for the underworld once more, but not before I sensed someone familiar." She said, placing her thumb and pointer finger on her chin as she thought back a bit,

"Now while I wasn't there for long, there wasn't any doubt as to who it was and I know for certain that it was my niece, Amber Caesar." She said, nodding with certainty.

Carrie's eyes widened while her jaw dropped and her hands flew up to her oval-shaped head,

"Wait, WHAT?! I have a cousin named Amber?" She shouted in astonishment.

Turning to one another with concerned looks, both Elizabeth and Vlad shrugged and turned back to her with an affirming nod,

"Of course you do! You already met all my family members in Transylvania and your cousins there, but your mother also had a sibling herself too before she died. A sister named Rose, who married a strapping young fellow named Libius Caesar." Vlad explained.

"They both died pretty young when a plague struck their town and after spending a few centuries in the underworld, they had a daughter they named Amber. I'm sorry if I never brought this up to you beforehand, I just presumed that they all stayed in the underworld and I had no way of knowing for sure seeing as it's hard to locate other souls in the afterlife, but it would appear that Amber had been brought into the world of the living." Stated Elizabeth as she fidgeted with her dress's sleeve cuffs.

Still blown away by the revelation regarding family members she never new about, Carrie's hands dragged down the sides of her face and let one drop while another found her forehead,

"That's so... incredible! Where is she now? What's she like? Are we the same age? What kind of music does she like? Wait, do they play music in the underworld?" She spouted off one question after another, but stopped when her parents began raising their hands as a signal for her to slow down.

"When I last noticed her, she was at a gas station in a town known as Colinas Verdes, which is a few weeks from here if you're traveling by foot and the strange thing was, I sensed that she was attached to someone else, perhaps a friend of hers? She's definitely close though and all I know about her is that she's older than you, about 14 in ghost years while you're just 12." Carrie's mother said with a shrug of her shoulders.

Mouthing the word, _"wow!"_ , Carrie's excitement never left her and she could already feel herself getting jittery just by thinking of all the possible things Amber could be,

"So why can't you guys home in on her location and bring her here?" She wondered, looking at both of them expectantly.

Drifting closer until he was able to place a hand on her shoulder, her father's face was taut with an uneasy look and Carrie was already sure she wasn't going to like what he was about to say next,

"Your mother and I already discussed this shortly after she arrived, she can't go because she's bound to the underworld and unfortunately, I need to do some investigating. Something terrible has happened in Seattle, seventeen people were killed this morning and while the causes of death are unknown, what's strange is that their souls haven't entered the world of the dead. It's like they've been obliterated by some powerful force and it's been happening everywhere lately too! Roughly four hundred people met the same fate in San Francisco, can you believe that?" He exclaimed in complete befuddlement.

If the air around the emo school girl could get any colder, it probably did and somehow, the ghost was able to feel it. She was brought back to the damaged neighborhood within the suburbs of San Francisco and watched as several injured people simply blipped out of existence when the Nephilim came close. If those monsters were wiping out the souls of all those innocent people, then what did that mean for the underworld and would such a disturbance cause severe side effects within the cycle of life and death?

While she had to ponder that for herself, her father was less inclined to dwell on such matters and took his daughter by the hand as well as his wife's while guiding them back inside the eerie manor,

"Since tonight is gonna be our last night together, why don't we sit around the fire and swap a few tales? I know a few adventures from my youth that should cheer you two up and if that's not enough for you, then how about some music as well as a dance?" He suggested, passing a wink to Elizabeth, who blushed again while rolling her eyes.

"You're not gonna try _that_ old dance again are you? You know I hate it when you do that." She scoffed, though there was a hint of teasing in her eyes.

Wiggling his eyebrows, the old sailor claimed to make no promises and the two laughed some more while Carrie just groaned,

"You know what? You two can enjoy your dance together and I think I'll go spook some young trick-or-treaters for a bit or maybe listen to music for a while." She proclaimed.

This in turn only earned her more laughter from her parents and Carrie was happy to see them like this, proving that Halloween was indeed a special occasion.

 _-Masami's mansion, Nov. 1st, 2013, 9:35 PM-_

Now in Rachel's opinion, there were parties and then there were _rich people's_ parties. In celebration of Masami's thirteenth birthday, the cloud had her entire mansion's ballroom transformed for the evening and it was spectacular! The rainbow lass had never been to such a loud and festive birthday party before with her friends and she just couldn't get enough of it!

To start, the ballroom was _massive_! Everywhere she looked, she saw people from her high school, Elmore Junior High and other school districts spread out across the dance floor and there was still enough room to fit several tables with plates topped with simple party snacks to exquisite meals that seemed foreign and there were drinks of all kinds there too. The decor was eye catching and wonderful, hanging from the crystal chandeliers were colorful streamers that arched over their heads like rainbows while the massive, wall spanning windows were lined with white cotton to look like clouds and set up all around the room were speakers blasting music along with colorful lights that littered the dance hall with dizzying rapid light spots.

Dancing nearby a stage with a karaoke machine and listening to Clayton trying to sing along with a rap song that went hilariously wrong, Rachel was having the time of her life along with her two best friends, Clare and Sissy. Both were dressed in their casual clothes and while the blonde snake continued to shift along the beat with her mouth hanging open as she tossed her head about, Clare was content with just moving a single arm along while sipping at her soda, but she was having a good time nonetheless. Dancing along Sissy's wild movements and bobbing her head so that her voluminous hair was flying all over the place, Rachel was caught in a laughing fit along with her extroverted friend as they saw each other's dorky moves.

"Girl, you need a dance instructor 'cause I can't tell if you're trying to shake your brains out or if you're just having a seizure!" The sassy blonde teased.

Rachel continued to dance like no one was watching and turned to Sissy with a sly look on her mug,

"What brains?" She shouted in response.

Both howled with laughter as their dancing came to an end and Agathe twisted her triangular head to see Clare barely dancing,

"Yo, Clare! You're dancing like a zombie and your grey skin complexion along with your face is really selling it too!" She stated with no harm intended.

Watching her former principal, Nigel Brown bash his head against Bobert as the former howled with enthusiasm, Clare shifted her attention to Sissy and shrugged a little,

"Oh, that's fine. This place is a bit much for me anyway." She muttered quietly, not showing much care.

Pulling her own hair back with her hands, Sissy groaned with frustration and her green eyes burned with determination,

"Dang it, girl! I dragged you out here so you could have fun and you're gonna have fun tonight!" She declared, before turning to the karaoke stage, getting an idea and slithering towards the mopey high schooler,

"Come on, Clarey-fairy! Time to get crazy!" She shouted, grabbing her by the hand and dragging the surprised green haired teen away.

"What the? What are you-!" She stopped mid-sentence once she saw where they were headed and her protests became louder,

"No! No! We're not doing that! No! Sissy, let me go, LET ME GO!" She shrieked, tugging as hard as she could against her friend's vice-like grip, but could not break free.

Waving back to Rachel with an excited glint in her eyes, Sissy asked her to wish them luck and took off with Clare in tow. Shaking her head while smirking, the blue skinned teenager absolutely loved those two and never found a dull moment whenever they were around. There was still a minute left until Clayton finished his song, though at this point was just a loosely connected string of gibberish, and Rachel decided now would be a good time to go get a drink.

Sinking into the crowd of party goers, Rachel made her way back to the refreshments table and observed several of the students as she passed by. The one that stood out the most was Hector, the friendly giant, who had positioned himself in the back of room with his legs parted to create an archway for the stairs that lead further into the Yoshida mansion and in the palm of his hand was Molly, who was clutching his other hands thumb and pointer finger in order to dance with him. It was clearly evident that both were happy with one another, as they weren't talking, but the expressions they wore were ones of joy and content. Such a cute sight!

In the center of the ballroom was the guest of honor herself, who was surrounded by a mob of students, mostly from her class as they wished her a happy birthday, handed her last minute presents and attempted to start a conversation while several dozen were already happening at once. While she had a lot to deal with, the little cloud girl seemed perfectly happy and was having a blast with all the attention she was getting. Rachel hadn't brought her anything, but she did say happy birthday to her when she greeted them at the front entrance and figured she would just get lost in the crowd if she attempted a conversation.

After drifting through the sea of wildness that was the party, Rachel couldn't help but feel a sense of deja vu the longer she stayed here,

" _Why does this all feel so familiar? I feel like there was a party once and I was in it along with some familiar faces here."_ She notes as her mind constantly drew comparisons, but ultimately failed to produce an original source to compare from.

Finally reaching her destination, the rainbow lass eyed a fancy tray carrying large quantities of her favorite soft drink, _Pepper PhD_ , in elaborate wine glasses and she made her way over to pluck one up for herself. She was pretty close to the table when a towering figure wearing a white spacesuit with a helmet covered in tinfoil walked backwards and accidentally bumped into her. While it wasn't enough to knock either of them over, the spacesuit wearing figure spun around and uttered a quick apology to the magenta/lemon haired teen,

"I'm so sorry, ma'am! It's kind of hard to see with this- Rachel?" He spoke with recognition.

Knowing that voice and that suit from anywhere, Rachel's eyes widened with shock,

"Rob?" She gasped.

Pressing a button on the side of his helmet, the tinted visor slid upwards, revealing a single yellow eye and some glowing static panels from within the dark space. He seemed surprised to have bumped into her here, though he did say he was going to the party earlier and was expecting to find her with her friends on the dance floor somewhere. Rachel, on the other hand, was happy to see him and leapt into his arms with an excited squeal,

"I'm so glad you could make it!" She exclaimed, crushing him with a bear hug before stepping back and looking him up and down,

"What's with that getup?" She inquired.

Feeling his static darkened a bit, the walking assortment of polygons started explaining what took him so long to get here,

"Well, I took a trip to the archive of magic today, but for some strange reason I couldn't interact with the barrier and contact Fjel. I tried using magic, but it was no use, it's like he's keeping me out or something." He grumbled in disappointment before noticing something different about Rachel,

"Is that a new kind of eyeliner?" He commented, leaning in to get a closer look.

Pushing her hair aside as to better show off her eyes, Rob's eye widened with satisfaction and Rachel admittedly found it cute,

"Yeah, it's something that I picked up at the store yesterday, but it's kind of cheap." She said, grimacing at the fact that she was still out of a job.

Pulling back a bit, Rob understood completely and gave her a thumbs up,

"Well, I think it looks great on you!" He complimented, flashing a full set of pearly whites at her.

Shrugging once and tying her hair back in her headband, Rachel was more or less fine with her appearance,

"Yeah, but I really need to find another line of work soon. I feel bad that you're the one who has to be the breadwinner and want to pitch in with the house funds. Maybe I can start up a photography website and have people hire me as a professional photographer?" She suggested.

While Rob was happy for her consideration, he wasn't unhappy with his job and it wasn't an issue if that meant she could focus more on school and hanging out with friends,

"I mean as long as you think you can do it, but you don't have to feel obligated to pitch in with the finances any time soon. You still have school and your friends to hang out with, besides I love my job at _Elmore Dynamics_!" He explained, making sure that he was being supportive.

Pursing her lips, Rachel thought about it for a bit, but was then reminded of her friends and realized that they were about to start singing,

"I'll have to think it over. Wanna come dance or you just gonna be a wallflower the entire evening?" She asked with an inviting smile.

Grabbing a cup of soda and raising it up to his lips, the cyclops shrugged,

"What can I say? It's a growing experience." He chuckled at his little joke while taking a sip.

Shaking her head and grabbing him by the arm, Rachel gave the lanky boy a tug,

"Come on! You gotta dance a little and besides, you got nothing to be embarrassed about." She said, tugging him once more, harder this time.

Not budging from his spot, Rob refused and continued to sip at his cup,

"What are you talking about? I'm not dancing to this boy band crap!" He argued, referring to the song playing through the speakers.

After listening for a moment, Rachel recognized the song and crossed her arms in offense to his his remark,

"It's OneRepublic, dude, and they're not a boy band! Also, counting stars is not crap, you just have a bad taste in music! Now come on, quit drowning in isolation!" She exclaimed, grabbing him by the arm again.

Leading him into the throng of party goers, Rachel spotted the karaoke stage with both Agathe and a very petrified Clare ready to sing. While walking behind her, Rob at first figured he wasn't going to do much, but after a moment or two, he discovered his head to be moving to the beat of the song. At first, the introvert could only wonder why this was, but after getting one good look at the girl pulling him, it all became very clear to him and a dorky grin broke out across his polygonal features,

" _Darn it! It's her, I know it's her! Whenever I'm working or fighting I feel tense, but whenever she's around, that bubbly personality of hers always somehow makes me lose touch with my serious side!"_ He realized as his static darkened again.

As big of a pain she could be, whenever something brought her spirits up or got her excited, that same boundless energy would somehow infect Rob with those good feelings and before he knew it, the inventor would find himself rolling along with her antics.

Like now, as he stopped to pull her closer and when Rachel's confused gaze met his mischievous one, he grinned as his hand found its way down to hers,

"You know, Rachel..." he paused as he waited for the right moment and then synced up to the song's lyrics,

"... _I could lie, could lie, everything that drowns me, makes me wanna fly!_ " He sang.

Spinning her around with one hand, Rob took a step back as Rachel came to a stop, this time with a bubbly grin on her blue face and she grabbed both of his hands as the song's main chorus began.

 _Lately I've been, I've been losing sleep,_

 _Dreaming about the things that we could be,_

 _Baby, I've been, I've been praying hard,_

 _Said no more counting dollars,_

 _We'll be, we'll be counting stars_

Still holding hands, they spun in a slow circle before breaking off and dancing on their own. Both were not well versed in dancing and awkwardly shuffled about while moving their arms in patterns that somewhat simulated movement. They looked ridiculous, but that was alright because the moment they saw each other, both could not help but laugh along before Rachel slid in real close and pressed her left side against Rob's right before bouncing with her legs.

 _(Main chorus, but louder this time)_

 _Lately I've been, I've been losing sleep,_

 _Dreaming about the things that we could be_

They sang along with the next line while still pressed up against one another,

" _Baby I've been, I've been praying hard,_

 _Said no more counting dollars,_

 _We'll be, we'll be counting stars!"_ They sang in unison, until the band cut to the instrumental.

From the stage, Sissy spotted the rainbow lass dancing with a stranger in an astronaut suit and quickly recognized that it was Rob. Delighted beyond belief, the snake girl abandoned her sing-a-long with Clare, who was also happy to scamper off the stage, and slithered all the way up to where the two were dancing. Once she made her way up to the small circle that had formed around the two, she called out to them and tossed them both a microphone before pulling out her cellphone to begin recording.

At first both were slightly confused, until the next part began and they quickly started singing,

" _Oh, take that money and watch it burn,_

 _Sink into the river the lessons I learned._ "

They repeated those lines four more times, while Rachel began dancing again, but not too erratically and while Rob was content to just stand there and try to follow along with the verse (he was a little embarrassed to suddenly have so many people watching him while broadcasting his voice to the people gathered in the karaoke area.), a little nudge from Rachel got him moving again.

Then the instruments stopped and the singer's voice slowly uttered one line for them to follow,

" _Everything that kills me... makes me feel alive!_ " They we're both back to back while striking separate poses and the small audience went nuts.

Cheering along with the crowd, Agathe hopped up and down with her tail while howling at the top of her lungs,

"You go, rainbow girl!" The serpentine blonde cheered before turning her attention to Rob,

"Rock it, moon boy!" She screamed in encouragement.

Suddenly, like a gun shot to the head, Rob's vision exploded with light and a searing pain ruptured his cranial cavity, causing him to scream while crumpling to the linoleum floor. Seeing Rob on his knees and in pain, the audience gasped, causing Rachel to stop dancing to turn and see what's wrong. Seeing Rob hunched over, furiously clawing at his head with his eye screwed shut and teeth gnashing, Rachel dropped the microphone before immediately rushing to his side.

Kneeling down beside him, Rachel placed her hands on his shoulders and tried to get his attention,

"Rob! ROB! What's the mat-!" Her desperate cries of concern were cut off when she saw him glitch out and transform into something else.

Still in his spacesuit, Rachel could only see his head, but instead of blocky, grey surfaces, his his skin was smooth and blue, like hers, but darker and his hair was also normal, being wavy and brown with parted bangs. For some reason she couldn't explain, this person she was looking at seemed familiar and the longer she looked, the more it seemed like she'd seen him around before. She continued to try to reach him, but Rob's head was still in pain and he remained blind and deaf to the outside world.

Meanwhile, memories began to slice into his consciousness like a serrated knife and Rob was transported back to a time when he was little.

 _-Flashback, six years ago-_

" _Come on, moon boy! Let's go take our base back from the aliens!" A young, nine-year-old Rachel shouted from Rob's front yard._

 _Peeking out his bedroom window, six-year-old Rob saw her and three others waiting for him on his front lawn. He recognized the rainbow lass that lived next door, with her short, curly hair that shows different colors depending on her mood, that bright smile displaying a chipped front tooth, and those big, black eyes that always seemed full of wonder and excitement. Next to her was his friend Gumball and his little brother Darwin, whom he originally thought to be a pet at some point. Then there was a white humanoid with blue eyes and tuft of hair on his head, Gumball's other friend and neighbor, Cato Anderson, who was also a friend of Rob and Rachel too._

 _They were all wearing cardboard armor, bike helmets, knee pads and elbow pads while carrying water guns in their hands. While this may have looked silly to anyone passing by, all four of them liked to play astronauts every chance they got and didn't really mind what others thought. Such was the simple joy of being a child._

" _Come on, man! There's a lot of them and we need your help!" Cato shouted, waving his gun in the air._

 _Jumping up and down, Gumball and Darwin began chanting,_

" _Moon boy! Moon boy! Moon boy!" The brothers sang and the other two joined in._

 _With his single pink eye widening with joy and excitement, Rob jumped up and down on his bed as he called back down to them,_

" _I'll be down in a minute, just let me go get my spacesuit and my gun!" He shouted before disappearing back into his room._

 _There was a collective cheer from outside his window and this prompted the blue cyclops to hurry as he searched for his "equipment" that was somewhere in his messy room. After a few seconds of frenzied searching, the brown haired cyclops practically turned his whole room upside down and only managed to find his orange spaceman costume along with his water rifle. Scratching his head with pink fingers as he surveyed the chaotic landscape that was his bedroom floor, the six-year-old failed to locate his helmet and growled in frustration,_

" _Where is it?" He wondered out loud before hearing a noise from downstairs._

 _Dressing up and grabbing his water gun, the hyperactive child raced out of his room, down the hall, straight down the stairs and into the living room where his dad was sitting on the couch with a newspaper in one hand. Leaning over to pick up the remote that had fallen and caused the noise, Rob's dad spotted the little one standing at the edge of the living room. Unlike himself, his dad was violet with white hair buzzed short and his calloused hands were yellow._

 _Just like the first time Rob saw him in Fjel's dream, he was wearing a simple yellow work shirt, black trousers, leather shoes and a tie fixed below his collar._

 _Seeing his son in his space getup and carrying a rifle, the older cyclops smirked a bit while his white monobrow lifted ever so slightly,_

" _Out to go slay the Xenobloods again, eh, moon boy?" He asked with an amused chuckle._

 _Bobbing his big head up and down in a blurry motion, Rob rushed you to him and waved his arms about in distress,_

" _Yes, but I can't find my helmet anywhere and it's not in my room! I checked all over the place!" He shot off in a string of babble that only his father had gotten used to._

 _Nodding once in acknowledgement, Rob's dad sat up straight and pointed towards the dining room,_

" _It's on the table where you left it along with your action figures." He replied._

 _Without even hesitating, Rob had already left the living room and made his way into the next room over. Recognizing this place too, the cyclops watched as his memory played on and his younger self spotted the plastic, bowl-shaped helmet surrounded by all his alien and soldier figurines, which seemed minuscule in comparison._

 _Snatching the helmet up and discarding all the toys within, Rob places it upon his head before heading into the kitchen to fill up his water gun._

 _From the outside, his friends could be heard calling for him and several knocks were heard on the door,_

" _Better get out there quick, Robby!" His dad shouted, switching on the television set before setting it to the news channel._

 _Screwing the cap back on as fast as his little fingers would allow, the tiny child ran as fast as he could to the front entrance, earning a brief scolding from the purple cyclops and flung open the door to see all his friends eagerly waiting for him._

" _Ready?" Rachel asked, brandishing her water pistol before him._

 _Raising his squirt gun in response, Rob let out a cheer,_

" _Yeah!" He shouted._

 _From behind the nine-year-old girl, Gumball, Darwin, and Cato raised their weapons and joined in on the cheer,_

" _YEAH!" They shouted in unison._

" _You kids have fun and don't forget to clean your room when you get back home, Rob!" Rob's dad shouted from inside the house._

 _Rolling his eye, Rob returned his father's command with a simple response,_

" _Yes, dad!" He promised._

" _I mean it this time." Was the last thing he said before Rob walked out and shut the door behind him._

 _Turning to his motley crew while they took off towards the sidewalk, the blue cyclops pumped his legs in order to keep up and quickly joined up alongside Gumball and Darwin. Rachel was in the lead because she was the oldest, followed by Cato was eight while Rob and Gumball were both the same age and that left Darwin being the youngest at the age of four. Marching along like soldiers, the cluster of kids made their way to the park and with the sun shining down on them, a good water fight seemed in order for the small group._

 _Calling Rachel's name, the blue girl dressed in cardboard armor turned her head so she could see behind her and saw Rob waving a hand to get her attention,_

" _So who's taken over our base?" Rob asked, squeezing his hand beneath his helmet so he could scratch an itch that was irritating his cheek._

 _Holding up her three fingered hand, Rachel began listing off names while her hair changed from lime green to reddish orange,_

" _The big baby, bomb boy, the green alien, and germzilla!" She said, holding up another hand to add an extra finger._

 _In order, that was code for Tobias (her little brother.), Julius Oppenheimer jr., Alan Keane and Teri Pepakuma._

" _Oh and don't forget about the slime too!" Cato reminded her, referring of course to Clayton._

" _So five to five, huh? Cool! I call dibs on squirting Teri!" A young Gumball declared, pumping his fist upwards._

 _Elbowing him in the side, Darwin shook his head and gave him a scolding look,_

" _You can't, remember? Last time you sprayed her with water, it was on the playground, she screamed and told her mom, then she called the school and then Mrs. mom got really angry after she found out!" He berated, reminding him of last time._

 _Feeling his enthusiasm diminishing fast, Gumball lowered his paw and his head along with his ears drooped,_

" _Aw. Stupid Teri and her mom!" He muttered beneath his breath._

 _Had this not played before his very eye, Rob would've completely forgotten that Gumball and Teri rarely got along back then, which was a far cry from how they acted recently._

 _Gently punching his shoulder, Cato flashed him a devilish grin and tried to cheer him up,_

" _Forget about her! Let's go after Alan instead!" The eight-year-old offered with a wicked laugh_

 _This worked and Gumball, along with Darwin, also laughed evilly while rubbing their hands together. Further plans were made to ambush the kids at the park as they continued to walk and Rachel immediately paired up up with Rob,_

" _You're gonna help me soak my little brother, right Rob?" The eldest child in the Wilson household inquired and Rob nodded in agreement._

" _You bet! What are we going to do about Julius though? He's really strong and mean!" He questioned, having presumably heard of him or encountered the bomb head, Rob didn't know because he couldn't remember that far._

 _Jumping in at the chance to attack his greatest rival, Cato stomped his foot and pointed a finger at the sky in an overly dramatic fashion that got everyone's attention,_

" _We'll attack him first! If we fight together, then we can beat him and drive the rest of the aliens out of our base!" The white humanoid declared with a fire in burning in his eyes._

 _Without hesitating, the children cheered again and now completely hyped up on Cato's declaration, they charged at full speed towards the park, laughing and shouting the whole way there_

 _-Present-_

Returning from his unwarranted jog down memory lane, Rob's body glitched again and he was back to his deformed state. With the pain subsiding, Rob opened his eye and saw that he was at the party again, surrounded by a crowd of terrified onlookers. Trying to make sense of what happened, he felt a pair of arms shaking him vigorously and his head twisted to see a mess of colorful hair along with a pair of concerned, yet relieved eyes staring back at him.

Seeing as he was back to "normal" and responsive, Rachel breathed a sigh of relief before dropping a sudden interrogation onto the confused lad,

"Rob, what was that? You were spazzing out for a moment and then your face switched into this... different version of you. What happened." Her voice laced with concern while more questions varying in form swirled about her mindscape.

Staggering to his feet and pressing a four digit hand to his forehead, the void's former prisoner could not believe what he had just witnessed,

" _It was a lost memory! Fjel told me to "find my missing pieces" and now it all makes sense!"_ So many positive emotions were broiling over within him now, despite the jarring experience he just went through.

Not only was he able to recall a piece of his childhood, but now knowing he had friends back then was a strangely wholesome experience that he failed to describe accurately. He had more questions though, like how was he friends with Gumball and Darwin? What happened to them over the years? If he was Rachel's neighbor then shouldn't his old house be there too? Also, who was that ghostly white person with them? His name was Cato Anderson, that much he remembered, but not much else popped up about him and he hadn't seen him anywhere in Elmore either, so what happened to him?

There was so much he needed to know right now, but he was happy to just have this little piece to hold onto and kept replaying the memory over and over again like a movie.

Seeing as he wasn't responding right away and many people were starting to get suspicious, Rachel began guiding Rob through the crowd and towards the door at a hastened pace,

"We're going home, right now!" She commanded, looking about nervously as she felt many eyes on them.

Getting a good look at the place now, it finally occurred to the tall pre-teen how much of a disturbance his little "episode" had caused and suddenly felt very small. The music had stopped playing so he could hear everyone whispering and often asking if he was alright. Even Hector and Molly were glancing his way and while that was slightly unsettling, it failed to compare when he saw Masami herself glaring at them in agitation while they slunk off towards the massive wooden doors.

They were almost there when a small, colorful cloud approached them, wearing a headband similar to Rachel's, except his had green stripes unlike her yellow ones and Rachel noticed that he looked eerily familiar,

"Hey, I can call an ambulance, if your friend needs it?" He politely offered.

Then, for some strange reason completely beyond her, the rainbow lass's face contorted into rage and her hands balled up into fists as she snapped at the little fellow,

"Would you beat it, you dumb baby!" She shrieked, causing the boy to flinch in response.

Seeing the frightened look in the trembling boy's eyes as he raised his hands to protect his face followed by the alarmed look Rob wore and everyone else's surprise, Rachel came to terms with what she just did,

" _Wait, why did I do that? I mean I know I'm stressed out right now, but why did I just call him a dumb baby? Why is all this becoming so familiar?"_ Her head began to spin as she realized something was horribly wrong and a dark presence began to form within the back of her mind, taking on the form of a memory.

Getting over his initial shock, Tobias then realized something and he lowered his arms while peering closer at the mysterious girl along with her cyclopean companion,

"Hey wait a sec! You're the ones who showed up at my house that one day." He suddenly realized.

And that was the last thing she remembered when her minded drifted and darkness clouded her vision. Seconds later, she found herself locked away in her bedroom, not the one at the duplex, but one the one at home. Her _old_ home. Curled up on the bed clutching a thick, brown comforter tightly within her hands, she sobbed uncontrollably, wetting her pillow sheets with her tears while two people outside screamed and yelled at one another. She couldn't make out what they were saying, but she knew they were talking about her and when their voices raised even higher, Rachel cowered beneath her sheets while pulling her pillow over her head to block out the noise.

Even though she couldn't remember what happened before Rob found her in the void, she knew exactly who those people outside were and fear caused her to tremble as she told herself that she wanted to get out of here.

" _Stop. Stop! Stop this! I don't want to be here anymore, I don't want to ex-!"_

Then she awoke and when she looked about her surroundings, she saw that she was no longer in her bedroom and the people from the party were gone too. She was lying on the couch, in the duplex and kneeling right next to her on the carpet was Rob. He wasn't in his spacesuit anymore, donning his yellow tee and red running shorts, he looked so happy to see her awake.

"Rachel!" He cried, lunging forward and wrapping his arms tightly around her.

Surprised and confused, Rachel hugged him back, but was glad to see him here nonetheless,

"Wha- what happened? When did we wind up here?" She stammered, feeling a little disoriented.

Popping back up while keeping his hand next to hers, Rob wasted no time explaining how they arrived to their duplex and what happened at the party,

"I teleported us back here after you fainted! You began muttering something and then your skin started to turn to static! I thought you were in trouble, but I didn't know what to do, so I set you down here and waited for several minutes and then..." he trailed off for a moment to catch his breath and then resumed with a calm demeanor,

"...and then you woke up." He finished.

If she wasn't scared before, she definitely was now and after hearing what happened to her, the normally sassy, bubbly teenager was sinking again into another round of depression. There was something about the void that lingered in her mind and the more she thought about it, the more she realized she didn't want to know. Maybe forgetting about her past was best for her and for everyone else?

Bringing her knees up to her chest, she hid her face behind them and started to cry, just like she did in her memory,

"I don't want to go back..." she whispered with a shaky breath.

Barely catching that, Rob was taken aback and he froze with his mouth agape,

"What...what do you mean? Are you talking about the party?" He knew there was some kind of connection between her and that kid that showed up, even he seemed to recognize her and he tried to figure out what could've set her off.

Slowly giving her head a shake, Rachel pulled her legs in tighter and her sobbing continued,

"No. My old life. I-I never want to go back to that... that _horrible place_!" She tried her best to speak clearly, but it was very hard with all the crying and having to remember such a terrible moment,

"It's the same reason why I quit my job. I saw that woman walk in and she was looking for me. I wanted to talk to her, but I was so scared for some reason and I felt this horrible, dreadful feeling that told me to run, so I did." Her voice broke into more sobs as her arms traveled upwards to hug her legs.

Rob remembered that day when she quit working at the gas station and how she told him that she saw the woman that they originally thought was her mother come wandering in while asking someone if they could help her find someone she was supposedly missing. She was completely broken up about it and Rob couldn't bear to send her back out to find another job, but with rent being due soon, he had no choice. He called Iris the next day and took up the job he offered him.

Realizing it was best not to ask her what she saw, the cyclops sat down right beside her and pulled her close until her head brushed up against his shoulder. He could feel her shuddering with every breath she took and kept her face hidden, but didn't seem uncomfortable. Rubbing her back with his hand, Rob remained silent for a bit and waited for her to eventually settle down.

Once a considerable amount of time had passed, Rob leaned in close and whispered softly to her,

"A long time ago, you and I were neighbors and friends too." He simply said.

Hearing this, Rachel at first thought Rob had gone crazy, but when she lifted her head and turned to see that he was being completely honest, she was visibly befuddled,

"What do you mean?" She asked back.

Keeping his arm around her, his yellow eye lit up with joy as he recalled the happy memory still fresh on his mind,

"I remembered it back at the party, you and me, we knew each other and were friends who played a game called astronauts, but that's not all. There were others too, Gumball, Darwin and another kid named Cato, we were all best friends who knew each other when we were little. We were so happy together." He spoke with such a happy tone and Rachel couldn't help but want to believe this was somehow true.

Somehow the idea that she was friends with this brainiac and the cat boy years ago seemed extraordinarily unlikely, but then again, here she was, with Rob being a person she couldn't imagine life without and when she met Teri the other day, she had already considered hanging out with her and the cat she seemed so fond of. Had they not been taken from them, they probably would've gone to Masami's birthday party together and had a good time. She knew Rob would've had a good time too because deep down inside, she knew he cared for them and if he ever broke out of that shell of his, maybe they'll become closer.

She continued to ponder on this and Rob laid his head back on the couch's squishy head rest while staring at the ceiling,

"I wish I remembered more, but that memory alone is enough for me to know that there's something worth digging into and I'm going to find it, I'm going to piece back together all the missing pieces." His mind was on fire now and the young inventor's technical mind was already working overtime to analyze anything he could from what he gained tonight.

Nestling up beside him, Rachel's focus was on the wall ahead of her, but her mind was elsewhere and was riddled with dark thoughts,

"But what if what you're looking for is too painful to bear? What if it's best that some things are left forgotten?" She asked, full of doubt.

Squeezing her shoulder and looking back down at her with a comforting look, he still remained optimistic with his answer,

"I've thought about that before and I too am very afraid, but I can't help but think that somehow, at the end of all of this, we'll come out better than we are now." He remarked with hope.

Choosing to remain silent, Rachel thought about his answer and wondered to herself if this quest Rob had started for the both of them was really worth it. That, she didn't have an answer to and the rainbow lass decided not to tire herself out with meaningless conjecture. She did fall asleep however and Rob felt her head on his shoulder grow heavy while her breathing had become a loud, rhythmic engine that ran while she slept.

This he didn't mind, he was glad he could be here for his friend and would stay here until morning came, until he had to go to work where Iris was undoubtedly waiting for a report on tonight's events.

 **(A/N) Four months into the making and it's finally finished! Damn, I'm so happy right now!**

 **So yeah, this was all set up for things that are to come in the future and there's still lots to figure out later on that this story hasn't quite dived into yet. I hope that you guys loved the new characters included in this story, I asked all the fanfic writers listed above if I could include them into the story and I am very grateful to all of you for accepting my offers. I'm really happy to be expanding my story's cast to include all these wonderful characters.**

 **Not much to discuss down here really, but I did decide to have Rachel's hair change color as a strange trait all rainbow lads and lasses have when they are younger before it starts to settle into certain shades. We did see Tobias change colors on multiple occasions throughout the show and I just kind of wrote this off as an ability they retain, but can do upon command.**

 **Also, even though I just said it in the chapter, I do not own the song "Counting stars", that honor goes to OneRepublic and I really wanna make sure we stay on good terms.**

 **Other than that, we'll be catching up with Teri and Gumball in chapter 15, simply titled, "Jeruzalem", which will be out in short order.**

 **Have a good rest of your day everyone and thank you all for your patience and support. Please type in your reviews down below and stay safe out there! See ya!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15: Jeruzalem**

Teri x Gumball

 **(A/N): Alrighty then, time to shift gears and locations because we are now focusing on our titular heroes and their seemingly hopeless predicament in the clutches of the NEA. Far from home and under the command of a new leader, both children of Elmore will have to find some way to cope in this new environment. During their stay Teri and Gumball will have to pass some rigorous tests as well as confront many deadly opponents and find ways to utilize the new abilities they now possess.**

 **Some more OC's will be introduced.**

 **Jiu = 9 in Chinese.**

 **Hongxin = Red heart in Chinese**

 **Tsukishiro or Shiroi Tsuki = White moon in Japanese.**

 **If you enjoyed this chapter please leave a like and a review down below.**

 _-Jeruzalem, October 11th, 2013 10:47 AM-_

Waking up from what felt like the longest slumber in her life, Teri shifted underneath the covers of a narrow bed and slowly stirred. Rubbing at her sleepy eyes, Teri was surprised that they weren't replaced by a blindfold like they normally were before she went to bed and slowly cracked them open. The world she awoke to was unfamiliar to her, as it appeared to be a hospital room with a couple hanging plants in the corner and a window opened to a city she didn't recognize. This wasn't the most startling fact though, as she quickly discovered that she wasn't alone and someone was sitting right next to her.

The stranger was a bizarro male made entirely out of cloth bandages wrapped together in the form of a human with a few loose strands forming the eyes and mouth. He wore a white doctor's coat similar to her mom's and was holding a clipboard in his hand. He seemed to be staring at her, but Teri couldn't tell since his eyes were hollow and unreadable.

Jumping a little at the sight of the stranger, Teri sat up straight and tried to back away from the bandage person,

"What the- who are you? Where am I? What happened?" the paper bear said as she looked around the room once more and checked her body for any signs of damage.

To her relief, there wasn't any and the doctor responded after checking off a few things on his clipboard,

"No need for alarm, Miss Pepakuma. I am Doctor Jury or Sirious en Jury, if you prefer and you're in Jeruzalem. As for what happened, you were knocked unconscious by a poison strike and have been out for over half a day." he said in a voice that sounded like a gust of wind blowing between two sheets of paper, which given the fact his mouth was literally two strips of cloth, wasn't surprising.

Calming down now, Teri sat still in her bed and let all the events from yesterday catch up to her. One by one the memories flowed back into her mind like water from a faucet and she remembered her time with Gumball at the mall, the massive Nephilim attack on the _Chanax_ building, the arrival of the NEA, and then…

Her eyes grew wide when the Azura squad flashed back into her mind and she gasped in terror when she realized what had happened,

"No! I need to get out of here! I need to get back to Elmore!" she screamed, throwing the covers off and leaping out of her bed.

She was stopped though when Dr, Jury grabbed her shoulder and prevented her from bolting to the door,

"I'm afraid that's not possible." he stated in a calm manner.

Brushing his hand off, Teri shot him a glare and started for the door again,

"Says you! You people kidnapped me and hurt my friends, you even tried to kidnap Gumball and Hector! I'm leaving whether you like it or not!" she angrily retorted.

She reached the door and tried opening it, but the handle wouldn't move. Realizing that it was locked, the paper doll decided to try sliding underneath the door instead, but stopped herself when she heard voices on the other side of the door and she realized there were two people standing outside. _Probably guards_ , she thought and she looked around for an alternative route to escape through. Most surprisingly, the bandage doctor hadn't even gotten up from his chair and he seemed to be just observing her as she tried to find a way out.

Spotting a vent on the wall just above the TV, Teri figured she could fold herself up and slip through it. The thing is though, it was too high up for her to reach and the paper bear realized that she was going to need to construct a paper tendril to haul herself up. Spotting a notebook on the desk right next to the hospital bed, she dashed towards it and snatched it up,

"Yes! Freedom!" she exclaimed as she tore several sheets from the book.

She laid them on top of one another and placed her hand upon it before exerting her control over the inanimate objects: only to find to her surprise that she couldn't!

Before she could even question why, the doctor chuckled in amusement and leaned back in his chair, causing it to creak a little,

"Having trouble there, Miss Pepakuma?" he asked in a condescending tone.

Turning towards him with a furious expression, the middle schooler found his supercilious attitude to be quite infuriating and dropped the papers in frustration,

"What's going on? What did you people do to me?" she shrieked, feeling even more helpless than she already was.

Without showing any remorse or concern for her distraught state of mind, the bandage man continued on as though he were carrying a light conversation,

"After you were admitted to the hospital, we placed an inhibitor chip inside you that prevents you from using your powers and there's no way you can escape from this place, we've got guards placed throughout the hospital and even if by the slightest chance you managed to slip past the security, you'll never be able to escape Jeruzalem. The city is built in a geofront within a dormant volcano and the only exit is through the mouth of the volcano, which is monitored 24/7, surrounded by sentinel droids, and covered by seventy two layers of magic seals, which can only be lifted with permission from the city council." he explained, confidence present in every word he spoke.

This left Teri filled with a sense of dread and despair, she wanted to believe he was lying, but why would he? If what he said was true and there was only one way out that was heavily guarded then what chance did she have of leaving this place of her own free will, even her powers were restricted. She almost began to tear up when she realized that she may never be able to see Elmore, her family, her friends, and Gumball ever again.

That was until the doctor mentioned something else that caught her attention,

"Your companion, Gumball Watterson, was quite persistent that he could though. When he woke up, he nearly took Doctor Yensen's eye out with his claws and left quite a few scratches before security could detain him. Good thing we confiscated his scythe before he woke up, for a kid who recovered from surgery and suffered multiple ruptured organs, he sure is quite a fighter!" he exclaimed in fascination.

From her desperate position, wild hope began to fill her mind as she realized she wasn't alone after all and that the person she loved was with her, but was quickly shot down in dismay when she heard what he said in regards to his condition,

"What?! Surgery? Ruptured organs? What did you monsters do to him?!" she roared, clutching her fists and storming towards the room's only other occupant with her face contorted in anger.

Holding a hand in up in demand that she calm down and let him explain, Teri slowed her approach to a stop before listening to what he had to say, though she was still angry and worried,

"According to the report delivered by Hei, the one who captured him, he used a power from his scythe and it caused him some serious internal damage. Had he been brought here one hour too late, he could've died and we had to perform emergency surgery on his body along with a blood transfusion. He's up and running now, people with high spiritual energy tend to recover quickly and your friend has a lot of it." he explained.

While she was still beyond concerned for her boyfriend's well being, she was glad to hear that he was okay at least and felt her rage start to melt away, though her head was still swimming in negative emotions.

Once he had finished explaining himself, Dr. Jury asked her to have a seat and spent the next half hour asking questions regarding her health and others regarding her life in Elmore once the Nephilim started showing up. Wrapping up the interrogation, the medical professional deduced that she was physically and mentally fine before storing his notes in an envelope. Next he exited the room and Teri was alone for no longer than two minutes before a human NEA soldier dressed in full combat gear no different from a typical American soldier's, wearing the NEA emblem on an armband, escorted her out.

While traversing through the hospital's hallways, Teri was surprised to see that most of it was empty save for a few staff members, mostly robots, NEA guards, and some patients in blue hospital gowns being brought to different areas for treatment. It was definitely less crowded than her parent's workplace, but far gloomier, or was that just how she was perceiving it. They checked out at the front desk and the soldier brought her outside to a wide cityscape bustling with bizarros and humans alike.

While she never thought she would feel much positivity in a place where she was initially being held hostage, she was quite amazed by her new surroundings and had to stop for a second to take it all in. Like San Francisco, the place was built for diversity and every building she saw was designed to accommodate different species. Most of the people here looked like average citizens and were quite happy by the looks of it, as they hustled from one place to another. There were even normal things like restaurants, shops, businesses being held in towering skyscrapers and probably some homes too.

The only major difference she could see was that, for one, the sky was dark and devoid of stars, which she found was because the "sky" was actually the ceiling of an enormous cave, meaning the doctor was right about the Jeruzalem being built underground. Another thing she noticed was that most of the citizens were using some form of magic to get around, from ghastly carriages pulled by flaming skeleton horses to magic carpets that flew through the air in between the buildings and there was magic powering some of the appliances too, the first thing being spotted was a street lamp which was actually an ornate stone torch stand carved with glowing blue symbols and was topped with a blue flame.

The soldier walking with her noticed her marvelling at all the strange new sights and gave the child a little smile,

"Pretty cool, right?" he said.

Startled from her observational trance, Teri's head snapped in the human male's direction and she looked slightly flustered,

"O-oh yeah, definitely." she stammered,

"When I first heard of Jeruzalem, I thought it was just a code name for some super secure military base owned by the NEA. I didn't know it was an entire city full of people!" she exclaimed in surprise.

Nodding once, the soldier kept on smiling and looked about the grand city with warm familiarity as he began to describe it to her,

"Always gets you the first time you see it, but yeah, it's more than a city: It's a refuge. A fortress dedicated to the protection of the remaining few when the apocalypse hits. The world governments actually began construction of twenty of these back in the sixties when nuclear annihilation was a threat all too real for the people and it was also during a time when magic was starting to make significant strides amongst the populace, so a lot of contingency plans were made. Now the NEA uses them as headquarters and this one in particular houses up to half a million people, mostly families of the soldiers stationed here." he explained, before turning to her with a hand outstretched,

"I'm Jaydin Kallus, Private first class, by the way." he said, introducing himself.

Teri reluctantly took it and shook the soldier's hand,

"Teri Pepakuma." she responded politely before feeling comfortable enough to start asking some questions,

"So I noticed that the Nephilim haven't been really hitting us hard in the past and I assume this place is meant to hold more people once they start attacking in force." she said, to which the brown haired human nodded, allowing her to continue,

"So how many people can this city hold? Also, is your family here too?" she wondered out loud.

Walking around and waving to a group of uniformed officers, possible colleagues of his, Jaydin hummed to himself and tapped his chin with a finger,

"Around three million I do believe, but I heard rumors that Central Twelve wishes to expand the city to accommodate more people and yes, I do have a family here. My mom, my dad, my wife and her parents, along with three kids." he said, sounding very proud.

They walked along in silence for a bit while the city's white noise filled their ears, as Teri thought about what her escort just said and couldn't help but wonder if she could have her family brought here too. Will they bring them over to Jeruzalem? Will Gumball have his family too? Would it be possible for both of them to live normal lives here? So many questions she wanted to ask, but there was one that was more pressing in her mind.

"Where are we going by the way?" she asked, remembering full well how Amy said they wanted to capture them as recruits and this immediately got her thinking about training.

Pointing a gloved finger in the direction of what appeared to be a subway station's entrance, the soldier answered her question,

"There's a maglev train that's going to take you and several other initiates to the Venator arena, a sub level below the city's agricultural and the industrial level, where you will be tested to see how well you'll apply. I'm sure your companion is waiting there too, my buddy, Wilkes was the one assigned to him and I gotta say, I've heard a little bit about you two from my superiors: one month against dozens of Babyloth's Knights? Color me impressed!" he remarked, showing genuine awe while bringing his hands up to gesture at himself,

"I've been here for two years now and the best I've done was three kills over two missions in Washington state, you guys are going to do great in there!" he proclaimed, giving her a thumbs up.

While she was used to getting praise from her teammates back in Elmore, hearing from someone she just met honestly struck her as refreshing and was reminded that some of the people here were survivors just like them,

"Thanks, but I'm not sure what to expect when we get there." she said, rubbing the back of her head nervously.

Private Kallus waved her comment off and made light of the situation,

"Pfft! I'm sure you two have all the experience you need to survive Iris's trials, you'll be fine!" he stated in a friendly, reassuring manner.

This made Teri feel slightly better and she was glad to see that not all the people here were as cold and heartless like the members of the Azura squad.

Once they arrived at the maglev station, Jaydin directed her down the stairs where many young men and women were heading and Teri followed through, but not before she was given her backpack from Elmore fully stocked with all the needed supplies for battle. Thanking the soldier for being so kind to her and answering her questions, the paper bear waved him good-bye before racing down the stairs into the brightly lit tunnel. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, the newly arrived child was introduced to a loading station jam packed with different people.

She was surprised to see that most of the initiates were no older than sixteen and most were in groups talking to one another while others were quiet and quite frightened. They were all standing beside a glass tube where Teri supposed the maglev train would be arriving and there was quite a lot of shuffling around along with a seemingly endless chaotic chorus of chatter. She didn't see Gumball anywhere and was starting to get worried that he may have already gone on ahead without her.

"TERI!" came a familiar shout.

Turning in the direction of the noise, Teri spotted a familiar blue cat rushing towards her while brushing past swathes of bizarro and human children, his face a mixture of surprise, relief and happiness.

"GUMBALL!" Teri shrieked, joy filling her whole being as she tore her way towards him.

They both met up in the middle, catching each other in a loving embrace, laughing, and shedding tears of happiness as Gumball spun around with her feet lifting off the ground. They caught the attention of a few onlookers who regarded them with peculiar looks and a few comments, but none of this reached the united couple. Setting her down and pulling apart, the two still held hands as though either would disappear in an instant if they let go.

Seeing her here and now for the first time since he woke up in this scary place, Gumball was very glad to see her safe and sound,

"I'm so glad you're here!" he said, nearly crying.

Feeling the same way, Teri nodded and smiled at him, clutching his hands tighter,

"I know. When I woke up in the hospital, I was worried that I was the only one captured and then the doctor told me you were here and that you were hurt and I was worried that they did something to you and-!" she wiped a tear from her eye and shook her head,

"-I'm just glad that you're okay." she said, pulling him in for another hug.

While taking comfort in each other's presence, there was a cheer from all around them and when the two of them looked up, they saw a white, streamlined train with black tinted windows pull up into the station and a rectangular door on the glass tube slid open with a hiss as well as a door on the train.

Out came another NEA soldier, a humanoid with pale skin covered in black spots, an extra set of set of eyes next to the ones in front and three fingers on each hand, who beckoned them onboard,

"Alright initiates, climb aboard! I don't want to see anyone shoving or shouting, ya'll got it!" he snapped, sounding very agitated.

Seeing as he was carrying a loaded rifle, no one objected and all the kids quietly shuffled aboard the wheelless train. Taking her by the hand, Gumball led Teri towards the line of kids and Teri saw that he had his backpack as well with his scythe in it. What really caught her attention though, was the black mark on Gumball's left ear and the paper girl realized that it wasn't a stain or anything of the sort.

Wondering if it had anything to do with their battle against the Azura squad, Teri asked,

"Hey, Gumball, where did that mark on your ear come from?" her concern was very apparent in that airy voice of hers.

As if self aware, his left ear twitched and the cat boy's other paw raced up towards it, like a wound he was trying to cover before turning back towards her with an answer,

"I don't know, it was there when I woke up and when I asked the doctor, she just told me it must've been from a curse or something like that." he responded with a shrug when he noticed something off about Teri's appearance,

"Why's your left sleeve missing?" he questioned, very well aware of his girlfriend's acute attention when it came to her appearance.

At first, Teri wasn't sure what he meant and was quite certain that she wouldn't have missed a detail so trivial, but when she looked down at her arm, she saw that he was correct. The two lines that should've made up her blazer's sleeve cuff were gone and she knew she couldn't have erased it or forgotten to put it on. Then, just as quickly as she noticed it, the memory of last night's events came back to her and she remembered creating a barrier rune to stop an incoming car from running her over.

She wasn't sure how she did it, but she was sure that she had somehow manipulated the ink on her arm to form the symbol, a trait she never she had and all she could do was stare blankly at the spot while slowly muttering,

"I'm not sure, but I think I may have discovered a new power of mine?" she was still rather uncertain.

As if he couldn't have found Teri more amazing, Gumball gasped and his eyes widened like saucers,

"That's so awesome! Oh my Jade, you have to tell me what it is!" he exclaimed with joy.

Finding his utter fascination somewhat endearing, allowed for a chuckle to escape the paper puppet's lips and she figured she should tell him while they had a bit more privacy,

"Later and you have to tell me what happened with you yesterday. I'm still concerned about your health and I don't think you should be moving around so much after being operated on." she said, knowing this for a fact.

Realizing that she was right in her concerns, Gumball's memory flashed back to when he tried to use his third rune against Hei, only for a severe pain to rip through his abdomen followed up with him vomiting up his own blood and there was a deep sense of guilt he held for his reckless usage of power,

"Actually, I feel really great! The doctor told me that because I have such a high amount of spiritual energy, the healing process sped up and I was good to go early this morning. She did warn me not to be too reckless because while the healing process is accelerated, too much damage can still kill me and there's also the risk of exhausting spiritual energy to the point where it slows down too." he explained, sounding quite impressed.

It never occurred to the health addict until now that during all their previous fights with the Nephilim, while they never escaped uninjured from a fight (mostly Gumball), they were usually fine the next day and it now suddenly made sense to her why that was.

After waiting some time for the line to finally climb aboard the maglev, both Teri and Gumball were treated to a narrow interior similar to an airliner's and the two made their way towards the back where two seats remained unoccupied before taking a seat. One minute later, a guard wearing a grey uniform made his way up the aisle and handed each passenger eight bracelets with matching symbols varying from every individual. Once the entire cabin was full, the doors were closed and all the lights went out, causing some initiates to childishly scream.

Once the vacuum sealed tube was pumped free of air, the vehicle shot forward, propelled only by the electromagnetic force that guided it along the single track and the shipment of passengers was sent on a steady decline towards the lower levels, going speeds that exceeded the sound barrier. Despite the unease of being here, both Teri and Gumball couldn't help, but feel some childish delight in being set in a dark cabin while sitting by each other. The couple huddled in close and began whispering a few lines regarding the darkness along with a little flirting.

After merely two minutes of travel, a bright light filled the train through the windows and for a moment everyone on board was blinded by the sudden illumination. Once their eyes eventually adjusted, many faces peered out the window and were bestowed a beautiful sight. Through the glass tunnel there was an open space, so vast that it held an entire field and a forest that could be seen far in the back, with the ceiling being a massive display that showed a blue sky with white, fluffy clouds. Leaving the darkness of the geofront behind and entering this bright new environment almost made it seem as though they were transported to the midwest, away from the NEA.

"This is amazing!" Gumball gasped.

"How could they have fit all this in here?" Teri asked no one in particular.

"Do you think we can live down here, instead? This place is way more bright and cheery-looking than Jeruzalem." Remarked a girl with pink skin, purple hair and a lower body like an arachnid's, who was sitting behind them.

"Whooh! Camping time!" a boy near the back shouted, this one being around nine feet tall, covered in white fur, with two orange tusks and wearing nothing but a leather loincloth wrapped around his waist.

The moving maglev was filled with comments both positive and negative coming from all the initiates, with some finding this all to be thrilling while others were terrified of this new place, one kid was even bawling, saying he wanted to go home and looked no older than ten

Once the train descended upon a station filled with several guards, everyone grew quiet and a voice was heard over the PA system, welcoming them to their new environment,

"Welcome to Venator arena! Please watch your step when disembarking from the train and follow the guides as they direct you to the staging area. Good luck, initiates!" It was feminine and very friendly, though it failed to bring a sense of calm to the children.

" _Oh great, an arena! Is this going to be some battle royale, where we have to fight all these kids to the death to see who gets the honor of being the NEA's new fodder feeder?"_ Gumball wondered bitterly as he got up and followed Teri out along with the crowd.

Stepping outside for the first time, Gumball was treated to a pleasant breeze and the scent of fresh pine filled his nostrils, he even spotted a few sparrows flying around, feeling slightly envious that they were able to enjoy their stay in this cage in complete ignorant bliss. The guards dressed in grey security detail, unlike the soldiers above, were giving directions and presenting some of the newcomers to racks filled with weapons of various kinds, all of which were magical,

"Alright for those of you who don't have a weapon or magical abilities or just need one, come here and grab one that best suits you. Remember, the Nephilim's fatal weakness is magic, so you best grab one if you lack magic and for those of you who've never been in a fight before please report to Sergeant Jordi. He'll take you back up to the city and you'll start your training before you're sent down here again to take the test." one of the guards, a giraffe man said while pointing a hoof towards a Bizarro male who looked human, but had beefy arms so big, his knuckles were dragging on the grass.

After nearly a quarter of the children left to follow Sergeant Jordi, the guide spoke up again and presented the remaining bunch with some more instructions,

"Those of you, who're already prepared, just follow Sergeant Belgari over there." he ordered, pointing towards a different figure.

Wearing the same uniform as the others and with bronze skin that caught the light, was Sergeant Belgari. He was quite short for the average male, but his bell-shaped head made him look a little taller. His head was a ringing bell in fact, tilted sideways so that the mouth was facing forward and his face was on the bell's ringer.

Waving them over, he started jogging in place, the constant movement making his ringer bang against his head's hollow surface,

"Come on, you light weights! Let's move it, we've got a lot of ground to cover and a nice jog should wake you all up! Let's go! Let's go!" he shouted, already taking off in the direction of the grassy field.

Rolling his eyes, Gumball crossed his arms and shook his head,

"I don't know who he is, but his face certainly rings a bell!" he joked.

This caused several kids around him to break the silence with heaves of laughter and Teri joined in, although as usual she found his pun to be ridiculous,

"Couldn't let that one slide, could you!" she berated, though she was still laughing.

"That was my best one, unfortunately. The other ones in my head rang hollow." he shot back.

She gently hit him with a notebook she pulled from her bag and took him by the hand,

"Alright, you dork, that's enough joking around! Let's follow that dumb bell and make sure we don't get in trouble." she said, tossing her own pun in.

Snickering at her joke, Gumball continued to run right behind her, but quickly tossed a look directed back towards the station,

"Are you sure you don't want to get a weapon?" he asked, wondering if she would like to arm herself with something a little stronger.

Tapping her backpack, Teri kept on running and answered back to him,

"Got what I need right here? Do you need another weapon?" she shot a backwards glance towards him.

Shaking his head, Gumball pulled out his compacted scythe and held it up in front of him,

"Just this and I have you with me, so that makes me more than prepared." he stated, flashing her a warm grin.

She smiled back at him and felt the same,

" _That's the reason why we lost to the Azura squad in the first place, we were separated and couldn't match our foes on our own."_ she realized with regret, but shook it off.

What mattered was they were still alive and they had each other's backs, now all they needed was to survive the coming tribulations and plan their next move.

For two miles they ran, with Sergeant Belgari leading the front and with various other fighters on every side, both kids from Elmore were glad that they were athletic enough to keep up with everyone else, as many had already fallen behind. Looking around at the other teens and preteens selected to be trained, both newcomers were amazed to see just how many different weapons these people carried, with some looking ancient or basic, like Gumball's scythe, and others being homemade or upgraded conventional weapons.

After their light jog had come to a close, the destination they were aiming to reach turned out to be a larger crowd of people, several hundred in number and dozens of staff members to keep watch. Confused as to why so many people were packed in a grassy field at the edge of a looming forest, Teri looked around, but found nothing that stood out as particular. She wondered if escape would be possible, but when she looked up, she saw no openings in the fake sky above, except the tunnel which the maglev arrived in, and when she tried to use her powers on a sheet of paper she held, nothing happened. The inhibitor chip was still active and if she were to guess, they also gave one to Gumball that prevented him from using his scythe.

With a heavy heart, Teri's hopes were dashed again and her homesickness was already kicking in.

Without much to do, Teri decided to engage Gumball in some small talk regarding speculations towards the next events and all Gumball could come up with were some ridiculous ideas most likely from things he'd seen on TV. This went on for about half an hour and right when they were getting into the thick of some funny banter, there was a collective gasp from the crowd and the pair looked to see everyone's gaze had been directed upwards. When their heads shot up, they figured out what had caused the commotion and were met with a curious sight.

Descending from the sky above, was a red orb, a very large one! When it got closer it was estimated to be at least twenty feet in diameter and looked like the world's largest, shiniest scarlet marble. It slowly dropped until it was levitating fifty feet from the ground in front of the gathered throng of people and sat there for a moment while everyone remained in stunned silence. Then, from the object, a loud hum resounded across the field, causing the ground to vibrate and a shadow sprang forth, high up into the sky.

"Woah!" many, including Gumball, shouted, while few others screamed.

" _He's huge!"_ Teri thought.

Morphing and reshaping itself, the amorphous blotch of darkness took on the shape of a terrifyingly strange spirit. Its face was obscured by a white, bird-like mask, with two hollow eye holes and in only one of them a single red eye glared down upon the curious/frightened crowd of onlookers. Covered in silver plated armor with only his arms being bare, the entity looked bold and intimidating, but that was further amplified by his dizzying full height, easily reaching about three hundred feet. Curiously, there were other avion-esque features that stood out to the naked eye, his elbows were covered in raven-like feathers, a belt composed of four bird wings wrapping themselves around the base of his ghostly tail and his dark spiky hair was also slightly reminiscent of a birds crest.

All in all, the giant that appeared before them left quite an impression on the two Nephilim fighters, filling them with a sense of awe and mystique.

After getting a good look at the ant-like people standing before him, the massive spirit placed both arms behind his back and a booming voice erupted seemingly from all around them,

"Hello and welcome, initiates!" he greeted, his overwhelming voice commanding respect, yet sounding friendly and inviting,

"I understand that many of you are new here and may be uncertain of your new environment, but you needn't worry. You're at home here and all those who stand around with you are your family now." he said, bringing a hand out and sweeping it in front of him in order to gesture towards every child he was looking at,

"I am Iris, your overseer, and I welcome you to Jeruzalem."

There were murmurs spreading throughout the gathered and many seemed either uneasy or impressed by the strange spirit, Gumball and Teri were the latter.

Raising a hand to command silence, Iris listened as all the chatter died down and he had their attention once again,

"As administrator of the Nephilim Expulsion Administration, it is my duty to ensure the protection of the world and its people by raising the finest soldiers to combat the encroaching threat of the Nephilim invaders. To many of you here, you've probably already begun sensing these threats in the forms of nightmarish visions or perhaps already had unfortunate encounters with the enemy. To those of you who'd been orphaned by the Nephilim and lost loved ones, you have no reason to fear them any longer, for you will have a chance to avenge them and to begin life anew." he promised and several faces amongst the crowd seemed surprised, even hopeful when his words reached them.

With a wave of his hand, a curved holographic screen popped up in front of him and on it was a display of Los Angeles, causing both the cat boy and the paper girl's eyes to widen,

"The Oracle of Delphi has received a vision, an assault far larger than any that has come before will be launched on the city of Los Angeles on the 16th of November and the enemy force will number in the hundreds of thousands." he announced.

Fear rippled through the crowd, sending waves of panicked screams and conversations regarding the hopelessness of the situation sprung up amongst those who've already faced the monsters on their own, some people even had families or friends in Los Angeles. A cold wet snake of despair snaked down the backs of those who escaped Babyloth with this information and hearing the statistics just made that news all the more foreboding. There was also something else that Gumball noticed and it had to do with the date the invasion took place on.

"Well isn't that just great! five days before my birthday." he muttered in frustration.

Spinning towards him with her eyes wide open, Teri regarded the blue feline with a bewildered look,

"Wait, what?" she questioned.

Before he could answer, Iris raised his hand again and the armored entity moved on to the next part of his explanation, shutting the display off and keeping his red eye focused on all of them,

"I understand there is much to be concerned about, but we have already taken steps to counter this attack. The mayor has been informed and has contacted the national guard to begin the evacuation of the civilians. The NEA has commissioned other military forces from all over the world to take part in what is to be the largest joint operation performed by this organization to repel the invaders and some among you will be taking part in this counterattack as well." he squared his shoulders and his eye seemed to glow with determination,

"To evaluate this, I've set up a little test for you and you'll have a chance to show your skill." He started.

The hovering display split into two separate rectangles with the one on the left showing a bronze goblet, which he pointed to,

"To start off, the objective of this test is to obtain as many points as possible by completing one of two objectives and the first one is to locate these relics in the woods. They are scattered in remote areas and are very difficult to locate, plus the forest is infested with terrifying monsters that you will have to fend off. Should you manage to locate one and bring it back to home base, you'll be awarded 100,000 points, the highest score for one item." he explained.

The left display flickered to now show and overview of the entire arena with the field they were standing in marked with a blue flag icon labeled "HOME BASE" and the air was filled with the sounds of initiates already drawing up plans or just crying out in utter disbelief at how difficult this mission sounded.

Then Iris continued, quickly silencing the crowd by pulling up an image of the bracelets they were given and he went on to explain the purpose of these items,

"These bands can be given by one person to any seven people they choose to be on their team and should a team carry a relic to the goal, they'll all be awarded the 100,000 points and will pass the test as a result. You may compete with other teams for the prize, but torture, sexual assault or harassment and killing anyone will be met with severe consequences. As a word of mention, I can see everything that happens in this arena and no action will ever escape my sight!" He warned in a tone that implied to everyone something dark should the rules be broken.

He then pulled everyone's attention to the next board which showed a list of monsters ranked from A to F, with the A ranked monsters looking deadly and extremely ferocious, like a hell storm given animalistic form and F looking fearsome, but small in comparison to the higher tiers,

"Your second objective, should you decide to ignore the first, is to kill as many of the monsters within the forest and not get disqualified. The monsters shown here are given points based in their rank, A being 50,000, B at 10,000, C at 2,000, D as 400, E being 80, and finally F being the lowest at 15. Keep in mind that all these monsters are extremely dangerous, but we have cybernetic implants that can control their killer instinct, so there is no danger of being knocked out." he closes the displays and places his hands behind his back once more,

"Once the hour has passed, your team will be awarded with the collective number of points obtained from every monster you killed, but do be warned, if you sustain too many injuries or get struck by their telepulse beams, then you'll be sent back to a number of infirmaries in disqualification." He concluded.

With the rules now explained, Iris morphed into a shadow and retreated back into his core which began to rise,

"The time is 12:00, in 1 hour the board and I will examine the scores of each individual. We aim to see how well each of you fare as a fighter, a teammate, and as a strategist, so do your best out there and don't forget, you're being monitored, any disregard to the rules or attempt to escape will be met with severe reprimands. Your inhibitor chips have been deactivated and you're free to use your magic. Good luck out there, initiates." and with that final message, he vanished into the blue beyond.

There wasn't even a pause in the reaction held by the group's more headstrong faction, with the ones who've already faced terror itself leaping forward into the fray, weapons raised and a symphony of bloodthirsty roars that rang out into the wilderness, challenging anything that lurked within. Pausing to ready themselves, Teri and Gumball remained with those who were far more hesitant in charging forward or just straight up frightened of the unknown and Teri handed Gumball a bracelet before wearing one herself to signify they were a team. Clicking the buttons on his scythe's handle, Gumball's weapon sprang forth, its deadly edge catching the light in menacing gleams and he swung it around before placing it on his shoulder.

Cracking his neck with a simple twist of his head, the duo's best melee fighter eyed the charging group and turned to his companion,

"We should probably split from the main group and start searching for some monsters to kill. I have a feeling a lot of people are going to go for the relics and I don't think we should bother wasting time searching for them either." he stated observantly.

Forming an origami wolf with a solid grey sheet of paper, Teri hopped on and scooted forward so Gumball could sit behind her,

"As much as I would like to get this over with as quickly as possible, you have a point there and we should just stick to what we do best. You got my back?" she asked, glancing backwards.

Clutching the shafted weapon in both hands and wearing his game face, Gumball complied with a nod before hopping on,

"Lead the way, Captain Pepakuma!" he replied with a quick salute.

Nodding back in response, Teri willed the folded beast of burden forward and the wolf tore its way across the field before disappearing into the line of trees with both passengers. Once beneath the forest canopy, all had grown considerably quiet, even the shouts of the warriors who'd entered before them had ceased entirely and Gumball was completely devoted to his sense of sight and sound. Taking the moment of quiet to begin with the inscription of more weapons and defenses, Teri was also curious and drew three black circles on each arm, thinking maybe she could try using that strange power again.

Hearing and seeing nothing while the origami wolf quietly bounded over fallen trees, rocks, and soft soil, Gumball was brought back to a recent memory and couldn't help but smile a little,

"Kind of reminds me of all those times we trained in the woods together." he said, feeling slightly at home here.

Noting the similarities in the environment here and the one back at Elmore, Teri too was brought back to those moments,

"Yeah, kind of." she whispered, keeping a lookout for any potential threats and any sort of monitoring equipment, seeing as Iris said he'll be tracking them, but failed to see any,

"Ugh! I wish I knew how he was monitoring us, I'd be able to form a plan of escape if I did." she scowled as a response to her lack of information.

Looking around and only seeing the same thing she was, Gumball too wondered how it was the overseer was able to monitor an entire forest, much less two kids,

"I don't think escaping this place is going to be easy." he said before suddenly realizing something,

"Wait, that's it!" he cried out.

"Hmm?" Teri grunted, her eyes already finding their way back to him.

Leaning in close in fear of someone, particularly Iris, was listening in on them, he whispered his plan to Teri,

"Why don't we play along for a bit and try to be the best soldiers in the NEA?" he silently suggested.

Raising an eyebrow, Teri wasn't following him and Gumball had to further clarify,

"If we make it to the top, we can join the battle in Los Angeles and when the battle ends, we can slip away!" he said, his eyes sparkling with enthusiasm.

Realizing that it may be their only shot in getting out and getting back to Elmore, to their friends and family, Teri's expression lightened up,

"That's brilliant, Gumball, but what are we going to-!"

"INCOMING!" Gumball shouted after catching something moving fast through the corner of his eye.

Not even five minutes had passed since they entered the forest and they were already being attacked by their first batch of monsters. There were six of them, a pack of creatures with slim bodies and builds similar to that of a dog's. Having memorized the list, both were able to recognize these monsters as Blood Fangs, F class to be exact and it wasn't at all shocking that they came in packs.

They moved around them like darting shadows, skull-like masks giving off a deathly aura and their red fangs snapping as they dripped with venomous saliva. Even at the speed they were traveling at, the Blood Fangs were able to keep up easily and though they appeared small, both kids knew very well those dagger-like fangs and sharp claws could easily rip them asunder, plus their numbers made them all the more threatening.

Then with a blood-curdling howl from what was probably the pack leader, they all began to attack, with three leaping high up into the air towards them and the other three keeping a tight formation around them.

Raising his scythe up to deal with the three above, Gumball charged up a low level Moonfire Slash and waited for them to close in,

"Back off!" he shouted as he swung wide.

Bursting to life, the flames coated the blade and from it leapt a great arc of burning silver that caught two of those unfortunate enough to be in its path. Cut through the midsection, both fell to the ground in two separate smoking pieces and the third shot towards Gumball, who was unprepared to deal with it the moment it bared down on him. Knocking him clean from the back of the Origami wolf, the two were sent tumbling to the ground and Teri's head shot back when she felt the weight on her ride lessen, seeing with trepidation what had transpired.

Forced onto his back with the Blood Fang's paws pressed into his shoulders, the creature bit down on his arm, but Gumball's second rune already activated and rendered the beast's attack ineffective,

"Agh! Bad dog!" he shouted before pressing his feet into the Blood Fang's stomach and launching it off of him.

With his strength renewed, Gumball's kick sent it flying like a discarded, shaggy pillow and slammed against a nearby tree, hearing its back snap like a twig along with its dying howl. Getting up quickly, Gumball heard one of them approaching and turned to see a black mass with a skull at the center already leaping towards him. It's jaws opened up, ready to deliver death with it's crushing red fangs, but didn't get the chance to when a trident made of water sank into its neck and sent the flying monster tumbling to the side.

Having quickly dispatched the other two with well-placed petrification runes, Teri, having reduced the other two to stone, quickly bounded towards Gumball and offered him a ride seeing as the last one was dead,

"That was quite the nasty fall. Are you alright?" she asked, inspecting his arm with a glance.

Brushing the dirt off his sleeves, Gumball inspected the torn area where the Blood Fang bit him and saw no traces of blood,

"Yeah, managed to activate the second rune before I was bit. I'm surprised how easy it was to kill those things, they're nothing like the Nephilim back at Elmore!" he said, feeling kind of relieved.

Nodding once, Teri helped him back onto her wolf and sent the origami racing towards another section of the woods while coming up with a plan,

"Okay, so we've each killed three, meaning we both have 45 points, let's go deeper into the woods. There's bound to be larger ones lurking there." she guessed, feeling positive that was the case.

Seeing her point, Gumball was on board with Teri's plan and mentally noted to be on the lookout for anything suspicious,

"Right, that makes sense. We should also keep an eye out for other competitors, they might give us trouble if they feel like we're too big of a competition." he added.

That made sense. The competition is likely to get fierce as time goes on and while the test's overseer strictly prohibited mutilation and murder, that shouldn't stop others from seeking out ways to stop them. Thus, their hunt continued and the pair journeyed deeper into the dangerous territory unknown to them.

 _-Overview room, 12:17 AM-_

A quarter of an hour had come and gone since Iris released the novices into the arena and in that brief amount of time, many had already been eliminated. Of the four hundred that started out, only 168 remained, with over half being eliminated in numerous skirmishes taking place within the first two sectors. This wasn't surprising in the least, as the test was meant to weed out the weak and see which among the few were fit enough to become soldiers. Many of the selected were simply orphans and children brought in from major cities thanks to their discreet screening methods, most of which were inexperienced in the field of combat or hunting.

Watching their progress unfold within a cavernous, circular room with curved walls that acted as one large monitor displaying a map of the Venator arena and moving yellow arrows that served as indicators marking the position of every initiate. Iris, the overseer, watched it all with an unblinking red eye as multiple cables hung from his back, plugging the masked entity to the surveillance system and allowing him full coverage inside his head. Nothing could escape his gaze and with his eye on everyone now, he was able to mark their progress.

" _The crowd's drawing thin now and everyone is starting to form up into smaller teams."_ he noted watching the yellow arrows starting to spread out in groups no larger than eight as more monsters marked by purple skulls on his display began to close in,

" _Good, they're starting to get it. Once they've crossed into their territory, the monsters become attracted to them like flies to a carcass and staying in large groups will only serve to attract more."_ he thought, tilting his head up a little in satisfaction.

Like most animals, monsters will avoid all contact with civilization as much as possible, but they're not animals. They are the incarnate forms of Mephistopheles' rage and disdain towards the children of the Earth and much like their master, they lurk within the darkness that the wilderness provides, out of sight and out of mind as they prey on those who stray too far from safety. By lowering their numbers, yet staying together in small bands, the beasts will spread and their numbers will be far more manageable.

He continued to monitor certain groups with intrigue as quite a few had started for the marked areas of the relics, hoping to score an easy win, while many others began to venture deeper into the woods in search of more enemies to fight. Selecting certain groups and individuals within those groups, Iris carefully deducted their strengths and weaknesses before moving on to a certain pair heading towards an area simply marked as the temple ruins. Riding atop what appeared to be an origami wolf, a blue cat wielding a scythe and a paper bear who seemed to be controlling the beast, Iris already knew about these two individuals from Elmore.

" _Gumball Tristopher Watterson and Teri Tsukishiro Pepakuma, two survivors from Elmore and according to the intel gathered from the former, both have been actively engaging the Nephilim for over a month now. Very impressive."_ he mused, thinking about the mission carried out by both Azura and Jormungandr squads.

While Azura squad was successful in bringing these two in, the elite capture team, Jormungandr, had proven to be unsuccessful in their assigned task and had just been retrieved at HQ in Washington D.C. after being bested by Grendella Jotenheim. Unfortunately, sending another strike team in to subdue Fjel's son wasn't going to cut it this time as the mother had also sent with the defeated squad a note stating that she will summon Fjel himself to crush Washington and while this was most certainly a bluff on the witch's part, it would not be wise to disturb the sleeping titan. No power wielded by any nation would be enough to halt the wrath of one of the Emperor's three divine regents, but he had other plans to ensure the NEA's presence would remain in Elmore. Starting tomorrow, he was to contact an exceptional Elmore citizen and form an alliance with him.

Right now though, his focus was on the contest and he could see that both fighters from Elmore were drawing nearer to the temple's ruin as well as another group of initiates, but what really drew his attention was the two large purple skulls encased in circles matching in color, signifying a large threat, making their way towards them,

" _Let's see where that experience gets them in the face of what's coming."_ the avion-esque specter chuckled to himself deviously as he remained ever so watchful from the fake sky, a deity of this little world.

 _-Venator arena, half a mile from the broken temple, three minutes later-_

"AAAUGH!"

SNAP!

Screaming as he was sent flying backwards through a tree that snapped in two upon contact and came crashing down on the forest floor with a heavy boom that sent birds scattering. Gumball's back was saved from permanent damage by the web of glowing purple veins that covered it and made for a pretty useful solid barrier. However, as soon as he tumbled to a stop, a burning pain spread throughout and left him gasping in shock, realizing that this pain was caused by the second rune somehow.

Up until now, he'd only used it once a day and now he knew there was clearly a limit to how many times he could use this power.

Fortunately for the winded cat, his adrenaline prevented him from staying in such a position as soon as the C class monster, simply called the "Bone Head", came barreling through the treeline and tried to trample him underfoot,

"Woah, uh-uh!" he grunted as he rolled out of the way of the charging beast's path.

Having narrowly escaped, Gumball was on his feet again, but the bear-like behemoth had spun about on its stubby legs and swung its round, heavily armored head straight at him,

"Moonfire Slash!" Gumball screamed, swinging a quarter charged wave of fire directly at the Bone Head's fast approaching blunt weapon.

The attack exploded on impact, forcing the bulky monster to groan in pain as its head was knocked in the opposite direction while the extremely light Watterson child was sent flying again after the shockwave struck him like a full-body sledge hammer and immediately found his head carving a trench into the ground before stopping,

"Okay, clearly I'm the bone head here. That was incredibly stupid of me." He self-chastised after lifting his head from the hole he made and shaking off the dirt.

Checking out the monster, he was relieved to see that his last-ditch attack left it dazed as it was stumbling about and shaking its head in a much needed attempt to rid itself of dizziness. Its forward section was also heavily armored with that reinforced bone layer, but its back and underside was only covered in a thick, brownish red, furry hide. Once it was ready to attack again, the wily scythe user suddenly had an idea and met his charge with one of his own again.

"See ya down under, Boo-boo!" he roared, filling his body with more energy as he sped forward.

Lowering its head and picking up speed with its powerful hind limbs, the Bone Head was dead set on flattening the kitten into a blue smear on its battering ram, but received a shock when the kid suddenly vanished. Seconds later, its stomach was cut open from throat to tail and Gumball came sliding out from underneath with the blade held upwards while the monster plowed into the ground. Seeing the mound of flesh and bone starting to disintegrate, Gumball was relieved that his new angle of attack worked to his advantage and wondered how Teri was faring against her opponent.

The answer to that was simply not too well. Several hundred meters away, Teri was being chased by a Manticore, a lion-scorpion hybrid as big as a car with the body of the fearsome savanna feline and the tail of a scorpion covered in cybernetic augmentations.

The creature was clever and fast, both having encountered it while being chased by the Bone Armor, so Teri opted to split up so that Gumball could handle the larger one while she dealt with the faster one. Being as light and agile as she was, Teri easily outmaneuvered every quick strike of the Manticore's tail and the beast resorted to trying to blast at her with it's Telepulse cannon. Weaving in and through tight spaces provided by the trees, Teri's wolf nimbly dodged every blue lance that came from behind and the telltale roar of the Manticore, signified to Teri that it was getting frustrated.

Then the monster tried something different, rather than going straight for her and getting blocked off by the trees, the powerful feline instead opted to cut her off completely.

Leading the beast towards a specific area, Teri hoped that it would continue to follow her, but was caught off guard when the rain of Telepulse rays ceased to fall around her and a loud snap was heard followed by crackling sound,

"What's that- AAUUGH!" she screamed in terror after turning her head back to see something terrible coming her way.

The Manticore, with its cunning, had selected a tree that was perfectly aligned with Teri's path and with a well placed jump, managed to tackle the tree with enough force to send it crashing down on her. The only thing that managed to save Teri was her quick thinking and reflexes, leaping from her wolf as the tree crushed it completely. With the weight of her backpack carrying her down, she hit the ground hard and rolled, managing to land in a sitting position before scrambling to her feet.

Seeing that it's prey wasn't crushed, but slowed thanks to the loss of her mount, the lion-like beast, with its predatory instincts in full drive, roared and took off after her. With only a few strides, the car sized monstrosity caught up to her and tried first piercing her back with its stinger. Turning around and seeing the attack on its way, Teri readied herself with a moon barrier rune. Quick as a cobra, the tail lashed out and struck only a glass barrier, creating a sharp _Clack!_ upon impact before the barrier shattered.

Baring it fangs in irritation, a bubbling hiss left its throat and stabbed again and again, each strike barely missing as Teri was able to put her agility gained from years of cheerleading practice to use in evading the onslaught, once tired of trying to skewer the paper puppet, the Manticore lashed out with its paw and caught Teri within its arc, sending her tumbling away with a scream. After smacking into a tree, Teri was glad that she lacked bones because they most likely would've been shattered upon contact, the girl fell and got back up, quickly inspecting where the beast struck her. There was a single tear on her right side just below her arm, but nothing she couldn't patch up herself.

Grunting in pain, she muttered to herself as she began to run away,

"Great, forgot to replenish my disinfectant!" she muttered somewhat sarcastically as it was normally one of her top concerns.

Giving chase, the man-eating behemoth was almost upon her, but was slowed after its target tossed a bomb shuriken over her shoulder and disoriented the beast with a blast. With her distraction buying her a little more time, Teri continued to run until she reached that spot she was aiming for and spun around to face the beast that was now back on her trail. Thinking it had her now, the Manticore charged without hesitation towards her and raised its stinger to blast her back to the maglev station.

KRA-KOW!

Stepping into her trap, the three sheets of paper she left on the ground at the start of the chase, lit up as their symbols summoned forth a powerful lightning strike, so devastating that it blasted the monster to bits and Teri was rather stunned to see how much power three lightning runes could muster. Hearing the thunderclap as well as seeing the flash of light, Gumball came rushing towards her and saw to his relief that she was still here. Catching him at the corner of her eye, Teri turned with a comfortable smile and quickly made her way towards him.

"Did you get him?" she asked, referring to the beast he was tasked with defeating.

Spinning his scythe around until it rested on his shoulder, Gumball waved a paw and appeared nonchalant,

"When push comes to shove, you know I can get the job done!" he answered with a wink before noticing the scratch beneath Teri's arm and dropping the cool act,

"You okay?" he asked.

Looking down at the minor injury and shrugging, Teri's face showed no sign of distress,

"It's just a scratch. You see, this is why I'm not a cat person!" she joked, raising an eyebrow as she awaited his response.

Taking such a quip as a challenge, Gumball raised an eyebrow and erected himself in a manner one could say was formal,

"Well, personally, I like to think that I'm purr-fect! Way better than that cat-tastrophe over there." he retorted, cracking a half smile.

Laughing lightly at his reaction, Teri shook her head and gave him a light shove,

"Eh, maybe a little." she teased before pecking him on the cheek,

"At least you're house-trained." She snickered.

Now his smile faded and he immediately took offense to her comment,

"Hey!" he snapped, watching her giggle in amusement before setting herself down and getting started on their next ride.

It's been almost half an hour now and after slaying many low ranking monsters before encountering the two they just fought, the two were starting to notice just how quiet it has become. The shouts left by those who had clashed with the monsters earlier had died down and were replaced by the sounds of this artificial nature. One could assume that they were now considerably farther into the wilds and wandering hunters must have broken into smaller teams to better hunt for greater game or the relics.

This wasn't any particular concern of theirs seeing as they were sticking with their original plan and searching for greater prizes which given the two big guys they've just tussled with, it seemed as though they were marching into deadly grounds.

Once finished, Teri presented to him a dragon folded from black paper and Gumball was quite ecstatic to see this, for dragons were one of his favorite mythological creatures. Hopping on with her, they were set to go once more and the winged lizard scurried off with its passengers. They moved like lightning through the forest with Teri using the dragon's legs and wings to cross greater distances.

It was all going well for the first few minutes, but the traveling pair from Elmore was quickly halted by a wall of ice suddenly appearing in front of them and the experienced Nephilim fighters anticipated a fight by drawing their weapons while assuming defensive positions.

"Hello there, you two!" a voice called out from right next to them and they traced it back to the source.

To their surprise, it wasn't a monster, but a kid, actually the same kid they saw earlier on the maglev, the white, hairy giant with orange tusks and wearing only a leather loincloth around his waist. From his mouth, white mist poured out as though his breath froze the very air it touched and it didn't take a genius to figure out he was the one who created the ice wall. He looked really gruff, but his face didn't match and that seemed to be a good thing.

Accompanying the nine-foot-tall teenager was a robot panda girl whose exterior was made of a soft, inflatable material, giving her a fluffy, rotund appearance and her face was a circular digital display showing a panda face, only with long feminine eyelashes. She wore an amulet made of silver with a single ruby stone and a bracelet with a symbol matching the giant's.

Feeling slightly at ease once they saw them, they lowered their weapons, but kept them at the ready in case they would need them. Making his way towards them at a steady pace, with his partner at his side, the snow giant wore a friendly smile and his beady brown eyes seemed to show no signs of hostility or hidden intent. He looked as though he were greeting two friends in all honesty and this made it harder to fear him.

Waving his hand and maintaining his welcoming presence, he spoke in a raised tone as though he had no idea what an indoor voice was,

"No need to worry, we're not here to pick a fight! I am Rostislav Zhukov, but you can call me Ross and this here is my friend, Candi!" he introduced, speaking with a Russian accent.

The robot panda waved a stubby mitten paw and her display flashed a happy face,

"Hello!" she simply said.

Glancing at one another before quietly deciding to act as potential friends, they greeted them in the same friendly manner and Gumball started off with the introductions,

"Nice to meet you, I'm Gumball Watterson and this is Teri Pepakuma. We're both from Elmore." he said with a gesture towards himself and Teri, who seemed alright.

The giant and the panda looked at one another for a moment before both of them suddenly burst out laughing, with Ross even clenching his gut,

"Gumball? Such a funny name!" Ross commented, laughing even harder much to Gumball's chagrin.

Once she got her laughs in, Candi turned to Teri with a perplexed look and Teri caught it before the robot tilted her head to the side,

"Your name sounds Japanese." she remarked in confusion.

Nodding once, Teri answered Candi's unspoken question regarding her heritage,

"I'm actually American, but both my parents are from Japan."

Clapping her hands together, Candi's face switched to a look of delight with her mouth shaped like an "O" as her eyes widened,

"How exciting! I'm from China!" she responded excitedly, clapping her hands.

Surprised to see another bear here who was also Asian, Teri's eyes lit up with fascination and showed it with an excited bounce on her dragon,

"That's awesome!" she shot back before raising an eyebrow in suspicion of this bear,

"You're a robot though?" she stated in a tone that did not betray her confusion.

Smiling as though proud of this fact, Candi swung her arms a little ways while bouncing on her toes and nodded in affirmation,

"Sure am! Panda care unit Jiu or as I like to call myself, Candi, built by Beijing's Hongxin medical facility and I am one of a kind!" She happily declared, filling Teri with awe and intrigue.

Following their little exchange, Ross cleared his throat and placed his massive hands behind his back before emitting a serious aura,

"I see that you two made it very far, where's the rest of your team?" he questioned as his shaggy head swept around in search of any possible members nearby.

Shaking his head and spreading his arms out, Gumball gave the newcomers his straightest look,

"We're not part of a team, it's been just us since we got here." he replied honestly.

Nodding once and scratching his fuzzy chin with curving black claws, this was very pleasing to hear,

"So you two are very close? I bet you've been through a lot together." he stated, his brown eyes carefully analyzing their faces.

One look from him to each other was the only answer Ross needed and the giant with the Russian accent breathed a heavy sigh, with a puff of mist blowing out in between his fangs,

"I see. That is a good thing, we could use some guys like you and you're in luck, Paris sent us out to gather strong individuals to add to his team. We only have four so far and you two would make a very fine addition to our forces, so what do you say? Will you join us?" he offered, stretching out a furry hand to reveal an open palm that was furless and covered in tough, bluish black skin.

While his offer to join them was polite and seemed to be harmless, something didn't sit well with them. This was mainly due to the fact that neither wanted to join up with another team and then there was also the wall of ice he summoned to prevent them from continuing when he or his robot companion could've just hollered to gain their attention. Before they could give their answer, a question needed to be asked and Teri was the one to do so.

"What's Paris's plan?" Teri inquired, raising an eyebrow.

Seeing their hesitation and their suspicion all playing out before him, Ross slowly dropped the hand he was about to give them while Candi stepped forward and offered a much needed explanation,

"Paris had sent out two scouts earlier to an area that looked suspiciously like a nest of some sort, only one returned, the other was zapped back to the station, and reported that a relic had been spotted within the nest. The problem is, there's a lot of monsters in the area and Paris sent us out to find more people to recruit. Our hope is to create three teams of eight so that our team can infiltrate the nest and grab the relic, while the others draw their attention away." she was looking at each one hopefully, as though expecting her revealing of the plan to somehow gain their trust.

"That sounds awfully deceptive." Gumball pointed out, giving them a hard look.

Waving his hands as if to brush aside his comment, Ross was still looking rather relaxed about the whole thing, but his eyes were now starting to show something that both saw as dangerous as he laid it out for them,

"Don't think of it like that. I mean after all, no one is getting hurt and if we return to home base with the prize, we win, easily. Plus, maybe they'll offer redo's for the ones who lost, so they'll do better next time." he said, bringing his hand out again in a symbolic gesture of friendship,

"Come with us, to victory!" he offered one last time with a pleading smile.

Having heard enough at this point to know what kind of people these guys were, the Elmore duo decided now was the time to book it and with a single command, Teri's dragon was already on the move,

"Yeah thanks, but we'll do just fine on our own." Gumball responded, already turning his head as they started forward.

KLANG!

It was too fast for the eye to follow, but right as Gumball finished that sentence, something metallic struck the ice wall dangerously close to their heads and sent shards of ice flying as a small gash was carved into the surface. Heads snapping in unison back towards the two, they were just in time to see a spinning metallic discus return to Candi's amulet (it must've been magic because there was no where she could've been hiding that pizza-sized throwing shield.) and the robot's monitor was a solid, angry red. Ross meanwhile had dropped the friendly facade completely and was shaking his head in disappointment.

Breathing a white mist into his hand, a mace with a handle made of smooth ice topped with a spiky ball formed from icicles manifested and his grip tightened on the weapon before he let the head dangle by his side,

"That wasn't a suggestion, you two!" he growled through a clenched jaw.

Seeing no way out of this that didn't involve a violent confrontation, Gumball met the ice giant's subtle threat with a loud hiss, baring his fangs and letting his fur stand on end,

"And you guys need to take a hint!" he snapped back, eyes burning with rage.

Without uttering another word, the tusked bizarro arched his swinging arm back with the intention of destroying their origami, but Gumball wouldn't allow it and launched himself straight at him. With his speed already being heightened with twenty-five percent of his power, Ross couldn't even catch him and felt the feline's fingers latch onto his throat before he was thrown backwards with a scream escaping his lips. Smashing his head into the ground, Gumball planted his feet into the solid Earth and started to run, dragging the giant along like a ragged pillow as his head carved a trench through the dirt.

As soon as Gumball disappeared with his opponent, Teri faced off against Candi and made the first move. Launching the shuriken she already had out straight at the large Panda's feet, the fluffy robot failed to detect the small projectile and was torn from the ground as a ball of fire burst from beneath her. With a flap of her dragon's wings, Teri was airborne and she dug out some more explosive shurikens before raining fire down upon her opponent hidden in the smoke, filling the air with powerful blasts that shook the trees.

" _Hope that shield of hers is strong enough to protect her from that barrage."_ she thought somewhat bitterly, though she didn't actually want to kill her because she was just another person.

Suddenly, from the obscuring cloud of smoke, a metallic object shot out, whistling through the air as it removed the dragon's left wing clean from its body and both paper beings were sent crashing to the ground with Teri letting out a sharp yelp. Leaping clear of the destroyed origami, the flat white bear gave her downed creation a pained look, _Not again!_ , was her only thought in regards to losing her ride a second time today and she stood tall, ready to avenge her fallen steed. Catching the discus with the corner of her eye, Teri noticed a red glow emanating from the ruby stone at the center of the flying shield and one coming from the rising smoke, the amulet no doubt.

" _So whenever she throws it, the shield will always come back to her, like a magnet. I wonder if she can control that thing's flight path?"_ she thought skeptically.

Emerging from the smoke not too long after, the unmistakable bear-form of Candi showed itself and her smaller, black and white counterpart reached back to withdraw another page from her notebook,

"This is a waste of time, you know! Just leave us alone or we'll all fail!" she shouted, exerting her force over the paper in her hand to form the four pointed edges of a throwing star.

Face still red, Candi spun around and jumped high, twisting her body through the air with an agility that one would not expect given her hefty appearance and flung the throwing shield again. The weapon shot towards Teri like a pizza cutter, which she dodged pretty easily by folding her right side in and the spinning disc struck the ground, bounced, ricocheted off two trees before bouncing back, slicing through Teri's shuriken with unbelievable precision!

Calling her throwing weapon back to her with the will of the amulet's power, Candi stood up from her crouched landing position and her face blinked back into existence, this time wearing a solemn expression,

"Try and grab your weapon, I'll destroy every one you try to create, and I won't let you leave either. There's so much riding on this mission and we need the man power!" she explained, trying to reach her with logic.

Once again, Teri didn't care and she stomped her foot while squaring her shoulders in defiance,

"You guys are lunatics! I don't know much about this Paris guy, but he sounds like someone who's willing to betray his comrades and that's not someone I can trust." she fumed,

"Gumball and I have a lot riding on our mission too! We're not sacrificing that for one that's doomed to fail!" she balled up her fist and grinded her teeth in agitation.

Spinning around on her heel and taking off in a sprint with the intention of gaining more distance, Teri retreated into the forest. Stunned at her tenacity and dedication towards achieving their goals, Candi was unsure as to what these two were trying to accomplish, but the action left her filled with shock and the six foot tall, autonomous machine reflected upon what she said. Not blind to the risks Paris's plan presented, Candi was certain that something could and will undoubtedly go wrong, but given the lack of logic Teri's plan carried, Candi shook her head while her screen turned red again.

It may not be a perfect plan, but the benefits were far too great to ignore and Candi needed to bring her in, so she set off after her with her shield at the ready.

 _-Gumball and Ross-_

Back with Gumball and Ross, the former had managed to drag the colossal teenager pretty far all things considered, intending to ram his head into a boulder after giving his face a nice dirt bath first. However, the former Russian native would not have it and with a quick grab, he caught Gumball's head in his massive mit before tossing him away. It was Gumball's turn to introduce his own face to Mother Earth's soil covered embrace and the blue cat tumbled head over heels with his only brake being a bush.

"OwwaaAAGH! Freakin hairy oaf!" he cursed as multiple branches cut into his face and arms.

Rolling himself backwards and flopping ungracefully to the ground, the eldest Watterson child staggered to his feet while his vision danced in wild circles. Shaking his head and searching the ground, he found his misplaced weapon lying a foot away from his standing position and spared no time retrieving it. Once armed and back to his senses, he returned his attention to the brute who tossed him and saw him already back on his own two feet.

With his pig-like eyes meeting Gumball's black menacing ones, Ross let out a warcry that sounded through the forest and propelled himself forward with a single push of his foot.

Taking long strides, Gumball was caught completely off guard when he saw him fast approaching with no weapons and before he could strike, a fist connected with his jaw that sent the tiny person flying with a single uppercut. Feeling his teeth click together, a sharp cry of pain left Gumball's windpipe and his tumbling vision came to a halt after crashing once more into the solid dirt. Ross was relentless and came charging once more before he could get up before swinging hard with his massive foot to kick the downed cat in the stomach, sending him tumbling backwards into a tree.

"GAAAUUGH!" He screamed, feeling his spine bend in a way it wasn't supposed to.

Standing where he was with his fists clenched and his shoulders squared, Ross threw his head back to let out a thunderous laugh that came straight from the gut,

"Come on now! Why are you this weak? I can stand here and take a shot, you know! Probably won't feel anything!" He continued to laugh.

Slowly getting to his feet, Gumball was boiling with anger now and his teeth were grinding as he bit through the pain to get ready,

" _Only if you're offering, you pantless wonder!"_ His mind seethed.

Charging up to forty percent, Gumball sprang forward, moving much faster than Ross was expecting before raising the butt of his scythe and slamming it down hard onto the Hyberborean's foot,

"HRRAAAAUUUUUUGHHHH!" Ross hollered, the pained scream rattling his vocal cords as he hopped about on one foot while holding the injured one with both hands and Gumball found himself to be the one laughing now.

His enjoyment was not to last however as the now furious hairy oaf breathed another stream of mist in his hands, forming another ice mace with a longer handle this time and swung it straight at the blue cat's head. Instinctively raising his scythe up to block, a wad of sharp icicles slammed into the scythe's shaft with enough force to send Gumball skidding to the side and when he pushed off, Ross was already attacking once again. Down it went, again and again, a never ending flurry of strikes that left craters in the ground as the giant wailed on his smaller adversary who was fast enough to dodge or parry the attacks away.

Feeling overwhelmed by the onslaught, Gumball opted to find a better position to strike from and leapt upwards once the next attack was deflected and the agile fighter flew over Ross's head to attack from behind. However, Ross had calculated this and was already twisted around just as Gumball was about to land, catching his head with his mitt before chucking him into the ground. Feeling his whole body being rocked and jolted with the excruciating experience of having his innards shifted, Gumball was sure he'd found a new level of hell for his body to enjoy.

Rolling onto his back in a desperate bid to get away, he was too slow and a spiked mace head met his raised scythe handle in a clash of metal and flying ice shards, with him barely holding back the frigid weapon,

"Was that supposed to be an attack?" came the ice wielder's mocking response, which Gumball barely heard as he continued to push against the back of his scythe's head against Ross's heavy weapon,

"Give up!" he shouted while putting his foot on the handle, pressing down with his weight and driving the mace further downwards against his struggling opponent.

Grunting from the added force, Gumball's arms felt like melting lead, but he slowly twisted his head and locked eyes with the white snow giant,

"Must be really embarrassing being the only one talking, you know? How about I break the ice a little?" he snarled.

In a blaze of silver, the fires of Gumball's soul power enveloped the deadly edge and forced its way upwards in a devastating burst, vaporizing the icy weapon's tip while blinding Ross completely. Screaming in hellish agony, the giant stumbled backwards with his hands clasped together over his face as the scent of singed hair stung his nostrils and his vision was obscured with a brightness that slowly faded, albeit painfully. Temporarily incapacitated, Ross was left open to Gumball's resurgent forty percent powered strikes as the boy drove his foot into his stomach with a flying kick, knocking the tusked colossus onto his back and began mercilessly slamming the butt of his scythe into any unprotected area on his face.

Taking multiple hits to the face while still trying to recover, Ross's rage boiled over to uncontrollable levels and with an ear piercing, rage infused howl, a stream of white mist spewed forth from his mouth like a geyser and swept the flailing scythe user up in its stream. This did not completely detain Gumball's movements however, and with his arms still free to move, the wily feline simply smashed the ice pillar with a well placed punch and he was free. Hopping off the enormous falling ice tower, Gumball touched down with the ground and prepared himself for the next attack.

Fully recovered and free of getting his face smashed in, Ross wiped at a cut splitting his lower lip, inspecting the blood smeared on his thumb,

"Congratulations, you may have earned my respect, Watterson!" he exclaimed with praise towards his opponent, flashing a smile that stretched from ear to ear.

Responding with a tsk, Gumball's face was lacking in any expressions except callousness,

"I feel honored." he remarked with sarcastic venom,

"You have my congratulations as well, you've done nothing but waste our time, crapsicle!" he scowled while twirling his scythe around his wrist with the handle and catching it.

Sighing and shaking his head in disagreement, the Russian teenager stressfully raked a hand through his hair,

"The only one who's wasting time is _you_ , Watterson! You're a fool to believe that you and your friend can win this on your own. I was rescued by the NEA after my village was destroyed by the Nephilim and I survived because only I alone could see them." he spoke in a quiet tone now, his voice wrought with pain and misery,

"From that very day I knew the only way we are going to survive is if we fight together and if you're too blind to see that yourself, then you have no place here!" he was now concentrated on Gumball's small form with pure loathing.

To be honest, Gumball did feel a little sorry for the guy, he understood how he felt when the Nephilim first attacked his home and left him feeling vulnerable, isolated and fearful of what was to come. He would've had a good point, but Gumball could not afford to waste time arguing about this and retaliated with the same tenacity he started with,

"You have my condolences for your family and your home, but I have a home _and_ a family that are still alive and I need to get back there with my girlfriend so we can protect it. I'm sorry, but I can't join you and your risky plan." he said, already lowering his body for another charge.

Ross exploded with rage, frustrated with his opponent's unwillingness to cooperate and went back on the offensive,

"You don't have a choice! We're all soldiers now and we'll follow orders in order to ensure our victory! I'll do whatever it takes to win, even if it means bringing you back as an icicle!" he shouted, bringing his fists up to his face.

Breathing frigid air onto his forearms, great gauntlets of solid ice covered his already powerful fists, with icy spikes coating the entire surface for extra damage, and he covered his calves in spiky grieves too. With the added protection to his limbs, the giant tilted his head back, inhaling a large gust of air until his chest swelled up like a balloon and he lurched forward, unleashing a powerful blizzard from his maw that streaked towards Gumball, freezing everything it touched. Seeing the scale of the attack tearing its way towards him like a raging white bull of freezing winds and hurtling comets of hail, Gumball braced himself and charged up a Moonfire Slash to seventy five percent.

Sending the scorching arc forward, the two unrelenting forces of destruction, both complete opposites in nature, collided and stopped halfway before Gumball's grey fire tore through. Aborting his failed attack to dive to the side just moments before the powerful crescent could vaporize him, Ross took a moment to stop and inspect the resulting explosion caused by the torrent's death, watching in awe as the blastwave fattened any tree within its proximity, ruffling his fur with powerful winds before he turned again to attack Gumball, this time with his fists. Accepting his challenge, Gumball remained at his current level and raced towards him, both screaming as their weapons met.

 _-Teri and Candi-_

With Candi hot on her trail and her shield always somehow finding her, Teri had not once found an opportunity to create a weapon or an origami or a drawing or just about _anything_ without either being ambushed or nearly diced up by her accursed flying shielded. Pumping her flimsy legs as hard as she could, Teri was starting to regret her current situation and prayed for just one break so she could defend herself. Glancing over her shoulder, Teri spotted the oversized panda bot steadily making her way through the woods behind her with her throwing arm already raised again and Teri dove forward as the whirring sound the metal frisbee made grew louder before a slight breeze brushed the back of her neck, indicating that she was dangerously close to being cut.

The shield bounced off several more trees before cycling back to its owner and Teri got up again before turning around to face her pursuer, already tired of this chase,

"Would you give it up already! You can clearly see that I'm not going with you!" she desperately cried even though she knew it was useless.

Showing her face again, the artificial person still showed no signs of compliance and just regarded the feeble paper girl with those same apathetic eyes,

"No I won't and yes you will! There's no negotiating this, you're coming back with us even if I have to slice a leg off, which I will do next if you don't surrender!" she warned, already gearing up for another toss.

Feeling the same sense of dread she felt when Azura squad showed up and announced that they'll be taking them away, Teri's panic started to bubble up from underneath and she weighed her options,

" _I can't keep running or else she'll just slice off my leg or I'll just tire myself. She can't get exhausted because she's a machine, so I can't outrun her anyways and I can't create a weapon because she just destroys them in an instant."_ then a thought occurred to her and she looked down at her arms, each one bearing three black circles she drew on earlier,

" _Should I try it?"_ she questioned, unsure if such an ability were possible to do seeing as she couldn't remember how she did it in the first place.

Wasn't she just wishing she had a moon barrier rune before the car hit?

It was do or die time, she hadn't any other choice and right now was as good a time as any, considering Candi's hesitation. Closing her eyes and concentrating as hard as she could, she pictured in her mind a Hydro-trident rune appearing in the palm of her hand. Watching her carefully, Candi was unsure as to what the girl was doing, closing her eyes like that and figured it couldn't be a threat because she had the upper hand. Maybe she was surrendering?

Keeping her shield raised, the large panda slowly marched towards the other bear with a hand slowly outstretched and she called out to her,

"Hey, if you're thinking of coming with me, then I need to see your hands and-!" she stopped when Teri did just that and saw something that left her shock.

Somehow, on her left hand was a rune consisting of a diamond shape flanked by two triangles and the symbol glowed blue before a trident made of water manifested into her open palm. From within, Teri could feel the energy flowing outwards, a power like a roaring ocean and snaking down her arm towards her hand, an exhilarating rush she never thought she could feel in her whole life. Eyes snapping open to the beautiful sight of the weapon she created, she closed her fist around the handle and held it close for her to see,

" _Oh my Jade, it actually worked!"_ her inner voice cried with a mixture of glee and surprise.

With a battlecry leaping from her lips, Teri then lunged forward with the icy prongs aimed directly at Candi's heart, the inflated machine backed off just enough to raise her shield and intercept the incoming stopping there, Teri went bezerk, stabbing, swiping and slamming with the ferocity of a wild animal and Candi was being pushed back, despite easily being nearly twice her size. Seeing as the trident will not disappear until it was thrown, Teri was free to keep attacking and noticed that one of her inkblots was gone, reminding her that she had five more tricks up her sleeve, literally. With her attacks getting faster and more accurate, Candi wasn't sure how long it would be until she popped something and thought of a way to throw her off.

Waiting for her to thrust forward, Candi quickly spotted an opportunity and the female robot side stepped, letting Teri slide past once she attempted another stab, before bashing her with the shield.

Knocked onto her side, the trident was forced from her grip and vanished into water vapor as Teri groaned from the impact. After pulling herself back from that embarrassing fumble of hers, the Pepakuma child saw that Candi was nowhere near her and spun around with her searching every conceivable direction. She spotted her running away, but not in an attempt to flee, rather to put some throwing distance between them and she began spinning around for another toss, Teri got ready for it.

Guiding the ink down to each hand and forming the only defensive spell she knew in each one, Teri took off in a sprint straight towards her adversary with a plan set in motion.

Watching with fright as the approaching paper girl sped towards her, Candi heaved the discus with the form of a professional athlete and waited for her to make her move. Holding her hand up and adding her spiritual energy to the symbol, her palm lit up before forming a glass wall before her. The discus smacked into the glass, bouncing off harmlessly before being pulled back to its master and Teri used the second circle on her left arm to create another spell to cast.

Seeing her attack fail and how Teri is somehow creating these strange new spells, the former Chinese nursing droid tried to come up with a plan on the fly,

" _Four shots left, then she's defenseless again. I just gotta keep up the offensive until she runs out ammo, then I'll detain her for good this time."_ She calculated internally before moving on with her scheme.

She threw her shield again and Teri was quick to summon another barrier, bouncing the flying shield away from her. Rushing back again, Candi pulled the shield towards her and the magically enhanced weapon returned before seeing Teri raising her hand up. Realizing it was an attack, the panda droid was caught with an indecisive moment between attacking first or defending herself. With only seconds to react, she decided it was best to take the hit and raised her shield upwards.

KRA-KOW!

From her palm, lightning leapt outwards in strands of twisting white plasma and struck Candi's shield dead center. Despite its wondrous enchantment that gave its wielder an amazing combination of offense and defense, the shield was still metal and conducted electricity like a wire before spreading through to the robot. She screamed as her systems went haywire, her monitor blinking erratically while displaying broken, distorted facial expressions and her inflated black and white body lit up like a christmas tree with raw energy.

Then the spasms and sparks ceased, making everything eerily quiet and Candi, with her monitor blank, body still as a statue fell backwards before landing with a _Fwump!_

Breathing the biggest sigh of relief, Teri felt her knees start to wobble and she stared at the motionless body laid before her. She knew that as a robot, she would have to be weak to electricity and seeing as her shield was made of metal, it all just made sense. While the paper girl was still mad at the panda droid for trying to force her into her group, she still hoped that she was okay and after a moment of realization, she knew the machine was more than a machine because there was something about the way she acted that distinguished her from someone like Bobert.

Wiping her forehead and catching her breath, there was another feeling welling up from within: accomplishment!

" _I can't believe it! I have more powers now and they allow me to use my spells without having to use paper!"_ she thought to herself with a giddy sense of enjoyment.

Before she could ask herself what else she could do with them or why she had this power in the first place, in the distance two explosions went off at once, two pillars of grey and white that could be seen from a distance and Teri was brought back to reality once more,

"Gumball!" she gasped to herself before sprinting forward in the direction of the ensuing chaos.

Stopping to form an origami helicopter with her three remaining large sheets of paper, she was airborne within moments and heading in the direction of her boyfriend's deadly scuffle with Ross.

 _-Gumball and Ross-_

The entire forest around them was a horrendous mishmash of fire and ice, collateral damage from the fight that spun wildly out of control with both the cat and the giant going at it with nearly everything they had. Smashing their weapons against each other, it was Gumball's scythe against Ross's newly formed ice halberd, a weapon made to match the former's fighting style and technique. So far neither had given any ground as of yet, but that was to change in the next few minutes and the fate of this duel was to be decided.

Ducking beneath the halberd's jagged edge, Gumball sped underneath his reach and made a swipe at his stomach, but was blown back by another icy breath. Firing off another energized swing, the tiny middle schooler prevented himself from being frozen, but failed to take notice of Ross's follow up swing and the axe-like polearm caught him in the stomach. The serrated teeth of the halberd's edge dug into his clothes and scraped against his furry hide, however, his second rune activated a third time today preventing the blade of ice from cutting even deeper.

"Oof!" a winded Gumball gasped as he was sent flying back into a tree.

Clutching his stomach as he dropped to his knees, the unpleasant burning sensation was back again and with a vengeance this time, signaling to the scythe wielder that this was the last time he could use that spell. From a distance, Ross unleashed a blast of freezing air directed at him and the kitten was pinned up against the tree with the ice completely encasing his body. Having him trapped, the tusked giant wiped his hands together and started in another direction,

"Stay right there, little one! I'll be back soon after I return with your lady friend and then we'll all head back to our base camp where Paris is waiting." he said, thinking Gumball to be too exhausted to move.

With his face set in a furious expression, Gumball growled and felt the power he gained from absorbing the last attack burning through him,

"Don't you dare touch her!" he bellowed, already feeling his instincts to protect his loved one kicking in.

The shell of ice encasing his body glowed grey and cracks began to form as jagged flames began to cut through before the cocoon exploded into small fragments, releasing an empowered, rampaging pre-teen on a warpath straight towards Ross. Having underestimated his strength, the snow giant was swept aside as both of Gumball's feet connected with the side of his face and drove him into the ground head first, sending up an explosion of dirt clods. Putting the power to his legs, the big-headed cat pounced high up into the air, straight above the downed teenager and set his body into a spin.

"Moonfire: Midnight Rain!" Gumball screamed off the name of his new attack.

Spinning at top speed down, a cascade of miniature moonfire arcs were released in rapid succession, one after the other slamming straight down into him and Ross's body disappeared in the series of silver explosions that swept across the forest floor, decimating everything in its path. Gumball poured almost everything he had into this attack, his spirit, his rage, his desire to protect, and his desire for freedom all within this devastating series of blows. Once finished with the merciless downpour of flaming projectiles, Gumball landed in a crouching position, breathing heavily and needing his weapon to steady himself as his legs had grown weak.

Dripping with sweat, the boy was sure that this had to be the coolest and most dangerous thing he had ever done with the very tool gifted to him by Carrie,

"Okay… wow… that took… practically everyth… ing." he huffed and puffed as fatigue claimed his speech, he probably had less than twenty percent left now.

Suddenly, a very cold breeze grazed his cheek and with an immediate sense of dread, Gumball turned as a powerful blast of frigid air began to sweep away the smoke his attacks left behind. In the center of it all, like a nightmare that would just never die, a pillar of swirling white mist shot upwards, rotating faster and faster until it became a cyclone of deadly freezing winds that began to expand outwards. Gumball stepped back as he noticed the ground start to freeze up in front of him and Ross's Russian accent heavy voice called out from the raging storm,

"Such an impressive display of power, Watterson! I think it rude of me to not follow such a brilliant display of force with my greatest attack as well: Cyclone of the Hyperborean's wrath!" his silhouette could be seen in at the base of the cyclone and Gumball was surprised that he was still able to stand after getting pulverized like he did earlier,

"Seeing as you've already drained yourself, I'm afraid you're no longer of any use to us, so I'll do you a favor and leave you here as a frozen statue while we add Teri into our grand team of warriors!" he explained with a cold exposition that was very fitting of him.

Even though he wasn't in reach of the storm's billowing center, ice shards began to form of Gumball's body and all feeling he had in his extremities was lost to the cold, leading the boy to further despair as he realized the unfortunate position he was in.

Increasing the windstorm's ferocity, Ross hoped to expand quickly as to freeze the cat where he stood and be on his way soon after,

"Until we meet again, Gumball Watterson! You may have a chance to see her again next time, whenever that may b-!"

SHLKT!

There was no way for him to see it, to detect it, to provide himself any warning of what had occurred just now because his storm was supposed to grant him complete control of the area and yet, on his right side, just below his rib, a wound had opened up.

SHLKT! SHLKT!

Two more strikes, each one following so close it was like they both happened at once and with each deadly accurate strike, the Hyperborean's left achilles tendon had been severed and on his right hand every finger except his thumb had been removed. Curiously, the moment he saw the wounds left behind by his unseen attacker, a black, tar-like substance began to bubble out from the exposed areas while the veins surrounding the injuries began to blacken, like some kind of poisonous element. At first, he did nothing, but stare at his missing fingers and the gash that was running down his right side, unsure how to react, but the pain caught up to him faster than reality did.

"AH-AAAAUUUUUGGGGHHHHH! AUUGH!" he screamed as his innards began to burn with agony.

He tried to take a step forward, but his damaged heel prevented him from doing so and left him falling to the ground in a writhing heap. With his concentration centered on the pain, his cyclone died down quickly and left behind nothing but a field of white along with the Hyperborean's broken form. While the pain seemed to take hold of every sense he possessed, he began to feel incredibly ill, retching up the contents of his stomach as his white fur began to darken while his immune system slowly shut down and he saw someone standing before him.

Holding a scythe with a blade washed black and dripping a viscous substance that seemed to eat away at the ground wherever it made contact, Gumball stood as tribalistic markings slowly formed on the left side of his body, creeping its way down his left arm like running water,

"I am tired of people telling us where we belong." he said, voice filled with venom and discontempt not directed towards Ross, but towards the NEA and the Nephilim,

"The Nephilim turned our lives upside down by invading, the NEA tore us away from our home, leaving our families and friends to suffer and _you dare tell_ _ **me**_ _to abandon the only one I have left!_ " his voice raised along with his anger,

" **DIE INSECT!** " he shouted, barely sounding like himself anymore and more like something else entirely.

From the forest behind him, Teri's helicopter emerged and it's pilot spotted the frozen white patch in the middle of the clearing with the two figures at its center. After seeing all the fire and ice that dotted the landscape, the paper girl was surprised at the amount of destruction caused by the two and turned to focus on them. To her relief, Gumball seemed to have defeated Ross, with the hairy giant on his side covered in several injuries, but that relief quickly turned to fear once she saw the one she came to help. With his shirt being torn to shreds, presumably by the battle itself, she noticed all the markings covering his left arm along with the mask that was slowly forming on his head and the weapon he always carried at his side was pitch black.

With doctor Jury's words ringing like warning bells in her head, Teri was met with a fear like no other as she immediately recognized the danger Gumball was in and before her mind even told her to, she leapt into action,

"GUMBALL!" she shrieked at the top of her lungs, hoping that her voice would reach him and without a moment's hesitation, she used one of the final two inkblots she had to form a water trident before she let the weapon fly from her hand.

The three pronged spears aim was true and just as Gumball was prepared to take Ross's life, the antler that failed to finish forming on the left side of his head was severed, causing the mask to shatter,

"Ack!" Gumball screamed as he coughed up a bit of blood before dropping to his knees and watching as the marks on his body began to fade.

Succumbing to his injuries and to the high levels of stimuli his brain was going through, Ross fell unconscious before teleporting away in a flash of blue light (In addition to being hit with a Telepulse beam, if you fall unconscious or sustain serious injuries, you will be teleported back to the nearest medical district. The trick only works in the Venator arena due to the spells taking a long time to set up.), leaving nothing behind as the ice began to melt.

From behind, Teri set the helicopter down and made her way towards him as her legs picked up speed. Getting up slowly, Gumball fearfully kicked the scythe away from him as though it were infected and stumbled backwards, right into Teri's arms as she practically threw herself into a hug while sobbing into his shoulder. At first the cat flinched at the sudden contact, but after seeing Teri now with him, Gumball was struck with a sudden sense of relief and was even more so when he saw that she wasn't injured.

Twisting himself around in her arms so that he could hug her himself, Gumball nuzzled her shoulder while thanking Jade or any god out there for blessing him with someone so wonderful and shuddered at what could've happened had she not been there,

"Thank you." was all he could say before the tears came rolling down his eyes and he began crying.

Sniffling a little Teri hugged him tighter and kept an eye on his scythe while whispering in his ear,

"Please don't ever do that again!" she begged, having already seen the negative ways he could be affected by the power his weapon possessed.

Nodding slowly and keeping his face against the taller girl's shoulder, Gumball was already regretting his earlier actions,

"I won't and I'm sorry." he replied, really meaning it when he said it.

While glad Teri was able to stop him from hurting himself and from following through on a decision he would've regretted his entire life, he already felt as though he knew what was happening. Just like the first few times he used the Moonfire spell, Gumball never voluntarily activated it as it just did so on its own in response to a life threatening situation and just like the first few times, the effects it had on his physical and mental state varied. He knew he could harness its power, but he was going to have to be careful and find a starting point he could work from.

Right now though, all he could rely on was his first two powers and the amazing person here with him.

After a minute or two, the tender moment was ruined when a threatening sound like thunder came from above and the forest was concealed within the shadow of an enormous beast. Recognizing the roar as the beat to a pair of wings, both Gumball and Teri's attention was drawn to the sky while their mouths dropped in awe of what they saw. They didn't see much of the creature, for it moved too fast and was out of sight within moments, but both managed to glimpse its pitch wings as well as a feathery tail before it disappeared past the treeline.

To put it simply, the monster was _massive_.

And Gumball knew their best chance at getting a leg up in this twisted game of survival was to slay that creature.

Breaking the hug, Gumball snapped up the scythe and the bloodthirsty feline was already marching towards Teri's helicopter,

"Come on, Teri, we need to catch up with that thing and lop its head off!" Gumball remarked with murderous resolve.

Stunned beyond belief, Teri simply stood there for a moment, watching him go before ridding herself of her bafflement with a single shake of her head and set off after him,

"Gumball, wait! You shouldn't be overexerting yourself after what happened back there!" she cried out in alarm as she caught up with her boyfriend.

Wiping his lip with the back of his paw, there were traces of blood that stuck to the fur and the kitten could feel his body trembling a bit in addition to the pain that was ripping through his gut, clearly from the failed completion of the third spell,

"It's alright, I still have a bit of energy left." he replied before turning to her with a reassuring smile,

"Besides, I'll be riding close to you, so there's no way I'm gonna get hurt!" he complimented.

Still not liking this idea, but knowing that Gumball was fully confident in himself and her as well, Teri forced herself to smile back at him and slowly nodded in approval,

"Okay, but the moment things start getting out of hand, we're pulling out of there and hunting for a relic, got that, dork!" she said, placing her hands on her hips and forming a stern look on her cute features.

With that option being acceptable, Gumball was in agreement and took her by the hand to lead her towards the helicopter,

"Got it. We're going to win this thing and be one step closer to getting home!" he boldly declared before noticing some of the marks on her arm missing and that Candi was nowhere in sight,

"Did you defeat Candi with your new power?" he asked with a curious raise of an eyebrow.

Noticing this as well, Teri had completely forgotten about her fight with the robot Panda up until now and glanced down at her arm with the single black circle marking its surface,

"Oh yeah, I did and it was surprisingly easy to use it too!" She replied with a sense of pride.

Pumping the hand that held the scythe in the air and letting a triumphant cry, Teri giggled as she watched her furry lover to do a small victory dance,

"Oh yeah! That's what you get when you mess with the amazing Captain Pepakuma! Wooh!" he cheered, swinging his hips and still pumping his arm while his voice echoed through the trees.

Honestly, Teri never knew how she would've gotten by in this dreadful place without her adorable dork and she continued to watch him goof off while making her way to the helicopter. After getting his attention by clearing her throat, Gumball remembered what they were doing and snapped to it, rushing around to the other side of the paper vehicle before sitting himself down. With Teri at the command of the origami copter, the small craft lifted itself up and began its journey over the treetops in the same direction as the monstrous creature that passed by.

While the paper puppet was worried about what the next few minutes may bring, what concerned her the most was how eerily Gumball started to resemble the Nephilim they encountered on Babyloth during his transformation and worse, how the black mark on his left ear was slightly larger then it originally was.

 _-Institution of paranormal research and development, Jeruzalem-_

Pressing her fingers against the keypad, Professor Hannes punched in a code and the metallic door slid open with a hiss. Hopping inside, the frog lady wearing a white lab coat and long, silky black hair atop her head, made her way over to the private terminal and after signing in, the bird-like mask of Iris popped up on the screen. The head scientist knew he was in the middle of the initiation process for the cadets, but there was a report she urgently needed to deliver and it had much to do with the scythe belonging to the recently conscripted member, Gumball Watterson.

Clearing her throat, Professor Hannes took a seat on the rolling chair set behind the desk and leaned forward on the table with her elbows pressed,

"Sorry to interrupt, overseer Iris, but my team and I have completed the analysis of subject 13965." She croaked.

Shy typed away at the keyboard and sent something that popped up on Iris's display. Accessing the file with a single look from his red eye, half the screen was immediately covered by the image of Gumball's scythe and attached to it was a file covering the doctor's tests and conclusions. Looking it over once, the raven haired specter sent the file away with a wave of his hand and turned towards the researcher,

"Thank you, professor. You and your team did very well." He said in a most pleased fashion.

Nodding, the rosy cheeked frog rubbed her chin and carried on with what she knew,

"We were able to successfully test and document the runes Gumball's companion brought along with her, but the runes on Gumball's scythe are a different matter entirely." She stated with a little _ribbit_.

Beneath the mask, an eyebrow was raised and Iris stroked his chin with his taloned fingers,

"Explain." He demanded.

Clearing her throat and straightening up a little, Professor Hannes pulled her notes up on the screen for her to read off of,

"Yesterday, at 11:35 PM, about half an hour after they were admitted to the hospital, we attempted to utilize the first rune found on subject 13965, but the resulting test ended in failure after the plastic rod the rune was printed on bursted into flames along with the wielder. He's in the hospital right now with third degree burns on his arms and upper torso." She stated in a grim tone, feeling sorry for the poor scientist that was injured.

Nodding in acknowledgment, Iris let out a sigh and made a mental note to ensure that the injured staff member was okay later after the initiate trials were complete,

"That's very unfortunate." He replied sympathetically.

"Indeed." She said,

"We decided to have a look at the scythe while Watterson was undergoing surgery and we found two things: the three runes are connected with one another and most likely the wielder too. We also discovered that the weapon is made of an alchemical composite called Seraphium." She described.

There was a pause between the two as Iris took a moment to digest all of that and his eye seemed to glow with a faint sign of pleasure,

"So that means..." he started as he waited for the professor to finish the verdict.

"That Gumball Watterson is the current wielder of the scythe originally wielded by Kassius, the reaper knight, one of the four legendary soul fire warriors." Hannes stated, smiling with delight as she wrapped up her report.

" _Of course it is. It all makes sense now!"_ Iris realized, despite already having his suspicions and he waved dismissively at the frog professor,

"Thank you, Professor Hannes, your work is very much appreciated and I will be sure to go over the files later on tonight. This is quite a remarkable find. You may return to your duties." He said.

Happy to have delivered her report, the professor was about to return to her studies when something was brought to the light of mind and she turned once again to the monitor,

"Say, Iris, did you also happen to read over that one document I sent you this morning? The one about the application of magic-based technologies to the common folk?" she asked, feeling somewhat suspicious when she didn't receive a return email from the head administrator.

Jutting his head back and rubbing the back of his head nervously, the specter's eye darted around every which way as though searching for an excuse,

"Um, I'm afraid I wasn't able to get to it today because I… fell asleep on the john!" he replied with a nervous chuckle.

Shooting him a look that said, _"Really?"_ Professor Hannes could not have looked anymore skeptical and Iris knew she was on to him,

"Iris, I've known you for fifteen years now and I know for a fact that you don't consume food in order to live. I understand that teaching your pet parakeet choir how to hum Leonard Cohen's _Hallelujah_ is far more entertaining than reading some boring-old online document." she huffed,tapping her webbed fingers on the desk and pressing her head on her hand as she waited for his response.

Sighing in defeat and letting his head hang low, Iris felt slightly ashamed and apologized,

"You know me too well, professor. I'm sorry, I'll read it tonight after my meeting with C12. You have my word." he promised.

Nodding once more, the frog lady waved him good-bye and signed off shortly after, leaving Iris by himself in the overview room to ponder while he zoomed in on Gumball and Teri once more,

" _So Fjel has surrounded his offspring and the void with powerful protectors. Looks like I'm not the only one planning two steps ahead."_ He mused as he watched both the origami wielding paper doll and the mighty scythe wielder chase down a massive target heading for the temple ruins,

" _In due time, I'll forge those two into the finest soldiers the world has ever seen and then, Jade, I'll show you just how capable I am of protecting everyone."_ He quietly promised and continued to view the progress of each contestant from his position high in the sky.

 _-Temple ruins, Northern sector of the Venator arena, 12:40 PM-_

The helicopter moved as fast as Teri could push it, its rotors whirring away like a bee's wings and the winds that ripped by nearly left the two blind, forcing Teri to draw goggles on her face as a result. It was uncertain as to what Teri's origami ran off of, but if the paper bear were to guess, it may be spiritual energy as well given that she was starting to feel a little tired from traveling so fast and for so long. Come to think of it, maybe that's why she was always so low on stamina when it came to magic attacks, she spends so much time moving about on her paper creations, dodging and observing her enemies that by the time she attacks, she's practically drained at that point.

It was a good thing she had Gumball as backup, but given how tired he was and the injuries he sustained during his clash with Ross, they may be in for trouble once they caught up with the monster ahead of them.

Speaking of, while still quite a ways away from the beast, it was still very large and very terrifying to look at. The first thing that popped in Teri's head when she got her first look at the flying monster was a griffin, but upon closer inspection, it was more like a winged centaur. Mighty in stature, the monster's upper body was like that of a lumberjack's, broad shoulders with beefy arms that were thicker than any oak tree seen by the two children and it's head resembled more of a hawk's only it's feathers were red just like the ones on its body and two black horns protruded from its temples before curving backwards. It kept aloft on four massive wings covered in black feathers with the largest ones as big as canoes and its lower body was sleek like a feline's with four powerful legs flanked by a long, feathery tail that helped keep the massive creature balanced.

Seeing just how large and fearsome such this monster was made Teri question Gumball's sanity every time she thought about it, but remembering how many giants they fought before, the flimsy pilot would remain determined and thought of various methods to take down such a monster.

Noticing a drop in the monster's speed, Teri felt her attention spike and there was a noticeable spike in her heart rate,

"Get ready!" She shouted, hoping Gumball heard her over the wind.

Tensing up, Gumball watched as the Aviantaur (the name he'd given the beast upon seeing it.) began to grow larger in his field of view and began to tense up as result, feeling his knuckles turn white as he clutched his weapon's handle tightly,

"Let's keep our distance. That thing's massive and will no doubt be deadly up close!" He suggested, watching as the monster's shadow covered large swathes of the forest below.

"Right." Teri replied in agreement.

The origami helicopter and its crew of two continued to speed towards the winged behemoth, drawing closer and closer as it began to descend, but made sure that they weren't closing in too fast. However, the Aviantaur seemed to have taken notice of its pursuers as it suddenly fanned out its wings and snapped backwards, nearly crashing into the two. Pulling off some emergency evasive maneuvers, Teri expertly guided the craft in between the monster's wings and Gumball watched with awe as the building sized monstrosity was now behind them.

Pumping its wings until it was just above them, the black and red feathery fiend opened its mouth and let out a blood curdling screech,

" _SQRAWK!_ "

Covering their ears, the kids tried their best to block out the sound and with a single flap of its wings, a cascade of feathers rained down on them like javelins. Spinning his scythe around in a full circle, Gumball tried to block any incoming projectile and Teri summoned barrier after barrier with her new ability, but every defense she put up was shattered in an instant. Despite their best attempts, several black feathers got through and tore the helicopter's rotor free of the body, sending the two plummeting to what looked like a massive Mayan pyramid below.

With both of them falling like rocks along with their tattered aircraft, Gumball's heart started racing once as the wind tore at him and he tumbled through the open air. They were lucky enough to avoid getting hit by any more feathers, but it seemed as though their luck was running thin when Gumball spotted the roof of the temple fast approaching. Realizing they had only seconds until impact, the blue cat twisted himself until he was able to spread his arms and legs to slow his descent and after spotting Teri he quickly sailed towards her before catching her in one arm.

Upon seeing him, Teri gasped and watched as he lifted his scythe up while charging the blade with fiery energy,

"Hold on!" He screamed.

With a powerful swing aimed downwards, the Moonfire Slash cut into the stone before exploding and leaving a large hole which they fell through. After landing hard on his feet, the second rune on Gumball's scythe activated and covered his legs in a protective webbing of glowing purple veins. While this prevented his legs from shattering on impact and gave him a slight boost of energy, a pain like no other surged through Gumball causing him to scream and drop Teri as well as his weapon before falling on his behind.

Getting up and seeing Gumball on the ground while clutching his head, Teri rushed over to him, her eyes lit with concern,

"Gumball, what's wrong?!" she cried in desperation, leaning in to get a better look at him.

Shaking his head and letting out a shaky breath, Gumball tried to bear with the pain while opening his eyes,

"It's- AGH! (wheeze) I-it's nothing! It's just that I learned recently I can't use my second rune three times in a short period of time and this is the fourth time I used it." while he was able to finish his sentence, his voice was strained, as though he were fighting through the pain and Teri saw that his nose was bleeding too.

Seeing him being pushed to the limit like this brought a sense of dread to the paper girl and she realized that for a while now, she'd always seen him as tough, tenacious and fierce. Now he looked like he was falling apart and that worried her so much. Grabbing a napkin from her bag, she started dabbing away at the blood running from his nose and gently brought another hand up to caress his face with.

Such a simple, yet kind gesture was somehow enough to ease the cat boy and a faint smile played on his lips as he looked up at her affectionately causing Teri to smile back,

"You need to take it easy, Gumball. You're not invincible and we need to get out of here before that thing comes back." she said, scolding him somewhat.

Gumball quietly agreed with her by nodding his head and after she finished treating him, he grabbed his scythe before being pulled to his feet by his girlfriend. Having a quick look around the room they were in, it was kind of hard for them to see because the chamber was too dark, save for the hole in the ceiling and the two could assume that the temple's chamber was quite large. Littering the dusty stone floor was an assortment of peculiar objects such as twigs, branches, a few weapons and most gruesomely the remains of some animals, though none appeared to be those of bizarros or humans, thankfully.

Then there was the smell.

It hit them like a putrid wall of rot and musk, as though something had been living here for a very long time and was using the temple as its feeding ground. There was another stench too, but neither of them could figure just what exactly it was. The whole place was unsettling and there was an uncomfortable silence that permeated the cavernous chamber.

The silence was finally broken when a roar from above got their attention and the two initiates realized they'd better get moving,

"Come on." Teri said, grabbing Gumball's paw so she won't lose him in the darkness,

"We need to find a way out before that thing comes back to make a meal out of us." she stated, squinting her eyes in order to better see in the dark and forming a hydro-trident rune on her left palm.

On her left arm, she had four inkblots left and on her right, only three.

Stepping away from the single column of light left the two completely engulfed in an inky blackness and from beneath Gumball's feet, twigs snapped and echoed down the empty room. The further they walked, the darker it got and the smell was even more rancid, causing both Teri and Gumball to feel nauseous. With so much stuff littering the floor, they tripped several times and after stubbing his toe on something metallic, probably a shield or some armor, Gumball cursed in frustration,

"Ow! Stupid piece of- Agh! Hang on a sec, I have an idea!" He growled.

Stepping in front of Teri, who was still holding his hand and feeling slightly bad that he was having a hard time, Gumball charged up a very low powered Moonfire blast, about one percent, and released it with a single swing. The glowing arc of flames traveled across the vacant room, burning several discarded sticks as it traveled and illuminating a pathway for them before crashing into a wall several dozen yards away. Even on one percent, the destructive spell was strong enough to blast through the wall and new light flooded in through the hole.

Happy to finally see where they were going, Gumball sighed in relief and began leading Teri to the new exit he had made,

"There we go much bet-!" He nearly exclaimed when a chilling noise reached his ears.

" _SQRAWK!_ "

It was just like the Aviantaur's screech, only more shrill and ear piercing, causing their heads to snap around in the direction of the hellish noise. Following the scream, the rapid sound of claws scraping stone and branches snapping beneath a large, moving mass that was undoubtedly heading towards them. Soon, with the glow of the first hole they came in through, a hideous creature the size of an adult lion with pink, wrinkly skin, a streamlined, lower body shaped like a cat's, two pairs of scrawny, featherless wings fixed to its upper torso's dorsal side and a pair of bulging red eyes sat within a bird-like head with tiny horns and a black, snapping beak.

It looked like a smaller, uglier version of the Aviantaur and it was heading straight for them with a predatory look in its lifeless red eyes.

Summoning her hydro-trident, Teri hefted the magic weapon until it was leveled with her face and pulled back for a throw,

"Hang on, I'll take care of it!" The paper girl proclaimed, taking aim.

While Gumball was already getting in a defensive position, something was off to him and he looked around the temple's upper floor chamber once again,

" _All these random objects, the horrible smell, and the way the Aviantaur was acting, I think this may be…!"_ with a sudden, dreadful realization that made his eyes widen and his blood run cold, the blue cat's gaze suddenly fixed itself on Teri, who was about to throw her trident at the incoming creature,

"TERI, NO!" he shrieked, reaching out to stop her.

Alas, he was too late and in a single motion, the trident was launched from Teri's fingers, straight at the charging monster. With a well-placed strike, the three icy tips ran straight through the Aviantaur's neck and broke through the other side in a shower of red blood. Stopping dead in its tracks, the pink creature made a gurgling sound as it choked on its own blood and when the magic weapon finally vanished, even more blood gushed out from its neck, spilling all over the floor in a massive puddle. With a dying wail that was choked by the escaping fluids, the monster's eyes rolled back as it crumpled on its wobbly four legs and after clawing at its own throat for a few minutes, the Aviantaur dropped to the floor in a writhing heap before going silent.

Then came an ear-piercing, fear inducing screech from the outside that made their blood run cold and the ceiling shook beneath the weight of a massive creature that came crashing down on the temple's rooftop.

Reacting quickly, Gumball grabbed Teri's hand and with a pull, managed to toss the paper girl over onto his shoulder before making for the exit. Suddenly, the ceiling broke and a massive claw came crashing through the falling rubble as it nearly swiped the screaming children. Recognizing the claw as belonging to the massive flying beast from outside, Gumball panicked and continued to run as fast as his legs would allow towards the hole in the wall he made while Teri tried to figure out what was happening.

"What's happening?!" she screamed, repositioning herself by propping herself up on Gumball's back with her arms and turning her head towards him.

Keeping an eye on the ceiling as the monster's footsteps caused dust to fall from the stone's cracks, Gumball picked up the pace and delivered a snappy reply to his shoulder passenger,

"What do you think, genius? That thing that's trying to kill us is a mom and you just killed its baby! This place is a nest!" He explained with an air of frustration.

Taken aback by this, Teri realized what she'd done and was mad,

"Then why didn't you say something earlier?" she snapped back defensively.

"I did, but you didn't listen to me and threw the trident anyway!" He replied, shooting her a nasty glare, but was taken off guard when the Aviantaur's claw punched through the ceiling again and nearly crushed the two beneath.

Having nearly avoided a fatal blow from the monster, Teri's anger instantly dissipated and was replaced by a growing need to just escape this place,

"Well hurry up and get us outside!" she desperately shouted before realizing something,

"And move your hand a bit higher, you're grabbing my butt!" she shouted indignantly, her face turning red the moment she realized where Gumball's paw was.

Not needing her to tell him twice, Gumball hightailed it towards the exit, pouring some energy into his scythe for an extra boost and leaping forwards just as the Aviantuar attempted to catch them once more, this time using its beak to smash through the ceiling. Out of the hole they shot and the two were once again bathed in the light of the artificial sky while the rest of the world came into view. As they sailed down the side of the enormous pyramid structure, Gumball saw that there was a courtyard at the base of the temple along with a pathway lined with a series of decorative pillars. While Teri was able to see a steep cliff rising behind the temple ruins, what caught her attention was the Aviantaur as it pulled its feathery horned head out from the hole it made and was turning to glare straight at them.

Suffice to say, it did not look happy to see them.

" _Hate to say it, but I think Gumball and I are starting to become infamous for killing the children of monsters."_ Teri thought to herself with a morbid sense of humor.

Landing on the next level down, Gumball set Teri on her feet, uttering a quick apology for accidentally grabbing her posterior and taking a defensive stance in front of her,

"Can you get us in the air within a minute or less?" Gumball asked, not sparing her a glance as he kept his gaze locked onto the towering beast above them.

Pulling out her last large sheet of paper, Teri began folding right away and muttered out an answer,

"Yep, keep me covered." she ordered.

"Sure, but if that thing decides to come after us, then we're moving!" Gumball stated.

The good thing was, the half bird, half centaur behemoth didn't immediately lunge for them and instead spread its wings out to deliver another slew of sharp feathers down on the pyramid's side. Allowing for Teri to grab onto him so she wouldn't get blown away, Gumball spun his scythe around with both hands, feeling his strength increase by a small margin and the tight circle deflected every ballista sized feather that sailed straight at them. The impact of every airborne projectile was like a hard shove for the boy and he needed to steady himself with both legs in order to keep from being knocked down. Using eight percent of his energy coupled with the various injuries he sustained was already wearing him down causing him to breath harder and perspiration to drench his forehead.

However, while Gumball's defense kept both of them safe, Teri worked without delay and formed a dog-sized hummingbird out of blue paper. Watching as the black feathers continue to embed themselves in the stone around them or bounce off the spinning scythe with a hollow _clang_ , Teri realized they needed better protection if they were going to escape. Using her notebook, she drew on a triple moon barrier, a three explosive runes she would fold into shurikens, and the vortex rune she had, but never used before.

Placing the triple moon barrier flat on the ground, Teri got ready and wore her game face,

"Gumball, get ready!" she exclaimed.

Gumball heard her and was joyful to see a clear glass dome materialize around them, watching gleefully as the sharp tip of a feather harmlessly struck the barrier instead,

"Nice!" He said, pumping a fist in front of him.

Spinning around to see Teri already mounted atop the hummingbird and bringing it to life with a flap of its narrow wings, Gumball joined behind her after leaping upwards. Once the dome shattered, the attacking feathered beast was angered to see the two already up in the air again and darting away. With a screech, the four winged bird centaur shot after them in hot pursuit and both airborne fighters descended down the pyramid towards the wide stone path.

Weaving like a needle and thread between the pillars, Teri piloted the origami with amazing expertise while Gumball turned to see the pursuing Aviantaur failing to even bother with maneuvers, instead opting to smash through the columns of stone,

"So I assume you have a strategy here?" Gumball asked, flinching when the thundering sound of rock shattering could be heard behind them.

Nodding, Teri kept her eyes in front and leaned forward to create less drag,

"Something like that, but it's very dangerous!" She explained.

While Gumball was left to ponder what she meant by that, he suddenly felt his insides shift as Teri snapped the bird to the right and banked hard, causing the flying colossus to do the same, albeit less gracefully with its body and long tail smashing several structures in the process. Picking up speed, Gumball could feel the wind ripping through his fur as it screamed past him and he leaned forward a bit while the temple came into view. She didn't stop until she had flown between the building and the cliff that sat behind it while the monster closed in on them.

Raising her explosive shurikens up in front of her, a villainous smile formed on the paper bear's face and when the shrieking red and black beast raised its claws to snatch them both out of the air, she tossed the three explosives straight into its path.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

All at once, the paper throwing stars exploded and the Avaintaur found itself blinded by the blasts while three shockwaves slammed into its body. Now that it was disoriented, Teri put the final phase of her plan into action, shooting forward like a high speed missile and passing beneath the house-sized creature. Once its plumed tail was behind them, the paper girl tossed over her shoulder her last spell and sped out of there as quickly as possible.

Noticing the strange object she tossed, Gumball turned his head to see what it was and scratched the side of it in confusion,

"Um, what was-!" he started.

However, his question was quickly answered when the vortex rune his girlfriend sent to the Aviantaur as a parting gift went off, causing the paper shuriken that housed it to shrunk and collapse in on itself as a powerful singularity formed. The effects of this spell were immediate and had a wide range, pulling in the Aviantaur's tail while also tearing chunks out of the temple and the cliffside, sucking it all in like a vacuum. Screeching in pain, the four winged monster pumped its wings hard as it tried to pull itself free of the all-devouring vortex, but its tail had already been reduced to atoms and the devastating spell threatened to swallow the rest of it whole.

Despite the distance Teri, Gumball and the paper hummingbird gained, the effects of the vortex could still be felt and Teri had to put everything she had into making sure they weren't pulled in,

" _What the heck?! When Rob said this spell was powerful, he never mentioned it being this strong! No wonder he never uses this!"_ Teri thought with alarming realization.

Unfortunately, in the span of three seconds, the spell, while strong, could not withstand its own gravity and quickly collapsed, leaving nothing behind except a partially destroyed building, a cliff whose side had been gouged and a spooked monster with a missing tail. While Teri was glad to have survived that horrible near-death experience, the fact that the horned monster was still alive and kicking left her feeling very worried as well as frustrated. The ace up her sleeve was a failure.

Slamming a flimsy fist onto the narrow head of her mount, Teri growled in anger,

"Darn it! What's it going to take to defeat that thing!" She screamed, followed up by a wheeze as fatigue began to take its toll. She used up a lot of magic today and she could feel its negative effects.

Sensing her irritation and exhaustion, Gumball gave retreat a consideration and turned his attention once more to the Aviantaur. It hadn't gone anywhere yet, opting to just hover in place while it peered about its surroundings in a wild eyed manner and looking rather spooked. After going through something that traumatic, the mother avian was probably on the ropes or perhaps was trying to maintain balance after losing its tail.

It wasn't until Gumball saw the wall of stone behind the Aviantaur that he gained an idea and snapped his head towards his trusted companion,

"Teri, bring me in close!" He urgently commanded.

"Are you crazy? That thing will tear us apart!" A baffled Teri snapped with a perplexed look on her face.

Looking on with determination, Gumball shook his head and pointed with his scythe straight at the beast,

"Just do it! I have a plan!" He countered.

Teri wanted to argue with the blue cat, but knew that whatever chance they had at bringing the monster down, now was the best time and with a shake of her head she brought the flying origami to bear on their target,

"I hope you know what you're doing!" she called back to him, letting Gumball know that she was still uncomfortable with this reckless plan of his, whatever it may be.

Knowing full well how this was going to go in his head, Gumball left little room for doubt in himself and charged his scythe up to fifty percent. Faster and faster they went, with Aviantaur's streamlined form growing ever so massive in their field of vision and within a moment's time they were no more than a hundred feet away from their flying adversary. Once the monster had finally spotted the incoming pair of pre-teens, Gumball took that as his cue and leapt off his unusual ride with his scythe raised perpendicular to his left shoulder, his eyes set on the surprised creature's neck.

Closing the distance within an instant, time seemed to slow for the scythe wielder as he brought the inside of the curved blade against the Aviantaur's vulnerable throat and swung his body until his feet were aimed at the cliff itself. With a surprised squawk, the feathery fiend was pulled towards the cliff by the sheer force and slammed into the rock, making the whole cliff shudder. Kicking it up to one hundred, Gumball put one foot in front of the other, racing up the side of the rocky precipice and carrying the Avaintaur with him.

While the energy that burned through him gave the blue cat a rush that made him feel like an army of a thousand, it was already beginning to fade and he knew there wasn't much time left,

" _With the amount I currently have, I'll run out in 8 seconds!"_ He estimated internally.

 _7_

The top of the cliff was still a hundred feet away.

 _6_

The wind tore at his face as he pounded the solid surface with his feet, every footfall bringing him closer to the top.

 _5_

Feeling the sting of the scythe chewing into her neck and the burn of her back as it scraped against the cliff face, the Aviantaur tried to slow itself down by digging its claws into the mountain behind it causing Gumball's arm to feel like melting lead as he slowed down.

 _4_

Not wanting to stop for even an instant, Gumball did the one thing his instinct told him and after digging his claws into the surface, he jumped!

 _3_

"RRRRAAAAUUUGHHH!" He screamed as they flew through the air and with a final spark, his scythe was coated in flames.

 _2_

Putting everything he had into his arms, he yanked hard and tore through the Aviantaur's neck.

 _1_

With a burning wave of fire followed with a sound like a ripping canvas, the monster's head was removed from its body and Gumball fell towards the top of the cliff below him, completely drained of energy, before landing on one knee with his scythe hung over his shoulder. Behind him, the lifeless body of the building-sized bird-centaur hybrid dropped like a stone, smashing into the side of the temple and tumbling to the ground while its head followed close behind, bouncing like a disgusting ball of feathers and horns. Just like that, the fight was over and the victorious cat breathed a shaky sigh of relief.

 _-Overview room, 12:48 PM-_

Seeing such a spectacular feat done by both the cat and paper puppet, Iris smiled beneath his mask and watched as Gumball's score shot up from a thousand to six thousand. With his fingers interlaced and folded onto his lap, he quietly congratulated the two for their amazing success even though no one but himself would hear it. With twelve minutes left and with most of the other teams either staging last ditch assaults on dangerous targets or with a lucky few even heading back with a prize in their possession, Iris knew he was going to be needed elsewhere to deliver the test results to Central Twelve.

He had a very good feeling about this week's batch, which was good considering the things that were to come next month and afterwards.

 _-Temple ruins, Venator arena, northern sector, 12:48 PM-_

Leaning against his polearm for support and breathing heavily while sweat droplets dripped like a leaking faucet, Gumball was completely winded. While catching his breath, Teri approached from above before hovering to a stop and descending before him. Once she hopped off, the blue cat looked up and spotted her coming, an astonished look mixed with a happy smile decorating her bear-like features.

Once she was about a foot away, she placed her hands on her hips and leaned in with a sly look taking hold in her eyes,

"I thought I told you to take it easy, you reckless dolt!" she scolded, though her happy expression told Gumball that she was glad to see that his plan worked.

Allowing a wheezy laugh to escape his lips, Gumball brought the back of his arm up to wipe the sweat off his brow and just smiled mischievously,

"Pfft! That was easy!" he remarked, though his wobbly knees and hunched position told her otherwise.

Bopping him on the nose with a finger, she shook her head and came to his side to offer support,

"Dork. We're gonna head back to the field and take a break until the contest is over." she stated, her commanding tone already denying any argument that said otherwise.

Wanting to say something snarky, the joking kitten tried his best to think of something, but his thoughts were mud now and all he could about was getting eight hours of sleep. Allowing her to half carry him over to the paper hummingbird, Gumball once again thought about how lucky he was to have her by his side and turned his head a little so he could get a good look at her. She caught his gaze upon her and smiled back at him in return, quietly letting him know that everything was going to be alright.

Jade, he swore everytime he looked into those soft black eyes of hers, no amount of exhaustion or pain could keep his spirits from rising.

A few paces and they reached their unusual form of transportation, carefully hopping on before taking to the skies once more. Free of the ground's limitations, the pilot kicked into high gear and like a speeding blue arrow, the bird tore through the air back in the direction of the field from whence they came. Even though there was little strength left in his limbs, Gumball still acted as a lookout and kept an eye out for danger, not wanting either of them to get disqualified this late in the game.

After two minutes of high speed air travel, the grass sea of the southern field slowly began to stretch over the horizon, past the forest and such a sight was enough to bring the children from Elmore into a sense of ease.

Then something flew by in front of them, it was fast and looked like silver with a red trailing light at its center, and Teri almost let out a scream when it barely grazed the paper bird's pointed nose,

"What the-!" She cried out in alarm as she pulled back to a stop.

Having spotted the strange object too, Gumball tracked it and saw that it was a silver disc with a red gem fixed to the center, one that he recognized right away, following it with his eyes as it made its way back down to its owner below,

"Teri, look! Down below us!" he shouted, pointing downwards.

Following her boyfriend's direction, Teri spotted the familiar shape of Candi and her brow furrowed in anger at the sight of her, amazed that she was up and running again after their scuffle earlier,

"Oh great!" She growled in agitation.

Seeing that she was not happy to see her, Gumball sucked in a huge breath before letting it out and slowly making a suggestion,

"You know there's still time to run, right? We don't have to fight her right now." he quietly advised.

Watching her carefully, Teri noticed how Candi wasn't preparing for another throw and her monitor was showing her face too, a clear indicator that she wasn't being aggressive. Plus there was something in her hand and while Teri couldn't make it out from this altitude with all the foliage in the way, she figured it must've been something important. Still feeling tense and cautious, Teri came to a quick conclusion before getting back to Gumball,

"No, we should probably see what she wants." Teri said, though her tone carried a bitterness to it.

Arching a brow and scratching at the side of his head, Gumball was utterly perplexed,

"Um, you think that's a good idea? I mean, she and Ross attacked both of us not too long ago and I'm completely out of power right now, so I won't be able to-!" Catching Teri's sideways glance, Gumball stopped and listened to what she inevitably had to say.

"I know, but if she was going to attack us, we both would've been knocked out of the sky earlier. Her aim is quite sterling." she explained before setting a course for the ground,

"I think she just wants to talk." she said.

Rolling his eyes and folding his arms in front of him, Gumball huffed to himself,

"I still think this is a terrible idea." he grumbled.

Seconds later, Teri had successfully set them down several feet away from Candi and the two disembarked, though neither of them strayed away from their ride. Now holding the strange object behind her, Candi gave them a little wave, but neither of them returned it and her monitor flicked to a sad face. Sensing some clear hostility from the two, Candi kept her distance and after a brief period of silence that was only interrupted by some birds, the black and white bear droid finally spoke up,

"I'm sorry for throwing my discus at you like that, but I had no other means of getting your attention and I just wanted to say that I meant you two no harm. I'm glad you decided to stop by though." she said in a surprisingly upbeat tone.

Keeping up a serious expression, Teri stayed where she was and allowed a hydro-trident rune to form on her left hand,

"If you're here to recruit us to your team again then forget it, we're on our way back to the field and if I'm being honest here, I'm getting _real_ tired of people telling us what team we should be on." she replied, already extending her fingers as if preparing to activate her weapon.

Stepping forward with his scythe raised in front of him at a menacing angle and his jaw already squared, Gumball puffed up his chest,

"Yeah, and if you wanna try us, we'll pop ya, windbag!" he said in a really gravelly voice, trying extra hard to sound tough, but one quick glare from Teri caused him to tone it down a notch whilst squeaking out an apology.

Wincing at the threat, the fluffy initiate felt another pang of regret for her earlier actions and imitated a sigh by heaving her shoulders,

"I'm not here to recruit you two." she answered.

Holding out her hand, she presented a golden goblet and the two recognized it as a relic.

Watching as their expressions switched from hostile to surprise and bafflement, Candi went ahead to explain herself,

"After I rebooted, I found Paris and the others standing around me. I told him what happened and he wasn't pleased in the slightest, so as a punishment for my failure he sent me out to go survey the nest again." She shivered as the memory resurfaced once more,

"When I wandered into the nest, the monsters were there and I was worried they were going to attack right away, but before I could return to the camp to deliver my report, I realized something. The ones that were guarding the nest were ant-like in appearance and in a way even acted like ants, so after I killed one of their workers, I was able to mask my scent with its remains and I simply pretended like I was part of the hive. Surprisingly, it worked and after I snatched the relic, I decided to leave those good for nothing thugs behind and strike it out on my own." she said.

Sure enough, when they looked, they saw that she wasn't wearing a bracelet that indicated she belonged to any team and that she was indeed alone.

Holding the relic out as a friendly gesture, Candi made an offering and shocked the two with what she had to say,

"I brought you guys down here because I wanted to join your team, if you'll allow me that is. I'm sorry we all got off on the wrong foot earlier, to be honest, I didn't want to obey them and I thought you two looked really friendly." she explained with genuine earnesty and even wore a smile that showed it.

Still holding out the relic for them to take, Gumball and Teri looked at one another for a moment and then back at her, still seemingly wrought with indecision. The forest grew quiet again and with the light overhead never changing it seemed as though there was no passage of time between where they started and where they were now. There wasn't much time left, that they both knew and the two children from Elmore needed a moment to make up their minds.

Holding up a flat flimsy finger, Teri asked the inflated panda droid for a moment to themselves,

"It'll just be a moment and keep the relic with you." she said, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

With a respectful bow and an appreciative glance, Candi spun about her heels and proceeded straight for a tree to wait behind that was well out of hearing range. Once they had a moment to themselves, Teri turned to Gumball and vice versa so the two were facing one another. Before either of them spoke, it was painfully obvious what both the cat boy and the paper bear were thinking.

"I think we can trust her." Teri stated as a matter of fact.

"Same here and besides, she's willing to help us win." Gumball replied with a nod.

Scratching the side of her head, there a doubtful expression on her bear-like features and the upright paper bear was indeed worried about something,

"Won't this mess up our plans though?" she wondered.

Shaking his head, Gumball doubted that was the case and hardly worried about it,

"I don't think so. Our plan is to get into the army and escape, so she'll be able to help us with that." he said.

As wrong as that sounded, they really wanted to go home and their only chances of doing that was to win this thing. There was also the upcoming battle that they were going to have to deal with, but that would have to wait and after a moment of consideration, it was agreed upon. Calling her back to them, Candi showed herself from her hiding spot and was curious to see the two already back on the hummingbird while taking off.

As she began to rush towards them, Teri pulled a bracelet from her pack and tossed it to the approaching robot,

"You're on our team now, so grab on and we'll take you back to home base with the relic." she offered.

With her monitor lighting up in sheer happiness, Candi's bulky paws reached up to her face and she gasped,

"Oh thank you!" she exclaimed much like a gleeful child who'd received a present from a parent as she bounded over with her hands playfully swinging by her side.

It was honestly kind of adorable to watch and when she grabbed on to the bird's narrow underside, Teri was surprised to find the massive robot to be very light. Underneath that inflated cover she must've had a very thin skeleton and compact electronics, at least that was Teri's theory in regards to the eight foot shield throwing fighter. How she's able to wield magical weapons and express complex emotions was also something that lingered in the back of her head, but for now, she just needed to concentrate on getting back to the field.

 _-Home base, Southern field, Venator arena, 12:57 PM-_

Stationed around a flagpole upon which a blue flag sporting an eagle flapped gently in the wind and a pair of long tables that held eight out of the twenty relics already retrieved by teams from earlier, two guards in grey uniforms stood at the ready. One was an anthropomorphic lizard man named Miguel covered in orange scales with some green spots with a green frill traveling from the top of his head down his spine like an obscene mohawk. The other was a female named Stacy and Lacy who was a literal walking hourglass with faces located on both halves of her body and was capable of rotating by flipping onto her hands which also acted as feet.

With the initiation three minutes from being finished, the two (technically three) had been standing there for 57 minutes and were obviously rather bored, choosing to pass the time with small talk,

"...and so I wanna know what you think? Should I go into modeling? I mean, I do have a perfect hourglass figure!" Lacy, the current top half of the hourglass asked the orange reptile, who looked as though he'd literally rather be anywhere, but here.

From the lower half, Stacy groaned and shot a snappy comeback at her twin,

"For goodness sake, Lacy, we don't have the time for that!" she growled.

Rolling his eyes, Miguel began to survey the forest again for anything in particular while he thought of a clever quip, but to his joy, spotted something heading straight towards them,

"Hmm?" He hummed as he squinted and saw that it was three kids, a paper bear, a blue cat wielding a scythe and a robot panda with a magical amulet as well as a relic, all of which were riding what was evidently an oversized, blue origami hummingbird,

"Finally! Someone else to talk to- er, I mean, look! More initiates!" He happily cried out, almost out of pure bliss.

With that remark Lacy and Stacy stopped arguing and looked up to see the odd trio approaching. Making way so they could set themselves down, Candi dropped from the bird's underbelly and rolled to a stop at the table's edge before setting the goblet down in one fell motion. Clapping their hands in applause, Candi was surprised at first and then bowed gracefully as soon as she realized that they were cheering for her. Bringing themselves down for a smooth landing, the battered and exhausted pre-teens ignored the horrified looks coming from the guards at the sight of their injuries and packed up the origami before standing at the ready for more instructions, which Miguel was happy to give.

Walking up to all three of them and shaking their hands one by one, the orange lizard complimented the three on their successful completion of the test,

"Well done, all three of you! You're the fourth team to bring back a relic and probably the last one too." He remarked, checking his watch and seeing that they had one minute left to spare,

"Head on back to the Maglev station, the other teams are waiting along with some guards and they'll escort you back to a dormitory where you'll be staying until the orientation ceremony tomorrow, in which you'll be formed into squads and assigned to a captain. But seriously, well done you guys, that was a really close one!" he said, giving Gumball a pat on the shoulder.

Thanking the kind guard, the trio began their long trek back to the station and of the three walking back, two were completely worn out from their adventure in the forest and were walking as though their feet were made of lead.

Candi, of course, was the only feeling fine and was practically skipping the whole way there,

"Come on you guys! We need to hurry on back to catch the train and get to know one another!" She squealed with a youthful energy that seemed almost surreal when considering everything that had occurred about an hour ago.

"No offense Candi, but I really need everything and everyone to be quiet now. My head's pounding and I need to find a doctor before whatever it is gets worse." Teri groaned, feeling her head throb underneath her massaging fingers.

Surprised to see that her paranoia hadn't faded in this new environment, Gumball rolled his eyes in annoyance and just let it all out in a heavy exhalation,

"I'll say. The moment I find someplace comfortable, I'm gonna drop and not wake up until tomorrow." he yawned, stretching his limbs as he grew ever so tired just from walking.

Spinning around so that she was facing them whilst walking backwards, Candi, being the ever so helpful person she was, tried to offer some assistance to her two new teammates,

"You can ride on my shoulders, Gumball! I'm really soft and fluffy and I also happen to be one of the most sophisticated medical droids made by the Hongxin medical facility in Beijing. I can treat your symptoms, Teri!" she politely suggested.

Seeing such a nice bear offering such a comfortable place to ride, Gumball's face melted into a watery expression that was a combination of happiness and gratitude,

"Really? I would love that so mu-!" he started, almost crying.

"NOT HAPPENING! And I'm not letting you treat me either!" Teri snapped, cutting Gumball off completely.

Raising an eyebrow and staring at her with complete disbelief, Gumball wondered what was wrong with her,

"But Teri, she's just trying to help us-!" He froze as soon as Teri shot him a cold glare and Gumball was wise to cease all protest right away,

"You know what, walking is good for one's health too and seeing as I wanna stay healthy, I'll pass on the ride thank you very much!" he squeaked, shrinking away from Teri's wrathful gaze.

Failing to grasp what was going on between the two, Candi shrugged and simply spun back around with a shrug,

"Suit yourselves." she sang, still sounding upbeat.

The three continued their way up to the maglev station and Teri made a mental note to keep her eye on the other bear in their party, she didn't want either of them to grow too close to her.

 _-Babyloth city, Capital of the Babyloth Republic-_

 _-18 years ago-_

While Nimrod despised decadence, he did have to admit the craftsmanship that was practically carved into the grand, marble halls of the capitol building's medical wing was quite exquisite and pleasing to the senses as every design seemed to flow seamlessly into the walls, floors and arched ceilings that surrounded him. Less than a hundred years ago, the very thought of a united Nephilim people, let alone a presidential palace for the nation's head executive would've been thought as ludicrous by the tribes that roamed the land of eternal night and even the most optimistic of chieftains. That was until thousands of Nephilim, from tribes both mighty and small, heard the call of Jade to return to Earth and several received miraculous visions of sciences that will open a gateway to the faraway world.

This palace, this city, was a testament to nearly a century of progress, reformation and bloodshed in the unification wars to raise Babyloth as a prosperous nation geared towards the reclamation of their planet.

"We have the best staff any of the tribes can offer and so I ask myself, what's taking those bloody fools so long?" Nimrod snarled to himself.

Pacing about the massive halls of the presidential palace's maternity wing, President Nimrod, having slept very little in the past 20 hours (having spent eight of those pacing this very spot), was very anxious and every time a nurse or a medical shamen would appear through the doorway of the delivery room, he would stop to see if they beared any news about his wife or his newborn son, but would only be brushed aside after confirming that they're very busy. Running a hand through his thick, wild black hair, the elected leader of the newly formed Nephilim unified government could only wonder to himself how things were going with Marianne and Isaac and he swore to himself that if he had to wait another hour to see them, he was going to personally fire the chief of medical staff after snapping off his antlers with his own two hands. Thanks to the stress that came from running a moon spanning government of over 14 billion souls, Nimrod was able to keep a tight expression, but his mind was spiraling out of control and he found himself faced with a situation he never thought in his 200 years of existence he'd ever be lucky enough to experience.

He was going to be a father.

He was so lost in thought with this lingering aspect that he failed to notice the nurse approaching from behind and giving him a light tap on the shoulder that caused him to jump. Turning around to see the petite Nephilim female in a white medical dress, short black hair with a single braid that hung over one of her slender antlers and face obscured by a white mask covered in black markings that ended in a pair of twisting serpents that met on the forehead, an enchanted device that sterilizes the skin of the wearer, Nimrod felt his heart jump a little when she appeared to have finally brought him news,

"Mr. President, we're finished with the ritual. You may go see them and might I also offer my congratulations." she stated, clasping her hands together and bowing her head a little.

Releasing the breath he had been holding, the ten foot tall spirit pinched the bridge of his nose and felt himself relax a little,

"Thank you. For your services and respect, you have my deepest gratitude, miss." he said in a polite manner despite his longing to burst into that room to finally meet his wife and their child.

"It was nothing, Mr. President! You requested the best medical professionals and the Hermean tribe is always willing to do our best. For our glorious nation and its people!" She happily replied, following with another bow.

With a single affirmative nod and a dismissive wave of his hand, the president sent her off and proceeded past the two armed Republic Guardsmen flanking the door, where he finally laid eyes upon the most beautiful sight. In the small room, sitting on a bed surrounded by flowers and other exotic plants sent by relatives and adoring supporters alike, and clad in a turquoise hospital gown was Nimrod's darling, his ray of light, his beautiful wife, Marianne Sienna. She was a tiny thing, even by Nephilim standards, around seven feet in height, but managed to stand out thanks to the short bob of fluffy pink hair that covered her head and nearly obscured the slender antlers that curved outwards like tiny twigs. Like all other Nephilim, she had light grey skin and having formerly belonged to the Efer tribe, her eyes were amber in color, glowing like the flames her people were most associated with.

While she didn't see him enter, she did hear his approaching footsteps and a weak smile formed across her lips as she stared at the peculiar bundle of cloth she cradled so lovingly in her arms.

After nine months of carrying their child and over twenty hours of labor, she looked like she'd been through the grinder and while her husband definitely felt sorry for being somewhat responsible for all that pain and discomfort, he couldn't help but feel his spirits lift with every step he took that brought him closer to her. Feeling as though time had slowed down while walking, Nimrod finally reached Marianne's bedside and instinctively threw his arms around her shoulders, burying his face in that curly mess of hair and planting a tender kiss while inhaling her scent, a scent which smelled of sweat and body odors, but was all the more welcoming for him. Once she felt his kiss on the top of her head, the tired Nephilim woman craned her neck back until she could see him clearly and looked him in the eyes, taking comfort in the fact that he was here for her now.

Raising her hand up to brush aside a lock of hair and to caress his cheek, Marianne smiled affectionately at him,

"You're late." was her first greeting and she slapped him lightly, causing the toga clad president to chuckle at her cynical response.

"Me? Late? Crazy talk!" he jokingly responded before standing up straight and raising his arms in a grand gesture,

"I'm here now, aren't I?" he questioned rhetorically, causing his tiny wife to chuckle in amusement.

"Yeah, well, as soon as I'm admitted to leave the maternity ward, the first thing I'm gonna do is, for one, grab some real food because whatever it is they're serving here is definitely not something a mother should be sustaining herself off of and then I'm gonna march right into the Senatorium and give every last one of those old crones an earful because I'm sure whatever important business they had with you, it could've waited at least until after I'm done trying to push this little bugger out!" she complained, already in a foul mood for having to give birth while the baby's father was called back into office during those painful twelve hours.

Rubbing the back of his neck nervously, Nimrod looked a little guilty and a sad whimper left his throat,

"I'm sorry, sunlight. It wasn't the senate that called me in, it was General Gorothim. There was an attack today at Fort Alexander, most likely insurgents from the Kyber tribe, and he needed permission to engage in a search and dest-" After realizing that he wasn't making for a very great case, he quickly zipped it and began twiddling his fingers, turning his head while muttering an apology,

"-I'm sorry." he apologized.

After causing him to tremble thanks to her infamous fiery gaze, Marianne turned her attention back to the bundle in her arms and gestured for Nimrod to come closer,

"Come, I want you to meet our son." She whispered.

Taking a seat right next to her, the tall spirit leaned in and when Marianne gently held him up, Nimrod carefully took Isaac in his hands, feeling how warm and soft he was before taking his first look at his face.

Time stood still.

Nothing around him seemed to move, not the air nor the very light that bathed the room, and as if he could not put anymore focus on the precious little bit of life resting within his grasp, the whole world just seemed to melt away.

Peeking out from a hole within the swaddling of cloth was a tiny face, grey, round with a button nose at the center, puffy little lips that quivered as he drew breath and a pair of eyes that were tightly screwed shut. He was fast asleep and breathing lightly and to Nimrod, nothing could ever look so peaceful as this sleeping child. There was a small tuft of black hair poking out from the edge of the blanket as well as a pair of nubs on the sides of his head where his antlers had yet to grow in and just below his chin, Nimrod could make out a little hand with all the fingers curled up.

Having been from one end of Babyloth to another, the tribal warrior, chiefton, and now president had seen all kinds of magic, but there was something about this one particular moment that made every single one of those encounters feel insignificant.

His whole world, no, his whole life had changed because he was staring at perfection.

Something so wonderful, so innocent had entered the world and brought with him endless possibilities.

Something both he and Marianne had waited nine months to see and now he was here, he was theirs and now they were a family.

Unable to conceal the bubbling well spring of joy that gushed from within him, causing his heart to thunder in his chest, his cheeks to flush a darker color and a shaky breath ro escape his lungs, Nimrod nearly sobbed. Watching her husband's reaction with great interest, Marianne could already feel herself catching the smile and sheer joy that was radiating from this goof of a Nephilim. Laughing out loud, the pink-haired giantess failed to contain her amusement and tried to cover it by cupping her hand over her mouth,

"You have such a dorky smile!" she snickered before bursting out with enough laughter that it made her legs kick and her already sore sides to scream out in pain.

Not caring in the slightest for her remarks towards his appearance, Nimrod hopped up from the bed and held Isaac up in the air above him,

"I can't help it! He's just so darn precious! Oh yes he is!" he cooed, bringing him down closer to his face so he could rub his own nose against his and continued to dote on him,

"Oh you're gonna be my happy little prince, aren't ya! You're gonna live in the palace with mommy and daddy where you're gonna have everything you want and once we have the Earth, I'll build you a castle too! Oh, you're gonna be so spoiled!" his silly antics went on and he continuously kissed Isaac on the forehead while his wife was practically dying of laughter.

With all the movement and fuss that was going on around him, little baby Isaac began to stir from his sleep. Reaching upwards with a tiny fist, he rubbed away at his puffy eyes and slowly cracked them open, gazing upon the unfamiliar face of his father for the first time. Seeing his eyes open and noting that they were black like his, Nimrod grew quiet and was still as he was now completely captivated by those eyes.

The two just stared at one another and Nimrod's fascination and love for Isaac continued to grow as time passed by.

Bringing him closer to his bosom, the Nephilim president plopped back down next to his wife and mother of his child as he turned so she could have a better look at him. Seeing his eyes open again, Marianne greeted him with a loving gaze and waved at the teeny bundle of joy that was looking back and forth between the two faces towering over him. Sticking her finger in close to his face, the baby reached up and grabbed it before pulling at it several times, unsure of what to do with the digit now in its possession,

"He's perfect, Marianne." Nimrod commented, his eyes never leaving Isaac's face as he brought her in for another hug,

"You're perfect." he whispered lovingly.

Giggling lightly, she kissed him softly on the lips and was once again drawn back to her child, though her face held a bit of tension,

"Do you think we'll be able to raise him on Earth?" she asked.

Raising his head and looking at her with reassurance, Nimrod nodded,

"Well, the portal hubs are thirteen years away from completion, but as soon as we're finished we'll still have to take extra precautions because there's still so much about the Earth and its… inhabitants that we don't know about. However, I am very confident that our armies will be able to retake our home and we'll be able to live the rest of our lives in prosperity." he explained, having spent countless hours discussing battle plans with his military advisors and generals.

From what they've managed to observe, the children of Earth possess very little understanding of magic and rely heavily on their machines to live in the otherwise hostile environments, even going as far to transform it to fit their needs. They're also divided and while millennia of warfare has provided them with weapons of terrifying power, their lack of unity and knowledge of the threat that's _literally_ hanging over their heads will lead to their downfall. They were weak, underdeveloped and nasty little buggers that deserved to be wiped out for their lack of vision.

Adopting a solemn look, Marianne wasn't entirely thrilled about the prospect of war, as a matter of fact, she detested armed conflict after watching so many loved ones disappear from her life during her tribe's skirmishes with lesser groups and found the idea of sending millions to potentially die to leave a bitter taste in her mouth. However, throughout the many discussions they had throughout their marriage, Nimrod made it very clear that the children of Earth would not tolerate their arrival and that conflict was inevitable. The Nephilim had once ruled the Earth in peace for a million years and now within the span of six thousand years, not even a quarter of their time, they've managed to cause so much damage while ceaselessly slaughtering each other in droves.

As much as she hated to admit it, peace between their world was highly unlikely and the children of Earth would most likely see them as a threat or worse another poor race to exploit.

Taking Isaac once again into her arms, she slowly rocked him back and forth while rubbing his forehead with her finger,

"Think we should take a picture and save this moment?" She asked, already jumping off that particularly dark topic.

With his eyes lighting up like candles, Nimrod sprang to his feet and clapped his hands together,

"Of course we should, sunlight! Such a moment deserves to be remembered for the ages!" the president declared before snapping his head in the direction of the doorway,

"Guardsmen!" He shouted, snapping his fingers as to summon the two soldiers.

Popping their heads in, both guards saw the black haired president in need of their services and brought themselves before him,

"Mr. President!" the one with shaggy red hair with half his face covered in jagged ice tattoos greeted while dutifully bowing before his commander in chief.

"What is it you require, sir?" the other one with buzzed white hair questioned.

Waving dismissively towards the red haired one, he turned to the one with white hair and pointed directly at him,

"I am in need of your assistance. What is your name, Guardsman?" he asked out of respect.

Standing at attention and placing a hand over his heart, he introduced himself,

"Sir, it's Michael. Michael Bach Lilith, here to serve my people and my country." he announced.

Mouthing the name to himself and seeing how it sat on his tongue, Nimrod found it admirable and pulled out a blue crystal from his cape and handed it to the soldier,

"Michael, I need you to take a picture of my wife, my child and I so that we may capture this moment forever." he demanded, pressing a hand on his armored shoulder and giving it a firm shake, smiling brightly at him.

Without any hesitation, the white haired soldier from the Lilith tribe followed his orders and took a step back while holding the crystal up in front of him,

"It will be done, Mr. President." he replied obediently and waited for the president to get into position with his family.

Once Nimrod was right next to Marianne and baby Isaac was propped between them (He was still hadn't uttered so much as a peep yet and was looking about this strange new environment of his.), Michael filled the crystal with his energy and the device began to glow and levitate. Settling a foot above his hand, the diamond-like object rotated until its flat face caught the three in its reflection and the happy couple smiled while the baby just looked on in curiosity. With everything now set, Michael muttered the spell and with a single flash of light, the image of a happy family was forever imprinted within the gem.

 _-Babyloth City, present-_

There were no walls or ceilings in the president's office, for the powerful leader of the Nephilim race saw it as too confining and was able to enjoy the wonderful view in its entirety. The "room" itself was but a well polished stone floor big enough for two American homes to sit on, lined with decorative pillars and potted plants whose leaves glowed various colors that switched between red, pink, violet, blue, yellow and orange while their trunks glowed white. The starless sky was in full view of this relatively vacant space and hanging in the sky above was the Earth in all its glory, covered in blue oceans, swirling white clouds, and green continents, all of which blended together like some divine artist's masterpiece. On the wall facing Nimrod's desk was an enormous purple banner with two pairs of eyes, the top pair being larger than the smaller pair below and angled in such a way they resembled butterfly wings with a circle encompassing it, this was the logo of the united Nephilim government and was also the common symbol of Jade himself, both of which brought the Nephilim together.

Even though it would seem that the leader of the Babyloth Republic was open for attack, he had nothing to fear, for his office was surrounded by a powerful barrier and his elite cadre of Republic Centurions were always close by him, ready to handle even the deadliest of threats without hesitation or mercy. Then there were the hundreds of Republic Knights that patrolled the presidential palace grounds and the hundreds of thousands of Guardsmen stationed throughout Babyloth city ready to be called into action. Finally, there was the president himself, who was a force to be reckoned with and he feared no attacker, nor anyone really.

Which is why he was currently slumped over on his desk, sleeping soundly while a pool of drool covered the slab that contained important documents he was supposed to be reading and signing while dreaming of a precious moment occurring so long ago.

After gaining clearance from one of the Centurions, Michael stepped into the office and was surprised to see the normally busy Nephilim asleep at his desk,

" _Yeesh, that meeting last night with the senators must've done a number on him."_ he thought as a sweat drop formed on the back of his head.

Approaching him quietly, the white haired bodyguard of Nimrod brought with him another slab containing documents about a superweapon and stopped just short of the president's desk before tapping his shoulder,

"Mr. President." he said in a calm manner, never being one to raise his voice.

At the light touch of Michael's pointer finger and the voice that reached him, Nimrod's eyes snapped open and the raven haired Nephilim shot up in his seat, frantically turning about to get a better sense of where he was,

"Sorry, I was just- Is it Harrog agai- where are those sweet curl crisps I ordered?!" he demanded as soon as he was able to get his thoughts together and then he finally turned to Michael, who was dressed in the formal toga one would wear while residing in the presidential palace,

"Ah, Michael. What brings you here?" He questioned the young Nephilim soldier (who was approximately 102) while rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

Maintaining a serious composure and calmly sliding the slab onto his desk, the white haired bodyguard answered without much delay,

"You wanted a report delivered on the Tower of Babyl and it's prototype." He replied before eyeing the large puddle of slobber Nimrod unknowingly left behind and casually pointing it out,

"Also, you drooled all over your documents again, sir."

While fixing his own toga and cape, the president looked down and saw the mess, his face scrunching up with disgust,

"By Jade, not again! Ugh, not that I care for filling out this ridiculous thing anyway, but the senators are already barking up my tree over the loss of Enoch squad, despite the fact I told that over compensating, meathead of a captain, Az, to pull out of there!" He grumbled as he twisted his head every which way to find something to wipe the magic display with before eyeing his cape and contemplating whether or not he should use it.

"Use this." Michael offered, holding a rag he pulled from a pouch hanging from his belt out to the antlered giant.

Swiping it while grumbling out a thanks, Nimrod started wiping his work area and while he did so, continued to discuss matters with his trusted military commander of the Babyloth Defense Force,

"So how far has the development team gotten in terms of completing the weapon?" He asked, keeping up with his little task.

Rubbing his chin, Michael thought back to the report from the chief of the weapon's research and development sector and shrugged as it all came back to him,

"Crux says that the Tower of Babyl is still mostly in the testing stage for now, but isn't certain such a weapon can handle amplifying your energy to wipe out all magic users across the globe. They need five more years of research to perfect the weapon, but we do have a prototype ready for the battle of Los Angeles and should be capable of discharging a single blast." he explained, expressing very little emotion throughout the whole explanation.

Having already finished cleaning the drool off his desk and the slab, Nimrod had patiently settled back into his chair and pressed his hands against the lower half of his narrow face,

"I see. While I'm fairly disappointed that this war may have to continue for another five years, at least operation: Blindfold will deliver us a significant advantage over the NEA and may tip the conflict in our favor." he said, somewhat begrudgingly despite his overall optimism.

He simply hated having to send so many young Nephilim to their deaths and the five years leading up to now have proven just how cunning and malicious the defenders of Earth truly were. His tired eyes drifted towards the hologram crystal sitting at the edge of his desk showing an image of himself standing by his deceased wife while his son, a young boy in that picture, stood in front of them with both their hands on his shoulder and all of them smiling with genuine happiness. A happiness that had been drained when he lost what he considered to be the center of his universe and leaving nothing behind.

He needed to ensure that such a terrible thing did happen for more families across the lunar nation and he aimed to do so with this crucial battle coming up in about a month.

On another note, he was aware of more assets he could use on Earth and turned to Michael with the intention of pulling more info out of him,

"What of our allies on Earth? Are they prepared to do their part and begin the second phase of the operation?" He asked, having already established a few secret meetings in the past with these individuals he considered to be loathsome, yet useful for the time being.

"Of course, sir. Everything's proceeding according to plan and General Gorothim has 75 legions ready to begin the assault. Everyone's feeling ambitious, I even ran into Zeruel on the way here and he said it was a shame that we weren't pushing past the boundaries of the city to attack other areas." he stated in a somewhat pleased tone while fiddling with one of the sharp points of his antler.

Nodding in approval, Nimrod sat back and picked up the document Michael had brought him, activating the display with a single wave of his hand that brought the schematics of an inverted obelisk tower with a throne perched on top,

"Tell him and the other members of Seraphim squad that they'll have more chances to prove themselves once the conquest truly begins." He said, keeping his eyes glued to the display.

Dismissing himself, the commander of the national defense force proceeded back to the door from whence he came and was about to head out when he cast the president one last glance over his shoulder,

"Don't forget, Mr. President, there's much we still don't know about the people of Earth and once we arrive, they'll be ready for us, probably with everything they've got." he cautioned, placing his hand on the doorknob.

Waving his hand nonchalantly, the wild haired individual failed to show any concern although deep down he knew what possible dangers awaited to confront Gorothim's army,

"I am well aware of that, Michael, the NEA has proven to be quite troublesome and I'd be foolhardy to send 750,000 brave young men and women to their deaths without a proper plan. I'll be joining the battle after the initial stages have proven successful." He replied, now reading into the actual details of the document.

Bobbing his head once more in acknowledgment, the amber eyed Nephilim made his leave and the president was left to muse in his office, his eyes drifting once to the projection of his family and then to the lonely Earth that hung in the sky.

 _-Lantern Academy, Southwest Jeruzalem, October 12th, 2013 9:00 AM-_

It was no surprise to say that the moment Gumball arrived at the campus's dorm room, which in all fairness was less like a typical dorm and more like a mini apartment, the weary cat went straight to bed and was out like a lightbulb for the rest of the afternoon. He did wake up eventually, feeling hungry and when he poked his head into the living room, he found both Candi and Teri on the couch, watching TV while not really saying anything to one another, making everything seem a little tense. Seeing as they weren't permitted to leave the campus, Gumball and Teri couldn't go out to eat with one another and so he settled for making dinner for the two of them, seeing as Candi couldn't eat.

The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful and everyone eventually went to bed without saying a word to one another.

At dawn's arrival (unless you had a clock, there was no way to tell seeing as they were underground and stuck in a perpetual night time.), they were called upon by a campus worker and following a brief breakfast in the main mess hall with the hundreds of initiates present at yesterday's test, they were brought to the academy itself. As soon as Gumball first laid eyes upon it, he was quite impressed, the main building was shaped like a crown, a complete ring of glass interlocking spikes with every alternating spine either pointing inwards or outwards on the building's exterior and the whole campus was surrounded by beautiful patches of gardens dotted with ornate water fountains. Walking up to the building as it stood, both Gumball and Teri felt as though they were entering a college designed by some abstract architect and immediately felt out of place.

The interior was just as beautiful as the exterior. Thanks to the building's sharp, leaning angles, the main halls formed an isosceles triangle, with the walls tapering to a point supposedly where the spines intersected and a line of lights were fixed to the top where the entire hall was illuminated. The building was high enough to support two upper floor levels easily seen from below thanks to the negative space that ran in between with various classrooms and facilities designated for academic purposes. There was no shortage of decoration and furniture at the base floor with more fountains and plants spread throughout the curving hallways and some benches with tables where quite a number of students could be seen either lounging about, studying or catching up with friends and colleagues.

Speaking of the students, the age disparity was quite obvious, ranging from as young as nine to probably their late teens and despite the number of bizarre forms each student possessed, each one was wearing some article of clothing that was akin to a school uniform, which was white and grey with options including a red tie or a cap.

Shivering at the unusually cold temperature, Teri rubbed her hands together before hugging her arms and leaning against Gumball, who was noticeably warmer than the surrounding area,

"Do they have to keep the building so cold?" she hissed, her teeth nearly chattering.

Keeping a steady pace behind the two, Candi had been silently following them ever since they got up this morning and finally spoke up,

"Of course they do. The cold temperature keeps the students awake and sharp during classes." she answered in a chipper tone.

Turning towards her and sharing perplexed expressions, Teri and Gumball wondered how she knew so much about this place and Candi was quick to catch on,

"I've been going to school here for about a year now." She said somewhat sheepishly, tapping her fingers together.

With his confusion now switching to shock and intrigue, Gumball was on the notion that she had been brought here recently and was taken aback by this revelation,

"Wait, what? You've been here for a whole year and yet, you needed to take the initiation test?" he gasped, feeling his jaw drop to the floor while Teri's widened and her pupils shrank.

Nodding slowly and reaching a hand up behind her head while her blue monitor displayed a bashful face completed with a dark blush,

"Yeah, when I first got here, my first test did not end well, so I opted to train for a whole year and study here before taking the test again. I haven't really made any friends, mainly because I've been too busy learning how to defend myself. That's how I got so good at using my ruby discus and well, I guess I can say I was pretty lucky to have run into you guys." she explained with a nervous chuckle.

Another uneasy silence befell the three as they once again thought about the situation as a whole and realized just how easy it could have been for them to fall behind. Most of the people standing around them hadn't even passed the test and proven less than effective in combat. It made all them really uneasy as to what the future held in store for them and suddenly the looming threat of the upcoming battle seemed all the more ominous.

The campus was not their final stop, as the throng of newcomers were led through the building and out the other side at the crown's center. Within the circular confines of Lantern Academy was a space designated specifically for recreational activities, a pathway that ran along the building's walls surrounded numerous courts where students and teachers clad in workout attire were participating in various sports and exercises, even sparring with one another in some areas. At the center of all this was an enormous statue of the Jade Emperor himself and that's where they were headed towards.

Peering up at the masked stone face of what many considered God, Gumball felt a sense of ease and familiarity,

" _I've heard about places like this, some schools center themselves around the teachings of Jadism and have shrines and statues erected in specific areas, like the school's center. I think there's a school like that back in Elmore, but I'm not really one for religion and haven't really looked into that myself."_ he mused, though there was a twinge of doubt somewhere regarding the existence of Jade or any god really, considering that the Nephilim definitely exist.

If he did exist, then why would he allow all of this to happen?

Had he possessed the answer to that question, perhaps he could single-handedly solve all their issues, but the odds of that happening were laughable.

Once gathered at the base of the statue, everyone was instructed by the staff to wait and with some kind of hand signal directed at the school faculty, the students were quickly dismissed back indoors. Chattering picked up amongst the students and the resulting chaotic chorus of voices made it very hard for one to hear their own thoughts. Then all was silenced when a familiar red orb descended from the dark skies of the geofront and from it sprang the spectral form of Iris.

His single red eye glowed with a pleasure upon seeing them and his avianesque form drifted downwards while his core remained stationary,

"Good morning, initiates. I trust that everyone had a restful night given how active you all were yesterday, right?" He greeted curiously, his spiky head swiveling back and forth as he scanned the faces of everyone.

No one said a word and many looked rather troubled, Teri, Gumball and Candi in particular as they'd experienced several night terrors during the night prior.

Rubbing his clawed hands together nervously and with an awkward stance, he eventually moved on from that embarrassing spectacle before the crickets could be heard,

"Good to see everyone looking so lively today. Should I sing a tune? I know a great one Mozart once played before he became-!" he started to drift off in a nostalgic trance before the whole crowd spoke up at once.

"NO!" Everyone screamed in unison.

Not even startled by the outcry, the masked spirit looked on with amusement and his shoulders shook as he chuckled,

"You kids need to learn how to appreciate the classics, but I suppose I should get on with slightly more important matters." he stated with a circular motion of his hand before taking a more serious stance.

Leaning in close so he could whisper in Teri's ear, Gumball spoke in regards to Iris's humor,

"This guy's humor is just as flat as the pancakes I had this morning." He whispered, causing his paper girlfriend to snicker slightly.

Iris's head snapped in Gumball's direction and his red eye seemed to pierce straight through the kitten,

"I heard that!" He snapped.

"Eep!" Gumball squeaked, shrinking back in fear while Teri froze up.

Following his reprimanding of the former Elmore citizen, a massive holographic display popped up behind Iris's core, displaying the NEA's crescent moon and sword logo and the armored entity raised his arms in a welcoming gesture,

"To start, I am pleased to inform every last one of you standing here before me that you are no longer just initiates, but fully fledged members of the Nephilim Expulsion Administration and students of Lantern Academy." He officially declared as confetti sprayed across the screen and a bright sign that read: **CONGRATULATIONS!** , popped up accompanied with blaring trumpets.

A wave of hushed replies spread across the children like wildfire and the confusion could not be any more apparent. Up next, a scoreboard was shown and the top ten teams with the highest scores were on display for the whole crowd to see. Feeling their hearts soar, Gumball, Teri and Candi found their names listed in third place behind two other teams with a score of over 150,000 points.

"These are the top ten teams who've scored the highest and will be joining the Grand Army of Earth." Iris announced, continuing on as the students continued to look on with awe at the names listed and some in the crowd were even cheering,

"For those of you who've failed, that's quite alright, you are free to try again next month or so and may take your time at this academy to form teams, develop strategies or even train for the next test, though be warned, the environment within the arena will always be different, so you must be absolutely prepared. For those who don't wish to join the armed forces, you may also stay here and study for a different profession, Jeruzalem is a place of opportunity where talent can be utilized and you can learn more from the school counselors, but you'll still be trained as soldiers." He explained.

Hearing this, Teri was brought back to her conversation with Jaydin and remembered him telling her that he lived in the city along with his family. His wife and parents must all have jobs here, does that mean if Teri's family were to come, would they be allowed to work as doctors in this place and live together in relative safety in Jeruzalem? Another question she had on her mind was why were the top ten required to serve while the rest were allowed to choose their own paths? Was there some kind of benefits soldiers were given that regular folk weren't? It'd make a lot of sense seeing as the organization that runs the place is built around fighting the Nephilim and begs the question on what other places were doing in terms of recruitment?

While she pondered this, Iris began announcing the new teams, starting first with the team that came in first place and called them up to the platform that the statue stood upon,

"Helen Carolina, Judy Barbara, Tyler Higgins, August Dolce, Sakura Ayanami, Collin Frankfurt, Kanshi Kalem, and Morgana Templeton." he called out the list of names and to everyone's astonishment, a group of kids ages ranging from 14 to 18 marched up to the statue, all of which were humans from various countries and wore the semblance of a professional soldier or an athlete, with everyone looking sharp and disciplined, hardly children at all,

"All of eight of you managed to come in first place with over 650,000 points after snagging five relics from dangerous locations across the Venator arena and slaying three A-class monsters all within the record span of 27 minutes and 15 seconds. I congratulate all of you for your bravery, tenacity, and sharp wit." Iris commended, waiting for everyone to give a round of applause and the eight figures stood tall and proud while still maintaining a strict stance in front of the crowd of onlookers before Iris continued,

"Your years of training have paid off well and you shall hereby be known as the elite special operations unit, "Imperious" and shall begin your training under the command of Captain Howard Brekkit!" He concluded, once again waiting for another round of applause and the eight winners bowed their heads in respect before they were dismissed by the armored overseer.

After seeing such fine young men and women present themselves as the high-ranking champions they were, Gumball realized that both Teri and himself were extremely lucky in that they managed to survive and gain experience from all their battles in Elmore in order to gain their position amongst the top three. That and the fact that they were also lucky to run into Candi a second time. Clearly, none of them could otherwise hold a candle to people who've trained for so long in such a place as this.

Up next was another team that managed to snag three relics, not from their given locations, but by setting up traps for unfortunate novices before stealing away their prize and not a single one of the four had managed to kill a monster that was above the D-rank, so they only beat Gumball's team by about 150,000 points. They were given the squad name "Desert Tarantula" and sent off with another captain to begin learning better ambush tactics. Then up next was the trio of odd misfits themselves and as soon as Iris motioned them forward, a pathway was made for them as they strolled up to the stage.

Looking around at all the young faces they passed by, Gumball recognized that some were completely dumbfounded by what they were seeing and others were downright enraged, which was understandable, given that neither of them really looked like winners. There were several curses hurled from the crowd directed at Candi, whom the female panda bot recognized with disdain as Paris and his gaggle of thugs as they called her traitor, worthless, and other things as she passed by without any interest. When Gumball and Teri looked, they assumed that the blonde haired human boy in the red trench coat with a glare that could melt steel beams was Paris and the other impish boys and girls were his cronies.

They looked like real nasty people and Gumball was happy to see that Ross wasn't with them, but sad at the same time as he remembered what he nearly did to him.

Once on the stage, Iris was right beside them and seemed all too happy to see them up there, which confused everyone,

"Coming in third place with over 150,000 points, these three managed to snag a single relic and took down an A-class beast in the Northern temple ruins. Out of these three, two are new here and have been engaging the enemy for over a month and one has been dedicating herself to perfecting her skills so she can find herself up here, among the elite. I hereby declare you three members of the urban combat patrol unit, "Moon lance" squad and you are to begin training under the supervision of Captain Abu Ghadafi! Congratulations to all three of you!" he praised and the crowd cheered again.

It was their first time seeing the overseer of the NEA up close and the first thing the motley crew noticed was that, for one: he seemed positively ancient, even for a ghost as there was a noticeable aura that just seemed so alien resonating from the ebony-haired, bird-mask wearing specter and when he turned to dismiss them, there was something in the way he was looking at the small team, namely the one's from Elmore, that they caught on to.

He was very strange indeed and neither of them knew what to make of this shadowy leader of the army they were now a part of.

As they proceeded back towards the building, a person rushed up to greet them, ordering them to form up in a straight line, which they did and introduced himself,

"Private Watterson, Private Pepakuma and Private Candi, it's a pleasure to meet you! I am your captain, Abu Ghadafi of Moonlance squad and it is an honor to be working with you!" He announced with a heavy Arabic accent, shaking their hands individually with a bright smile on his face.

To their surprise, the captain of their unit was very polite and charismatic just by his movements and gestures alone. A fine bizarro with the physical characteristics of a panther, his upper body was anthropomorphic while his lower half was like that of the actual junge cat's, making him out to be centaur-ish. Covered head to toe in fine, well groomed black fur with a purple sheen that caught the lights and piercing, gorgeous emerald eyes, he was really handsome. His only attire was a golden breastplate made of interwoven wicker strands and golden armbands on his biceps, giving him a distinct style of a Persian warrior.

Greeting him in return, everyone seemed to be getting off on the right foot and the tall panther man kept his approachable tone as he went on about the squad's mission and purpose,

"As a former member of the Persian Military Police, I have had my fair share of military experience and I have been selected as leader of this squad for my expertise in urban combat! My aim and my mission is to forge you into the finest soldiers for Earth and making sure we are ready to deploy to Los Angeles within a month!" He explained, keeping his back straight and his head held high as he paced back and forth,

"The training will be grueling and we have a lot of obstacles we must learn to overcome, but here in the NEA, no mountain is too steep for us to climb over, no ocean is too deep for us to dive in and no giant is too mighty for us to topple! We are the elite, the proud and finest force the world has ever known and we will win! Do I make myself clear?" he shouted.

"Sir, yes, sir!" They shouted in unison.

Shaking his head, Captain Ghadafi shouted again, louder this time with more brass and less charm,

"Terrible! You hushpuppies need to speak up! Now again: DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?" he leaned in and stared directly into the eyes of Teri, who was almost shaking at this point.

Taking in a deep breath and letting out with everything they had, they screamed,

"SIR, YES SIR!" sounding much bolder.

"I guess that'll have to do." the panther captain said as he trotted around them in a circle before taking the lead,

"Right, we'll head off to Fort Alexander, we'll run drills and basic formations all day until you're doing them in your sleep! Single file, forward, harch!" he commanded!

They did as they were told and composed themselves in a single file line before marching off towards the campus with the captain at the front towards the side, while Candi was up next, followed by Teri and lastly Gumball. Feeling happy that their quest for freedom was one step closer to being completed, Teri felt more confident in herself and was certain that whatever came next wouldn't be as terrible as the trials they endured in the arena. Thinking back to the arena, Teri remembered something Gumball mentioned after Iris appeared and turned to face him,

"Hey, Gumball! You said your birthday was on the 21st of November, right?" She whispered, making sure that she doesn't catch the attention of the other feline in their squad.

Bobbing his big head and smirking at her, Gumball remembered mentioning it,

"Yep. Why do you ask?" he inquired.

"When we get home, I'm gonna give you the best birthday you've ever asked for!" She declared, flashing him a look that displayed her resolve and her passion, making Gumball feel as though he were being lifted.

Smiling back in appreciation, Gumball thanked her for everything and they continued to march on to the first day of their new lives.

 _-Jeruzalem ministry of defense, central Jeruzalem, 10:17 AM-_

Within the cavernous meeting room of the city's central government facility, thirteen figures stood at the center of the room, but only one was actually present and the ones that circled around him were in fact located around the world. Twelve glass cylinders set in a circle, each roughly the height of a man and a hologram within, presenting a number 1 through 12, with an audio line beneath that flared up in jagged distortion whenever a member spoke. The ones behind these displays were the men and women in charge of the UN's _Supernatural Commission_ , Central Twelve and the one in the center was none other than the head administrator of NEA, Iris.

The massive chamber they stood in was dome shaped, completely white all around and sterile-looking, invoking a feeling of cold for all those who entered. The conversation between the Councilmen and Iris left echoes that bounced off the walls as a battle plan was being discussed among the individuals,

"...and you intend to repel an invasion force of 750,000 with an army a third that size?" The one marked "7" questioned in his scrambled voice.

"We can send more troops if you wish, administrator. Aren't you cutting it too close by sending in such a small counterstrike when our enemy's power has proven more than a match for even our best units?" the hologram marked "3" followed up.

Keeping his hands behind his back and standing tall, the NEA's overseer shook his head in a respective decline towards 3's proposition,

"250,000 will be enough, councilman. Thanks to the vision provided by the Oracle, we know the Nephilim will concentrate their forces in central Los Angeles and will attempt to spread outwards in a campaign of rapid dominance." he explained before pulling up a display showing a detailed outline of LA's streets and buildings as several red circles appeared around the city's center before expanding while several blue arrows surrounding the Nephilim's expansion began to close in.

"The first and second waves sent in will prevent the forces of Babyloth from spreading until the Orbital Aetherion Cannon "Jupiter" launched on the very same day is overhead and ready to fire down upon the invaders." he said.

The image switched to a 3-D side view of the city itself along with the surrounding terrain and above was a satellite with three focusing lenses stacked on a rotating dish located at the bottom fired streams of white, fiery projectiles onto the battlefield from above.

The members of Central Twelve remained in stunned silence as the holographic screen switched back to the overview of the city and with the red circles representing the Nephilim's advance reduced in size as Iris began to wrap up his description of the operation,

"According to our estimates, the power delivered by the resulting orbital bombardment will cut the enemy's numbers down by 65 percent, at which point we'll send in the third wave along with the _Blackstar_ -class aerial destroyer, _Prometheus_ , to mop up the remaining Nephilim in the area." he concluded, switching off the display with a wave of his hand.

As expected, the council was silent for a moment and after patiently waiting for a response, the grey entity was provided with an opinion,

"Sounds highly effective." came a response from 1.

"What of the city itself? Surely the damages done during the battle will be catastrophic!" Came the concerned reply of 5.

"And how well prepared is your force for the Nephilim themselves? Surely they'll send powerful units to take the city: the Republic's knights? The centurions? The Seraphim squad? General Gorothim? Has the Oracle been able to identify certain attackers or possible weapons otherwise unknown to us?" 6 followed.

Last of the ones to question Iris's battle plan was number 10, as she was at Delphi when the Oracle provided clairvoyance to the SC,

"What do you intend to do if your counter strike fails to contain the Nephilim or worse, is completely annihilated. The oracle herself and many others like her showed a vision of darkness after the forces of Babyloth arrived and that is something most, including myself, find concerning." she stated, causing many to respond in agreement.

Feeling his facial muscles twitch beneath the mask, Iris did his best not to come off as alarmed or irate as he reached up to scratch an itch on his neck,

"I do follow everyone's concerns and with all due respect, members of Central Twelve, denying the enemy any ground for which to mount an invasion is the NEA's utmost priority. The brave men and women that will be participating in the battle are of exceptional skill and talent and will hold the line at all costs. Winning this battle with such a small force is paramount to effecting the war as a whole as not only are we hopelessly outnumbered, but the enemy's knowledge in magic simply outstrips our own and if we are to push back our defeat, we must show them that any conflict with us will be far too costly." He stated, twisting his head so that he may peer upon all those who were watching him with the confidence and suave only a leader could pull off,

"Should we fail to hold the city and push them back, I'll have the twelfth battle fleet positioned along the coastline and they'll unleash their full might onto the city, flattening everything along with what remains of their force. A pyrrhic victory, but a victory nonetheless and we'll have to adjust our strategy after the battle. As for the uncertainty that was portrayed by the Oracle, we have no clue what it means, but the fact that it correlates with Babyloth's first major offensive means they may have something planned that could affect the world as a whole and thus further stresses why we must deny them any chance of taking Los Angeles or any other piece of territory." and with that he bowed his head in respect, showing that he was done with his assertion of the given situation.

The chamber was filled with the mutterings of the council members as they discussed amongst themselves the practicality of this plan and whether there was something else that needed to be brought to their attention. There was not and once the discussion was wrapped up, they all went silent to signal that they've reached a consensus. Taking the spotlight, number 1 spoke up and delivered their verdict,

"Very well, overseer Iris, you may proceed with your operation and we'll inform the U.S. of the estimated damages provided by your logistics team. There's been a call for evacuation given to the mayor and the PR department has already fabricated a story for the masses. We pray that you may be successful, for we do not know what the future holds beyond this and the outcome of this battle may determine the rest of the war whether we win or lose. May Jade be on your side, Iris." he remarked with a final prayer before his display switched off and the others soon followed.

Once he was alone in this vast, empty space, the leader of the world's largest unified military force let out a shaky breath before a hand shot up to his feathery black hair and combed through it with his fingers. For five years, he'd been waiting with dread for this inevitable moment, carefully monitoring the Nephilim and their covert strikes as they tried his hand, tested their resolve, and eliminated thousands of individuals who they deemed as a threat to their plans, while he complied with equally deadly force. Despite half a decade of making breakthroughs in magic, science and technology, recruiting and training millions of fine individuals into the most effective fighting force the world has ever known, Iris knew they weren't ready to face the full might of Nimrod's Republic and the ominous warning given by their seer was far less a comforting sign and more like the toll of death's bell.

By the heavenly sovereign's name he hoped that he was watching over them and knew without doubt that a miracle was going to be needed if they were to survive.

 _-Babyloth city, Nov. 15th, 2013, 1:07 PM-_

To say the capital of this fine nation was big was an understatement.

The city was simply all encompassing to one who stood at its lowest tier.

Home to over ten million souls, Babyloth city was one of the mightiest economic centers and the beating heart of united Nephilim people. It's three tier structure was a testament to the thousands of tribes who came together at the start of the new century under the banner of Nimrod and the senate to bring forth the coming age of reclamation. Formed within the titanous trunk of the Lunar tree, two circular platforms jutted out like discs embedded into its sparkling surface forming the two upper tiers with the highest being reserved for the political elite, the second level belonging to high ranking military officials and served as a training grounds for the army's Knights and other elite members.

It was this middle section that Gorothim Zak'al was familiar with, having made it his home several decades past after he was accepted by the senate as one of the first candidates for the Republic Knights program before eventually making his way up the ranks to High General and part of Nimrod's elite Centurion guard. To be honest, he still preferred the rugged plains the Zak'al tribe resided in for centuries instead of the beautifully sculpted geometric architecture that dotted the middle tier disc along with the twisting, intertwining hollowed out tree trunks that acted as skyscrapers and supports for the uppermost level. He, among the other members of his tribe, were very accustomed to the nomadic and brutal lifestyle of the Sea of Tranquility, with him personally enjoying the thrill of battle wherever it may take place.

Clad in full armor plating with some fierce-looking images of gruesome battles depicted on the chest piece, the Nephilim general was bulky and intimidating. There were marks of previous engagements shown in the form of scars crisscrossing his face and some branches of his antlers missing. His head was also shaven into a mohawk that draped over the right side and was emerald green at the tips.

Not that he was one for appearances as he preferred to dress lightly or wander about in his skeletal, six armed metamorphosis form, he did need to look his best for the task at hand.

After wandering the narrow, winding streets of the second tier for over an hour, passing by many elite soldiers who often saluted him and went silent out of fear, he moved with purpose until he came across a golden circular platform with a sun rune baring many twisting rays and a crescent moon in its circle and stepped onto it, his metal boots making a clanking sound as they made contact,

"To the staging grounds, south of the portal hub." He commanded with a growl, thinking hard as to where he wanted to be.

The platform lit up a bright golden color, as though the sun itself were shining below his feet and a pillar of light shot upwards, enveloping him completely. Once the light dissipated and he was able to see again, he was no longer surrounded by the elaborate housing units of the military tier and now found himself on an elevated platform facing out towards an open gathering spot while the enormous tree of Babyloth city along with the sprawling metropolis of the lowest level rested miles away from his current location.

Flanked by two guards garbed in red, ceremonial robes, carrying nothing but short swords strapped to their belts and faces concealed by elaborate crested helms, Gorothim marched towards the platform's center with his head held high and his shoulders brought back, making sure his pace was steady. Before he reached his location a podium rose like liquid from the polished black glass floor and he stood behind to face the open gathering area in front of him. Standing there, in 75 neatly arranged squares of ten thousand Nephilim soldiers each, was the official invasion force that was to embark for Earth and attack the city of Los Angeles.

Placing his hands on the side of the podium, the glass surface beneath his fingers lit up blue and a series of trailing lines snaked their way downwards before making their way behind him on the stage before shooting up into the sky to form a towering screen showing his scarred visage for all the soldiers to see.

Taking a deep breath, Gorothim cleared his throat and looked out to the vast sea of silver bristling with spears, like spines of a terrifying beast,

"Sons and daughters of Babyloth." He began, his voice echoing throughout assembly thanks to the assistance of floating platforms hovering about, projecting his voice and image for all to see,

"For half a decade, our fellow comrades and myself included, have covertly carried out missions against the forces of Earth, testing their strength, wiping out threats before they could impede our crusade, and installing fear and confusion within those unsuspecting and those who are wary of our presence. Tomorrow, marks a new beginning, for there will be no more lurking in the shadows, we shall bring forth the might of our legions upon the NEA and their pitiful defenders at Los Angeles and deal a crushing blow to our enemies! The likes of which they'll never recover from!" He boomed raising his arms up and hearing the roar erupt from the thousands of mouths, feeling the vibrations of hundreds of thousands of spears slamming the ground in unison in a chaotic display of unified aggression.

Seeing the bloodlust and ferocity that filled the ranks of the organized columns caused Gorothim's face to split in a wild grin while his dark eyes lit up with a hunger that seemed to swallow up any semblance of a man before composing himself once more and raising a hand that forced the legions to grow silent in a short manner of time.

Once it was quiet enough to hear a pin drop from the other side of the assembly field, Gorothim cleared his throat and continued in his brass, booming tone,

"For roughly six thousand years we've toiled in this prison, scratching a living from the dirt and fighting amongst ourselves in senseless conflicts over scarce resources and differing beliefs. We are but a shadow of our former selves, children of gods long since faded and now we have a chance to reclaim that glory. The call of Jade has united us! He is calling his children back to Earth, our homeland, to reclaim it from those who follow in Mephisto's shadow and continue to desecrate the Earth with their greedy, short sighted ambitions! Let us, the children of Heaven, the rightful protectors and rulers raise Hell on Earth!" He bellowed, eliciting another positive, aggressive roar from the interplanetary assault force.

While he reveled in the thoughts of leading the Nephilim's first full fledged assault on the Earthlings, the general himself did not necessarily believe in Jade or fought for the cause of Heaven. Simply put, the concept of a higher being failed to grasp any solid belief in the warmongering Nephilim and believed this war was to be fought for greater gains than some simple myth blind followers entertained themselves with. However, religion did have its benefits and as a leader, Gorothim would use anything to rally the people under his command.

With his powerful speech delivering an expected high moral amongst the Guardsmen and Knights of the Republic's army, Gorothim eventually retreated back to the confines of the grand hall behind him and another high ranking official took his place. The passage that led to the main portal hub was vast, big enough to let several brigades pass through the space between the line of pillars of smooth green marble and Gorothim's footsteps could be heard echoing across the vacant building. He needed to meet up with someone in private and was heading the portal hub where no one was allowed for now seeing as operation: Blindfold was to be put into action tomorrow, Nimrod wanted absolutely no chance of anyone leaving and spoiling the surprise for those down below. All of which was good for him and his accomplice.

Once he passed into the terminal itself without any harassment from the guards stationed there, Gorothim proceeded down the silver walkway as row upon row of secluded gateways to Earth stretched on for what looked like eternity in front of him and his occupied thoughts were soon interrupted when he spotted a poster showcasing the four eyed emblem of the Nephilim nation with the president himself in front,

"Hmph!" He harrumphed in disdain for the elected political figure.

His body was engulfed in a glow that transformed the grey, Mohawk-sporting entity into a towering six armed skeleton with an elongated skull, bones as transparent as glass and legs sporting an extra knee with a taloned foot that dug into the silver tiles beneath him as he scratched the poster with one of his claws,

"I'll take everything from you, Mr. President! One of these days that victory you aimed to achieve will be ripped out from your grasp and I'll be the one to hold the true mantle as the next Nephilim king!" He snarled as he continued to rip the poster to shreds in a sheer fit of rage.

Once the piece of paper had been reduced to a pile of ribbons that scattered in the wind, the angered general continued to stomp his way down the pathway and kept a lookout for his ally, Metatron.

 **(A/N) And there we have it folks! Teri and Gumball's first day in the NEA and with what's on its way, all that has come before will seem like a cakewalk.**

 **It all comes together in the Arc 1 finale, Rob and Grendela coming in from Elmore to save their fellow defenders, General Gorothim at the head of a relentless assault, a nefarious plot by Nimrod, and Gumball and Teri finally at the forefront of what is to be the largest battle in all of arc 1. Chapter 16: The end of the beginning.**

 **The war begins.**


End file.
